Remote piloting of drones (update) - sees.ai

Since 2021, sees.ai has successfully implemented routine inspections of powerlines using remotely piloted drones. They have secured the UK’s first permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights regularly in non-segregated airspace on live transmission towers owned by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET). End client appetite for the solution has been key to this progress but sees.ai’s growth has been constrained by the availability of capital.

In Skies Without Limits V2.0, we reported that sees.ai had received authorisation to operate in non-segregated airspace. Building on this achievement, they have expanded their inspection solution from trials to commercial operations for a major client, NGET. This includes securing the UK’s first permission from the CAA to fly BVLOS routinely in non-segregated airspace over live grid assets. This accomplishment is particularly noteworthy given the many UK BVLOS projects that have stalled at initial trials. It is also encouraging to see pragmatic AI practitioners like Keen AI contributing to the solution.

However, sees.ai believes their growth may have been constrained by limited capital availability due to a challenging fundraising environment.

sees.ai’s impressive progress is reflected in their assessment of potential barriers to growth. They have seen increasing interest and support from network operators, partly driven by heightened government pressure to upgrade the grid (Perception – up – green). This clear demand from end-clients has also led to regulators becoming more receptive to the use case.

^{_{The 2024 colour indicator shown is based on sees.ai’s current perception of the associated barrier (red indicates an 'issue' and green 'no issue'). The trend shows the degree to which they feel this barrier has changed since 2021. To see a summary of how this organisation's views compare to others, see the chart on page 8 of our main report.}}

sees.ai note that what started as an incremental improvement has now become a necessity:

Implementation has jumped from red to amber (as noted above), and sees.ai anticipates reaching Business as Usual (BAU) mode, operating at or above break-even on a unit economics basis, by 2026. Significant Technology progress has been made, addressing key technical challenges and enhancing engineering, system reliability, and robustness (up – green). sees.ai is optimistic about Skills and believes that their team, along with key clients, primarily from NGET, possesses the necessary expertise to execute the project successfully.

As with all BVLOS-dependent use cases, Regulation has progressed but further advancements are needed (up – amber).

Going forward, sees.ai would like to see increased levels of government involvement and enthusiasm for the sector and cite the Smart Machines 2035 – Robotics Growth Partnership^[3] as an example.