Aerodyne is an International drone-based managed solutions provider with offices in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, USA, UAE, Chile, Indonesia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.
Malaysia-headquartered Aerodyne Group has forged a partnership with leading IT and management consultancy in the DACH (comprises Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) region Quanto AG and technology strategy and implementation company Taku International to tap the European drone markets.
The strategic partnership aims to expand Aerodyne’s pioneering drone solutions and services in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany by allowing Quanto AG and Taku International to offer the drone tech company’s cloud-based management asset solution, ‘vertikaliti’, to their customers. Quanto has extensive expertise in large-scale project management, SAP solutions, cyber security, IoT (internet of things), and AI (artificial intelligence) solutions while Taku International is known for its expertise in IoT, AI, and aviation-based sensor technologies for both manned and unmanned aircraft, as well as related services.
Aerodyne-Quanto-Taku Collaboration
The Aerodyne Group Chief Operating Officer Rossi Jaafar expressed his excitement with the Aerodyne-Quanto-Taku collaboration because it echoes Aerodyne’s deep-rooted spirit in harnessing mutual synergies with reputable tech solution providers within its geographic markets. Expanding operations in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, he said that Aerodyne would bring the European markets optimum value proposition for drone services with cutting-edge intelligence and analytics.
“Quanto and Taku will offer Aerodyne’s smart drone solutions and innovative data analytics technologies to businesses across industries. This includes the DT3 company’s AI-powered, end-to-end cloud-based asset management solution, ‘vertikaliti’,” Jaafar further explained.
Karin Hollerbach, a managing member of Taku, shared the same enthusiasm on the collaboration that reflects how organisations with complementary skillsets join forces.
“It enables us to bring drone data acquisition and integration solutions to our customers that no one of our three companies could do on their own,” Hollerbach added.
Quanto Managing Partner Jens Brakhage commented:
“I am very much looking forward to the partnership with Aerodyne. We observe a clear market trend for DT3 solutions, integrated in the backend systems of our customers. Advanced systems, like SAP S/4HANA, offer the chance to handle information delivered by drone solutions.”
The Power of Drones and SAP S/4HANA
Though they may seem like next-generation aerial toys that can create impeccable shows like how more than 1,000 drones lit up the sky of downtown Seoul in celebration of the new year, drones can deliver literal birds-eye views of potential problems – encroaching vegetation, damaged equipment, nearby hazards. With the coronavirus pandemic, these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can also help keep people safe by allowing experts to gather high-quality data minus the physical need to go out into the field.
The SAP and Intel collaboration is one example of a best-use case of drones and next-gen intelligent solution SAP S/4HANA. The co-innovation leverages drones to collect real-time image data from electric equipment in the field. Once the inspection analysis is complete, the results are pushed to plant maintenance in SAP S/4HANA. This triggers notifications that are easily bundled into fieldwork orders using the SAP Asset Manager mobile app to address anything that requires attention.
Ron Gray, a Senior Solution Engineer at SAP, said:
“Drones can quickly and efficiently gather information from power poles across vast expanses of the landscape. With analytical insights on where the biggest potential hazards are, electric companies can develop a prioritized schedule of inspections and maintenance plans, including outage management timeframes. This would also help utilities correct missing or inaccurate information on equipment with fact-based mapping data and prove compliance with regulatory reporting mandates.”
Drones have the potential to be the cornerstone of automated wildfire risk mitigation with their data collection capability that could assist in equipment inspection, scheduling, and maintenance.
Gray said that utilities could section thousands of square miles into ‘inspection corridors’ for drone flights– measuring risk by various parameters, such as areas that are at greater risk for fires, equipment types and age, and weather conditions.
“Capturing this information within plant maintenance in SAP S/4HANA, which also has a geographical-enabled framework, would allow utilities to define maintenance plan areas and send work orders by exact location for each piece of equipment. Utilities could document that an inspection took place, and if corrective action was required,” he further explained.
