The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed H.R. 5315 with bipartisan support. The vote follows a letter sent to House leadership last week by an industry coalition in support of the bill and urging for a swift vote. AUVSI (Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International) joined the coalition letter and advocated to Members of the House in support of bill passage.
In a social media post AUVSI offered further insight on the Act report:
“What it is:
“The bill invests $200 million in a drone infrastructure inspection grant program and a drone education and workforce training grant program at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“This will support safer and more efficient infrastructure inspection, maintenance, and repair of the nation’s critical infrastructure, and better equip the U.S. workforce to use drone technology.
“Why it matters:
“Current infrastructure inspection can be inefficient and even dangerous to workers.
“AUVSI member companies are providing or using drones to fill gaps in comprehensive infrastructure inspections, reducing burdens on state DOTs and saving time while lowering costs.
“One example of success so far comes from NCDOT, which has been using Skydio drones to inspect their 13,500 bridges on a regular basis.
“By the numbers:
“There are more than 600,000 bridges in the U.S. which must be inspected regularly under federal and state laws – and currently, 1 in 4 bridges is categorised as “deficient.”
“According to DroneUp using drones for bridge inspections requires about 1/6 of the labour hours as compared to manual inspections.”
For more information
(Image: UAVSI)
