One of the things that interest me is using and providing technology solutions for problems. One of the jobs that recently transitioned from human outdoors, to human indoors is the Drone management system for verifying pipelines. The reality of watching and checking a pipeline is that in the past, ten works could over a week, cover about 20 miles of pipeline. That meant that the overall cost of the pipeline was increased because they had to have more humans walking the pipeline. Plus, as noted by many spills over the last 30 years, the rate of failure was high enough that it was an issue. Now with a drone, two things can happen. The drones working for human reduces errors.
The same is true for electrical lines and phone lines. The drone operated by an educated human (what to look for) can cover more ground. This allows the operator of the drone to dispatch repair crews more effectively. Breaks and issues are noted, and because of the GPS settings of the drone, the dispatch goes right to the problem. That reduces the time repair crews spend trying to find the problem. The other very interesting thing is that it allows for more overall repair crews. This means that the company can deal with larger and more difficult outages quickly. You wouldn’t fly the drone in bad weather, but you can fly the drone once the storm is passed.
We often don’t sen crews out until there is an outage.
Both of these things are great examples of how technology and automation can help people. The other thing that you will see more and more is the use of drones when trying to find people. An operator in a building can fly a drone, 200, 2000, or even 12000 miles away. They can quickly be using the drone to cover a lot of ground. With infrared cameras, they can see a human being at night.
The cool thing is that automation and technology and help people be more effective in their jobs.
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Question of
did you know that power, phone and other utilities have crews out in bad storms?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you ever stop and thank the people making sure you lights are on?
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Yes
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No
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To be honest I haven’t stopped to thank people for the power and the lights, but I have been quick to complain when there is a power outage. .
next time the weather is really bad and your lights flicker, remember who has to go out in that storm to keep the lights on for others!
I honestly believe that drones would help cut down on the violence in Chicago. They should really consider having one in a bad neighborhoods and definitely near the CTA train were most occur.
I have been intrested in purchasing a drone in a while
they are interesting and expensive today. But the prices are coming down.
I’m just gonna purchase one from the pawn shop. Any other piece to it, I will just get from China.
Check the chassis for crash damage! the ones I’ve seen for sale often have serious crash damage!
Good information. I wouldn’t have known that. I would like to use it for my workouts whether running the Lakefront on a short run or bike riding. I feel I can create magic from that in videos and pictures of the city and me getting the workout in. Maybe with the tax money I’ll go for it. One of my jobs from last year finally sent out my w2’s, so I can finally do the taxes.
wow that is really late, what was their excuse? They are required by law to have them in the mail by 1/31
I called them last week on Monday (3/23). They apparently needed that confirmation in order to mail them out. I haven’t received them yet. Hopefully they will be mailed today (April 1st)
they actually have been considering that for awhile. The issue they have today is battery life.
Put an undercover cop in buildings in different neighborhoods and let them suckers fly. Lakeview seems to be the hotspot for crime as of late.
funny, simply having active business video surveillance cuts crime by 10% or so. But some people go instead now for obscuring their faces and get caught. i do not understand that.
I think its hilarious. My twitter gives me a good chuckle when they put individuals on blast, mostly CTA riders that are up to no good.
I remember riding the CTA from O’hare to downtown, I started renting a car it was easier!
On that one you’ll encounter a train full of homeless during the late-evening and especially during the winter season. My first encounter with that was very odd. I was flying out to Hawaii, and caught the train early. I’ll have to look back at the pictures. Pretty sure they are on Yelp or maybe my old BlogSpot blog
it just makes me sad sometimes. DC has the same thing on the old sections of the metro so they stopped running the trains all night.
Q: DID YOU KNOW THAT POWER, PHONE AND OTHER UTILITIES HAVE CREWS OUT IN BAD STORMS?
Yes (5 votes) – 71%
No (2 votes) – 29%
Q: DO YOU EVER STOP AND THANK THE PEOPLE MAKING SURE YOU LIGHTS ARE ON?
Yes (4 votes) – 57%
No (3 votes) – 43%
That is great that there are workers like that. In fact, when we had a problem with Internet connections here they sent a whole crew that spent the entire day checking on the cables and got it all fixed up and now no more problems
that crew was probably frustrated – checking for cable breaks in the ground is painful!
Absolutely I thank them every time I see them. We don’t have many outages unlike others.
that is always good- say thank you to those that help you. Most that help expect nothing in return, but that smile and thankyou makes their day!
Although I have little fear of new technology, it also has good features.
i understand that, but there is much good! Medical technology alone is extremely good!
This is really all great only when there are also people who use such innovations in the wrong direction
the three I noted would be pointless for other purposes. They are wholly designed to monitor pipelines and to monitor phone/power lines.
they wouldn’t be useful for anything else.
Well, this is certainly good for development and it is also much easier for workers
it really makes a hard job (pipeline maintenance) much easier. You can cover much more ground, and have more repair crews. It actually gives people an opportunity to use technology and automation to preserve jobs!
Only for the use of technology should people be educated …. what about those who do not have enough schools …. for ordinary workers there will be a bigger problem
actually their “institutional” knowledge is even more valuable. You see, tomorrow the drone operator will need to still leverage the skills of the person that walks the pipeline and understands what is happening!