Key Takeaways from EDRS and MSF

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Posted on June 27

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Takeaways from Energy, Drone and Robotics Summit & Methane Strategies Forum 2022 

HUVR was a proud sponsor of the co-located Energy, Drone and Robotics Summit (EDRS) and the Methane Strategies Forum (MSF) in The Woodlands, Texas, last week.  Meeting such a wide variety of owners/operators, service, technology, and subject matter experts was incredible and we were honored to be granted three speaking opportunities. To say we learned a great deal is an understatement!

We were also proud to welcome ZynQ 360 to the HUVR Partner Network.

New technology—a benefit and a burden

Firstly, all we have to say is WOW!

A technology-focused event really underlines the rapid pace of advancement. The number of providers of state-of-the-art robotics technologies was astounding, as was the ever-increasing ability to leverage these tools to carry equally advanced payloads and make inspections more efficient.

For instance, LIDAR (light detection and ranging) was everywhere. Numerous drone platforms are using LIDAR for positioning, obstacle avoidance and measuring. That last item–measurement–is a great way to show how one technology can have many uses. Scott McGowan (CEO, Kestrel Group), in his session with HUVR’s Matt Alberts, spoke about using LIDAR at tank farms to gauge settlement and roundness, saving days and days of man-hours to accomplish the task with greater detail and accuracy.

So while robotics are obviously beneficial from the standpoint of safety—robotics can go places so that humans cannot—they can also gather significantly more data in the same time frame. This can be a challenge if there is not a good way to manage the data deluge and transform it into actionable insights.

Data management is the challenge—but also the solution

A common theme we encountered while speaking with asset owners and technology providers is the challenge of aggregating, automating, and analyzing the vast amounts of inspection data derived from both new and existing technologies. Information is often being delivered late, or on thumb drives, or as PDF reports, or in various proprietary cloud repositories—none of which is ideal when further evaluation and action is required. Robotics exhibitors commonly stated that technology is advancing much faster than the software systems available to handle the new sources of data.

Furthermore, attendees stressed that an appropriately designed inspection data management system—specifically tailored to the application, asking the right questions, and providing the right answers, to the right people at the right time—would greatly alleviate the challenges that the industry is facing.

HUVR can help

This was no great surprise to us at HUVR, as through the advice of our network of advisors—such as Earl Crochet—our IDMS platform readily accommodates these industry needs.  In fact, we were very pleased to receive positive feedback following our three speaking opportunities, confirming that HUVR’s purpose-built IDMS platform was a key element to link inspection data to the customer-based decision-making process.

The solution aggregates, automates, and analyzes all  inspection data seamlessly so that service providers and asset owners alike can confidently  leverage all of the unique and specialized inspection technologies derived from the ever-increasing, state-of-the-art technologies showcased at EDRS and MSF.

If you’d like to know more about our plans for the future, or how we can help you today, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to talk it through with you, as the future is not on the horizon: it’s already here.

 

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