A press release from Union Pacific Railroad; December 5, 2017:
We’ve all seen them – those miniature helicopters flying over back yards, ball parks and playgrounds. For most people, drones are little more than a high-tech toy waiting to be unwrapped under the Christmas tree.
But for American industry, drones are tools for doing jobs that weren’t possible without a team of people or an actual helicopter. Railroads have been using drone technology for rail structure inspections since 2014, placing cameras where men used to hang from 800-foot-long metal bridges or 600-foot-high radio towers.
Like all new technology, railroads quickly discovered drones’ limitations. Large steel structures can sometimes break the signal between the drone, the operator and the orbiting GPS satellite that makes everything work in harmony.
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