Chevron to Deploy Fully Autonomous Drones for Inspections, Monitoring

Chevron plans to deploy fully autonomous drones to help manage, monitor and inspect its oil and gas fields with its purchase of American Robotics’ Scout Systems. 

The fully autonomous, FAA-approved Scout Systems could help Chevron improve its current drone inspections with technology aimed at reducing the cost of infrastructure inspections while increasing accuracy and employee safety.

In the past, asset managers needed to have pilots and visual observers manually fly the drones. They then had to manually convert the data they received into actionable insights, said American Robotics co-founder and CEO Reese Mozer

With Scout Systems, Chevron is expected to get dramatically improved drone inspections that autonomously navigate above the target and produce data into actionable insights that can make its oil and gas production more efficient.

“Analytics that were previously unattainable due to high costs of operation are now available through the Scout System, allowing users to make informed decisions in real-time that will drive their business forward,” Mozer said.