The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Berlin Wall art fetches €730,000 at auction Posted: 08 Jun 2013 12:38 AM PDT
The fragments weighing several dozen kilos each are critiques of the divided Germany or celebrate the tearing down of the wall starting in 1989. One work by French conceptual artist Daniel Buren, "Etching and Oil on Concrete", was valued at between €60,000 and €90,000. Another by Erik Bulatov of Russia was valued at €120,000. Other artists represented in the collection included Luciano Castelli of Switzerland, Frenchman Gerard Fromanger, French-born American Arman (who died in 2005), Eduardo Chillida of Spain (who died in 2002) and Serbian Vladimir Velickovic. The concrete wall separating the Soviet occupation zone of Berlin from that of the Allies was built in August 1961. The two Germanys were reunified in 1990. — Afp-Relaxnews |
| In Alaska’s oilfields, drones count-down to take off Posted: 07 Jun 2013 08:05 PM PDT
The 20-minute test flight, conducted by BP Plc last fall, was a glimpse of a future where oil and gas companies in the Arctic can rely on unmanned aircraft to detect pipeline faults, at a fraction of the cost of piloted helicopter flights. It could become reality as soon as 2015, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opens up American skies for the commercial use of unmanned aircraft, popularly known as drones. While technical shortcomings and strict regulation are likely to limit the use of drones in the near term, the rules governing public airspace will be more relaxed in the wilderness of Alaska than in the lower 48 states, industry experts say. "We're going to take baby steps," said Gary Shane, senior project manager and chief technology officer of BP Pipelines in North America. The company plans to deploy its first drones in the Alaska North Slope within three years, he told Reuters. Laid end to end, the more than 480,000 km of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the United States would circumnavigate the planet 12 times. There's a lot of money to be saved by reducing the number of manned flights on these routes. A small, unmanned vehicle fitted with a heat-sensing camera costs about US$85,000 (RM262,820), while it costs about US$3,000 to send a helicopter to monitor an oil pipeline for an hour, said Dave Kroetsch, chief executive of drone manufacturer Aeryon Labs Inc. The drone, therefore, would pay for itself within 29 hours. BP began researching the use of unmanned aircraft in 2006. Royal Dutch Shell Plc began a year earlier. One aim, says Shell, is to track the movement of marine mammals to assess the impact of the company's operations in the seas off Alaska. The Scout is the flagship product of Aeryon Labs, a private Canadian company based in Waterloo, Ontario - the same university town that gave rise to BlackBerry . Under a meter in length, the Scout weighs 1.2 kg — tiny when compared with the 1,020-kg MQ-1 Predator drone used by the US military and manufactured by San Diego-based General Atomics. Aeryon Labs calls the Scout a "flying robotic reconnaissance system". It has been used by Gaddafi-era Libyan rebels and seen action in a Central American drugs bust. () A camera mounted on the drone trasmits a live feed to the operator. In the case of pipeline work, sensors can pinpoint the location of a suspected leak and detect signs of decay, such as cracks or rust, said Ian McDonald, Aeryon Labs' vice-president. With four rotors and legs allowing for vertical take-off and landing, the Scout can also hover closer to a pipeline than any helicopter could. Proponents of the technology say this will help oil companies to find defects earlier than they can now. According to a US government report on pipeline safety, the public was quicker to report pipeline leaks than companies' in-house detection systems in a third of cases recorded between January 2010 and July 2012. () Short flights only So with all these advantages, why aren't more oil companies signing up? Why do Canada's two biggest pipeline operators, Enbridge Inc and TransCanada Corp, prefer traditional methods for inspecting their US pipeline routes? Technology, for one thing. Drones might not be new - BP also used the Aeryon Scout to help direct clean-up crews after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 — but they are yet to be proven for large-scale commercial use. "We have looked at this in detail, but advanced drone technology is largely proprietary to the US military," said Enbridge spokesman Graham White. "Our experience is that there is still no substitute for human eyes, knowledge and expertise when inspecting the lines." The 20 minutes flown by the Aeryon Scout is about the most that a small drone can manage. The sophisticated sensor systems needed for inspection are too big for longer flights; "miniaturizing" these sensors will take time, said BP's Shane. Also missing from today's fleet of drones is the collision avoidance technology that automatically instructs an aircraft to take evasive action if an obstacle appears in its path. While doubts persist, some oil majors are on the sidelines. ConocoPhillips said it was interested, but that it did not operate its own aerial surveillance program. Exxon Mobil Corp declined to comment for this article. David Yoel, chief executive of industry consultants Aerospace Advisors Inc, said it would be at least 10 years before unmanned aircraft are in common use along US pipelines. Draganfly Innovations Inc, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based manufacturer that sold several drones to deepwater oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago, said industry-wide sales had begun to flag, due largely to the regulatory environment. "Actual sales have definitely slowed, especially in the US, because of people's issues with the FAA regulations," said Kevin Lauscher, Draganfly's industrial sales manager. Into the wilderness Current US federal law permits only public agencies and universities to fly drones in public airspace. BP teamed up with the University of Alaska Fairbanks when it tested the Scout. This should change from September 2015, by which time the FAA is mandated by Congress to have drawn up rules for their commercial use. Even public agencies today must operate drones under strict regulations, and these restrictions will not disappear overnight for commercial users, industry experts say. Such rules — drones must fly in daylight hours only, for example, within the remote operator's line of sight and more than 8 km from any airport, big or small — are hardly conducive to monitoring a vast pipeline network. Gretchen West, executive vice-president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), said she believed that drones would become "an important technology" for oil and gas companies. "(But) it's still going to be several years before it's not heavily regulated." Alaska just might be the exception. Its very remoteness could win it special dispensation that would permit drones to be operated round-the-clock and controlled from beyond the line of sight. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 - the existing law that stipulates the September 2015 deadline for commercial drone use — saves a separate mention for the Arctic. "The FAA is working ... to integrate unmanned aircraft into the Arctic region, where potential uses include wildlife observation, oil and mineral exploration, sea ice studies and pipeline monitoring," FAA spokesman Les Dorr said. The FAA estimates that about 7,500 commercial "small unmanned systems" — drones weighing up to 25 kg — will be in operation within five years of its opening up the skies. For companies such as Aeryon Labs and Draganfly, the challenge will be to develop the technology to drive more sales. "Manufacturers and start-ups see that there will be great potential," said West. "This is going to be a great industry." — Reuters |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan