Innovation at Melbourne Water

Asset inspections by remote controlled drones

By using unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, we are now able to inspect our water and
sewerage infrastructure more safely and quickly. Drones eliminate hazards for our people and provide
accurate and consistent data.

Background We are now trialling the use of drones at our

Traditionally, crews have inspected our large
water and sewerage infrastructure manually.
These inspections can involve rope work or
abseiling while taking notes, photographs and
video footage. These inspections were dangerous,
they took a long time and required extensive
supervision and manpower.
Working collaboratively to find
an innovative solution
The idea to use drones to do dangerous and
labour-intensive asset inspections came from
employees in response to Melbourne Waters call
for innovative business improvement ideas.
Western Treatment Plant for maintenance and
planning purposes.
The benefits
The benefits of using drones to conduct asset
inspections include:
improved safety for our people by
transforming a high-risk activity to one
that is consistent with our Zero Harm
safety policy
less labour intensive process
the collection of higher-quality data can
be analysed quicker and therefore we
can respond to issues faster
sharing our experience with the water
industry.

We took the opportunity to use drones to

complete a routine inspection at the Thomson
Reservoir.

The process was completed in two hours; a

manual inspection would have involved up to six
employees over an entire day.

An added benefit is the collection of high quality

data. Drones record high-resolution, close-up
photographs and video of potential trouble-spots.
Using remote controlled drones to perform asset
inspections has improved safety for our people and
helped collect higher quality data.
The imagery is tagged with date, time and spatial
coordinates ensuring we can quickly return to
trouble spots, rectifying any issues early. High
quality data also provides a reliable baseline for
analysis and future planning.