Unmanned drone used for inspection of Southern Islands
The videos it sends back are analysed to pick up potential security and maintenance issues
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The drone is housed in a pod on Pulau Seringat, from which it is launched and returns to after each flight.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
A plan by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to have an unmanned drone inspect the Southern Islands has taken flight.
Since last week, a drone housed on Pulau Seringat has been making its rounds over islands linked to and near it, reducing the need for physical inspections of the islands and facilities by about three times.
The successful roll-out of the drone follows a series of trials that began in 2018 to ensure the safety and effectiveness of inspections by beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drones.
An SLA spokesman said videos from the drone will be analysed by a machine-learning algorithm to pick up potential security and maintenance issues, including damage to roofs of buildings on the islands.
Mr Vincent Aw, head of SLA's land development and asset management division, said that with drone inspections, his team of about 10 SLA officers has more time for other responsibilities.
With the drone, officers now spend about one to two days a week on the ground for inspections compared with four to five days previously.
The drone, which complies with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore's BVLOS regulations, is housed in a pod on Pulau Seringat, from which it is launched and returns to after each flight.
The pod contains five spare batteries, and battery swaps and charging are automated. Each battery allows a flight of about 30 minutes.
Pre-flight safety checks are also automated.
Twenty-nine flights on pre-determined paths are required to cover the entire cluster of islands, and video footage is fed over a 4G cellular network in real time to SLA officers' devices, allowing them to keep tabs on inspection progress.
Mr Aw said the drone also makes work safer for officers, as it covers areas that were previously difficult to reach. These include forested areas, seawalls and rooftops.
He added that the drone allows for the early detection of maintenance issues, which may result in cost savings of up to 40 per cent.
Plans are in place for a second drone to inspect a two-island cluster by April next year. The two islands - Pulau Hantu Besar and Pulau Hantu Kechil - are about 10km from Pulau Seringat, and SLA is exploring ways for the second drone to be more energy-efficient, such as by running it on solar power.
