5G and AI revolutionise industrial drone inspections

With the support of the FPS Economy, SMEs, Self-Employed and Energy.

Founded in 2020, Antwerp-based company SkyeBase inspects industrial sites, tank terminals, container terminals and infrastructure. Traditionally such inspections are carried out using scaffolding and cranes. SkyeBase took a novel approach by deploying drones, but drone inspections nevertheless still involved manual tasks. SkyeBase co-founder and CEO Tom Daniëls explains: “For instance, an operator flies a drone around a silo to take pictures. When the drone lands, the inspector removes the SD card from the drone and checks the footage on a desktop or laptop. If the report turns out to be incomplete, then the drone operator must return to the location.”

The company is housed in The Beacon innovation hub in Antwerp, where Orange Belgium established its first Belgian 5G Lab back in 2021. That’s where the two parties got talking. The exchange of expertise made it clear that the Orange network could be the ideal solution. After all, thanks to 5G Standalone, drones can send their images live to the cloud. SkyeBase and Orange Belgium applied for government subsidies for a proof of concept of industrial drone inspections using 5G. The request 

More efficient inspections thanks to 5G and AI

The live transmission of drone images makes the inspections more efficient. “Inspectors no longer have to visit the site in person. While the drone operator is flying the drone, the inspector can look over their shoulder on our I-Spect platform,” says Daniëls. “This means we can also have experts assist less experienced inspectors remotely.” The images are forwarded by a 5G router in a smart van, a delivery van equipped with all the material required for a successful inspection.

In addition to the use of 5G, SkyeBase also optimises the inspection using AI models that automate the detection of defects on 3D structures such as port cranes and pipelines. “In the past the AI model would analyse those images after the inspection, but with 5G we can now stream live video footage to the AI model in the cloud, which immediately identifies the defect in the image so the inspector knows what to focus on. We genuinely believe the continued automation of industrial inspections with AI is the way to go,” Daniëls concludes.

No delays

Among others things, SkyeBase inspects critical infrastructure in the port and the petrochemical industry. In those industries it is crucial that the expert has access to real-time images, especially if an incident occurs. “With 5G we can guarantee a low latency that is unattainable with 4G,” says Erik Van Lierde, IoT & 5G Innovator at Orange Belgium and the 5G architect of the SkyeBase project.

The number one challenge for SkyeBase was handling the different types of images. The drones transmit two kinds of images with different requirements. The live video footage must have the lowest latency possible and requires a large amount of bandwidth. The smart van also sends large files to the cloud that require high bandwidth, but low latency is not as essential. 

“Without additional measures, uploading those large files would impact the latency of the live video footage,” Van Lierde explains. “Fortunately, 5G network slicing is a powerful function that makes it possible to deal with these different requirements. Both streams were assigned to different slices, each with its own guarantees in terms of bandwidth and latency. The 5G router in the smart van then decides which stream is sent through the 5G network using which slice.”

Scalable solution

SkyeBase is currently integrating the proof of concept into its day-to-day operations and exploring how the solution can be implemented on a larger scale. The company is in a growth phase and wants to expand both geographically and into other markets. For instance, SkyeBase delivery vans also include a fully fledged mobile office with screens to enable the inspector to monitor the drone images. Now that inspectors no longer have to be on site thanks to 5G, even the smart van is essentially redundant. Ideally, drone operators would have a case in their vehicle with the 5G router and other necessary equipment. “That would make the solution even simpler and more scalable,” Van Lierde concludes.