Nowadays, the maintenance of electric power transportation is done with manned air vehicles, which involves high operative cost plus the availability of vehicles in Argentina, such as helicopters. In big countries, radio control is expensive and carried out in land, within a short distance. Hence, it is necessary to develop a more autonomous UAV. With the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Argentina, Deitres developed a system to maintain this type of network in the most efficient way.
The system uses Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV, technology to maintain networks of electric power and oil pipeline transport, especially in areas with difficult access.
Deitres suggested innovation in two concepts: the key one is to automate roads for UAV, which reduces pilot errors and standardizes maintenance tasks in a predictive and preventive way. The second one consists of installing solar energy stations to charge batteries to extend the battery autonomy of UAV in the monitored network. In that way, renewable energy and UAV technology are combined to improve the current cost of network maintenance. Consequently, the intensive application of Deitres technology will improve energy transport, main support of energy in a developing country, such as Argentina.