Amey, an asset management consultancy, has entered into a joint venture with the drone technology experts VTOL Technologies for carrying out asset management inspections of bridges and railways.

Amey will use VTOL’s long range drones for quicker and easier inspections.

AmeyVTOL service development director Richard Butterfield said: “Doing more with less is a challenge most businesses will understand. As asset managers, we’re often asked to deliver cost efficiencies for our clients while increasing inspections to meet the growing demands on the UK’s networks.

"Using this cutting-edge technology to inspect the vital infrastructure that we all rely on is a world first.

"It will change the way we inspect assets forever; allowing us to assess at the touch of a button, make real-time recommendations and potentially save millions of pounds for our clients.”

Called The Flying WingAmey, VTOL’s patented unmanned autonomous drone is a long-range, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS) autonomous drone technology.

"Using this cutting-edge technology to inspect the vital infrastructure that we all rely on is a world first."

According to Amey, this technolgy offers a number of benefits that traditional drones do not.

The drone carries ground penetrating radar, high-definition video and still, infrared, thermal and light detection and ranging sensors, amongst others.

It can travel up to 150km at speeds of up to 60kph, take off and land anywhere, and change direction to accurately map the same route again and again, irrespective of the weather conditions.

It can also capture data in real time and stream it live to a data processing engine.

Image: An ariel view of roads at night. Photo: Courtesy of Amey plc.