‘Intelligent Drones for Port and Highways Technology’ (InDePTH) – a project developing and trialling an innovative approach to the monitoring and control of critical national infrastructure – was recognised at the 2023 Robotics and Automation Awards in London.
Nominated for two awards, InDePTH won the award for Best Research & Development Innovation at the ceremony, held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms.
Connected Places Catapult, alongside Associated British Ports (ABP), Kier Transportation, RoboK and HeroTech8 is part of the InDePTH consortium being led by BT. The consortium is focused on using automated drone technology and advanced AI techniques to create an efficient, low-carbon and cost-effective solution for infrastructure management.
The project aims to trial ‘beyond visual line of sight’ BVLOS flights using automated ‘drone-in-a-box’ technology to regularly survey large infrastructure estates.
The imagery collected from the drone missions will be used to create digital models, and state-of-the-art machine learning will automatically extract insight from the collected imagery; insight that can be used by end users in near real-time.
Project trials are centred around three real-world use cases for ports and highways developed by ABP and Kier, including landside port operations and management, marine operations and highway safety and defect inspections.
