Reducing WHS Risk with Drones

Did you know that drones could significantly reduce WHS risk at your worksite?

But how?

Drones are making it possible to undertake inspections in areas that are normally dangerous for workers to access. These include: –

• Areas with operating machinery such as construction sites or transport corridors; and
• Hazardous locations with environmental risks (e.g. pollution) or unstable ground; and
• Locations at height such as bridges, transmission towers or other tall & elevated structures that normally need scaffolding, man-hoists or even helicopters to gain access; and
• Remote and/or difficult to reach terrain such as valleys and hills, bushland and over water; and
• Confined space areas such as large tanks and pipelines

Drones eliminate the need for workers to physically access these areas and enable safe and easy collection of the necessary inspection data.

As an added bonus, drones can generally undertake inspections without the need to shutdown equipment or operating systems required to avoid injury to inspection personnel.  Wouldn’t that be great for your business … no more shutdowns to undertake bespoke or routine inspections!

In addition to the significant mitigation of WHS risk, the time and cost savings achieved by using drones can be substantial.

But remember, drones need to be operated safely, so please consider the issues we raised in our earlier blog (“Safety & Compliance Risk”) before starting your drone program.

In the next edition of the 8 part “Risks and Rewards” series, we’ll discuss how to manage the risk of drones giving you ‘dud’ data … a topic that isn’t yet readily available at drone training schools!