IEEE Electrification - December 2020 - 116

Aerial High-Fidelity Inspection
Thermal Imagining Monitoring
Ultraviolet Imaging Discharge Detection
3D Mapping and Photogrammetry
Post-Disaster Management and Logistics
Insulators Washing and Coating
Wind Turbine Inspection and Washing
Solar Panel and Mirror Cleaning
Fire-Spewing Snow, Ice, and Trash Removal
Construction Quality Assurance

Fixed Wing
Single Rotor
Multirotor
Fixed-Wing Hybrid
Powering Source
Size and Weight
Vertical/Horizontal Take Off and Landing
Hovering Capability
Endurance and Speed
Payload Capacity

Use Cases

Characteristics

Unmanned
Aerial
Vehicles

Challenges

Opportunities
Autonomous Functioning
Multiagent Networked UAVs
Real-Time Condition-Based Maintenance
Mixed Cloud and Edge Computation Benefits
Cost-Effective Automatic Meter Reading
Nontechnical Loss Testimonial Data Collection
Future Demand Estimation
Expansion Planning Insights
Electricity Generation Environmental Protection
Mining Discovery Support

Regulatory Structures and Registration Settings
Legislations for Training Certificates
Training and Testing Facilitates
Public Acceptance and Eagerness
Accident-Averse Technologies
Collision and Liability Insurance Supports
Battery and Electric Machinery Technology
Sensor Accuracy and Weights
Workflow Revisions for Relevant Task
Security Threats and Authentication

Figure 6. A summary of opportunities and challenges for types of UAVs in various use cases.

116

efficiency, mixed cloud/edge computation benefits, proactive condition-based maintenance, periodic wireless meter
reading, pollution footprint assurance, expansion planning
load estimation, and enhanced mining exploration. However, technical and nontechnical challenges have slowed UAV
deployment. Regulatory issues, low public acceptance and
reliance, limited training and testing facilities, reliability concerns, insurance considerations, power and sensor technological needs, the need to revisit workflows, and security
concerns are among the challenges that were examined.
This article aimed to convey the opportunity to apply
advancements in UAV technology to power engineering. It
was concluded that intensive R&D and regulatory efforts are
necessary to address certain challenges and to proliferate
the applications of UAV in the foreseeable future.

system resilience, " Proc. IEEE, vol. 105, no. 7, pp. 1289-1310, July
2017. doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2017.2685558.
" Implementing drones to inspect electric utility wires. "
AUVSI. https://www.auvsi.org/implementing-drones-inspectelectric-utility-wires (accessed May 1, 2020).
" 300 commercial UAV applications. " UXV University.
https://www.uxvuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/
comads.png (accessed May 1, 2020).
CoMEd. https://poweringlives.comed.com/ (accessed May
1, 2020).
J. Rogers, " The dark side of our drone future. " The Bulletin.
https://thebulletin.org/2019/10/the-dark-side-of-our-drone
-future/ (accessed May 1, 2020).
" Drone technology uses and applications for commercial,
industrial and military drones in 2020 and the future. " Businessinsider. https://www.businessinsider.com/drone-technology
-uses-applications (accessed May 1, 2020).

For Further Reading

Biographies

S. Hayat, E. Yanmaz, and R. Muzaffar, " Survey on unmanned
aerial vehicle networks for civil applications: A communications viewpoint, " IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., vol. 18, no. 4,
pp. 2624-2661, 2016. doi: 10.1109/COMST.2016.2560343.
Z. Li, M. Shahidehpour, F. Aminifar, A. Alabdulwahab, and
Y. Al-Turki, " Networked microgrids for enhancing the power

Farrokh Aminifar (faminifa@iit.edu) is with the Illinois
Institute of Technology, Chicago.
Farnoosh Rahmatian (frahmatian@nugridpower.com)
is with NuGrid Power Corp., Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada.

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / DECEMBER 2020

https://www.auvsi.org/implementing-drones-inspect-electric-utility-wires https://www.auvsi.org/implementing-drones-inspect-electric-utility-wires https://www.uxvuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/comads.png https://www.uxvuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/comads.png https://poweringlives.comed.com/ https://thebulletin.org/2019/10/the-dark-side-of-our-drone-future/ https://thebulletin.org/2019/10/the-dark-side-of-our-drone-future/ https://www.businessinsider.com/drone-technology-uses-applications https://www.businessinsider.com/drone-technology-uses-applications

IEEE Electrification - December 2020

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