{"id":25437,"date":"2023-04-25T13:35:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T13:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=25437"},"modified":"2023-04-25T13:35:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T13:35:55","slug":"sellafield-drone-team-to-carry-out-uk-technology-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/international-news\/sellafield-drone-team-to-carry-out-uk-technology-first\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Sellafield Drone Team to Carry Out UK Technology First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – Sam Jay, UAV Engineer and Chief Pilot at Sellafield Engineering Centre of Excellence, looking at the screen display of the mapping images captured by the Flyability Elios 3 drone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A UK technology first is taking place this month thanks to a\npioneering drone team. UAV pilots from Sellafield Ltd\u2019s Engineering Centre of\nExcellence will fly the first UAV fitted with Lidar sensors at a UK nuclear\nsite. The team based at Cleator Moor in Cumbria will fly the Swiss-made\nFlyability Elios 3 as part of a decommissioning program at the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAV is capable of carrying the latest Lidar technology,\ncreating 3D visualization which gives the pilot full situational awareness\nwhile flying the drone. The images are also stored for 3D mapping reference,\ndata which can be output for design work and for decommissioning, providing\nvital information on the physical characterization of cells. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left, Peter King, Technical Specialist and Sam Jay, UAV Engineer and Chief Pilot, at Sellafield’s Engineering Centre of Excellence, with the Flyability Elios 3 drone which will carry out a UK technology first later this month. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The quadcopter, which uses ducted propellers, can be used to\nfly in hazardous environments such as active cells, taking away the need to\ninvolve humans in those areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Jay, UAV Engineer and Chief Pilot at Sellafield\nEngineering Centre of Excellence, said: \u201cWe are going to be able to model an\narea of the site that people have not been into before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter King, Technical Specialist at the Centre of\nExcellence, said: \u201cThe technology we are using will enable us to understand\ndecommissioning requirements for inaccessible areas. \u201cIt will enable us to\ncarry out a high quality inspection, changing aspects of decommissioning,\nenabling us to characterize areas without putting people into those\nenvironments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drone is able to operate in complete darkness with\nspecialist thermal cameras and oblique lighting, inside full concrete cells and\nat a distance of up to 500 meters from an operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology has already been used in the USA, but this\nmonth will be the first time it has been used at a nuclear site in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ten prospective UAV pilots chosen to undergo specialist training at Sellafield\u2019s Engineering Centre of Excellence. From left: Daniel Brannon, Alex Parton, Damon Newton, Jason Hill, Tom Calverley, Andrew Gibson, Malcolm Arnott, Michael Forster, Julian Kay, Jonathan Carter (Global Drone Training), Andrew Scott. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The UAV team at Sellafield Engineering Centre of Excellence\nare well known across the industry for setting the standard in safe use of\ndrones at UK nuclear sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile more than 250 staff members at Sellafield answered\nthe call to gain new skills in drone technology in order to support an out of\nhours UAV Emergency Duty Team (EDT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten prospective UAV pilots were chosen from the applicants\nto undergo specialist training. They recently completed their General Visual\nline of Sight Certificate (GVC). \u201cThe amount of interest we had for the roles\nhas been outstanding,\u201d said Amanda Smith, Sellafield\u2019s UAV Equipment Program\nLead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cohort are now undergoing further training from the UAV\nteam\u2019s base at the Engineering Centre of Excellence. It is hoped that they will\njoin the rota by the end of summer. Amanda said: \u201cHaving more pilots trained\nmeans we can provide eyes in the sky quickly, delivering important information\nto enable informed decisions to be made. \u201cIt\u2019s great that so many of our\nSellafield colleagues want to be on the emergency rota and are so committed to\nkeeping our community safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – Sam Jay, UAV Engineer and Chief Pilot at Sellafield Engineering Centre of Excellence, looking at the screen display of the mapping images captured by the Flyability Elios 3 drone. A UK technology first is taking place this month thanks to a pioneering drone team. UAV pilots from Sellafield Ltd\u2019s Engineering Centre of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sellefields-UK-2-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25441,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25437\/revisions\/25441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}