The inspection of oil pipeline lines can be achieved by carrying mission loads such as visible-light cameras, visible-light cameras, infrared cameras and small photopods. Aiming at the characteristics of the oil pipeline of this project, this project takes the UAV inspection as the means to enrich the oil and gas pipeline inspection means, improves the ability of anti-destruction, leak prevention and emergency relief, replaces some labor, reduces the labor intensity and improves the work efficiency of field workers, and establishes an intelligent UAV inspection system suitable for oil and gas pipeline inspection.

No.1 Flight test

For the target environment carried out on-site survey and route design, the route straight distance of 7.5km (center station to platform 3), the route one-way flight distance 11km.

In order to test the operating status of the hybrid engine at the target altitude, to ensure the safe flight of the inspection operation, the engine status test was carried out, take-off altitude 1200m, flight altitude 200m, flight time 10min, engine power stability, voltage normal, can carry out subsequent flights.

To test the transmission status of the image link, flight status: take-off altitude 1200m, flight altitude 180m, flight time of about 10min, flight maximum distance of about 3km, voltage normal, image data back normal.

Take-off altitude 1200m, flight altitude 180m, flight maximum distance of about 5km, flight time of 20min, voltage normal, image data back transmission normal, at the far end of the corner point image slightly cardton.

According to the pipeline route flight, the total range of about 13km, take-off altitude 1200m, flight altitude 180m, flight time 30min, voltage normal, figure transmission normal, in the far corner point image slightly cardton.

Take-off altitude reduced to 1150m, flight altitude 230m, flight time 30min, with simple routes for long-range flight testing, the total mileage of about 13km, flight status is normal, but the second half of the flight from the route 4 o'clock, the image back to Caton obviously, the farthest Caton serious, no loss of connection.

Take-off altitude 1150m, flight altitude 230m, flight time 45min, voyage of about 16km, in accordance with the pipeline line inspection, the whole katton obvious, the farthest image loss, presumably mainly for the ground cover and other reasons.

Using the plot antenna to increase the ground gain, take-off altitude 1110m, flight altitude 270m, flight time 45min, range of about 16km, according to the pipeline line inspection, compared to the last inspection, the image transmission effect has been significantly improved, but due to the low take-off position, far end, turn late there is still a small amount of caton phenomenon.

No.2  The results of the inspection

Through the aforementioned several inspection flights, in the case of communication protection, the use of drones greatly improved the speed of inspection, to solve the mountain due to terrain factors caused by personnel travel inspection difficulties, to the current level of drone technology, a drone, a base station, can achieve an effective inspection within a radius of 10 kilometers, with the oil-electric hybrid ultra-long voyage, so that the inspection efficiency doubled.

The drone carries an optical pod with 30x zoom, can zoom in on human-sized targets at altitudes of 200 to 300 meters, and has a target-locking tracking function, which tracks suspected targets, while equipped with infrared thermal imaging lenses to quickly identify leaks, burns and other dangerous situations, issue alarms, and at night can also search for and monitor foreign personnel.