Robohub.org
 

BP gets first FAA approval to use commercial UAVs


by
11 June 2014



share this:

 

 

BP, the oil and energy company, received the first FAA early-use approval to fly Puma UAVs in and around Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. 

Puma’s are small, weighing only 13 pounds. They are 4’7” long with a wingspan of 9’ and manufactured by AeroVironment. The battery version can fly for 3-1/2 hours while the solar-powered version can fly for more than 9 hours.

FastCompany reported:

BP says that their single Puma drone will be used for monitoring specific maintenance activities on roads, oil pipelines, and other infrastructure. Industry publication Oil & Gas Financial Journal added that the UAV is designed to aggregate data for BP, including integrating photographs and sensor information into 3-D models of roads, pads, and pipelines, along with precision volumetric measurement, and topographic analysis of the company’s gravel pits.

This is the first of what many expect to be a steady stream of approvals for the use of commercial UAVs in low-population areas of the U.S. Prudhoe Bay has little air traffic and fewer safety hazards.



tags: , ,


Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.





Related posts :



#IJCAI2025 distinguished paper: Combining MORL with restraining bolts to learn normative behaviour

and   04 Sep 2025
The authors introduce a framework for guiding reinforcement learning agents to comply with social, legal, and ethical norms.

Researchers are teaching robots to walk on Mars from the sand of New Mexico

  02 Sep 2025
Researchers are closer to equipping a dog-like robot to conduct science on the surface of Mars

Engineering fantasy into reality

  26 Aug 2025
PhD student Erik Ballesteros is building “Doc Ock” arms for future astronauts.

RoboCup@Work League: Interview with Christoph Steup

and   22 Aug 2025
Find out more about the RoboCup League focussed on industrial production systems.

Interview with Haimin Hu: Game-theoretic integration of safety, interaction and learning for human-centered autonomy

and   21 Aug 2025
Hear from Haimin in the latest in our series featuring the 2025 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants.

AIhub coffee corner: Agentic AI

  15 Aug 2025
The AIhub coffee corner captures the musings of AI experts over a short conversation.

Interview with Kate Candon: Leveraging explicit and implicit feedback in human-robot interactions

and   25 Jul 2025
Hear from PhD student Kate about her work on human-robot interactions.

#RoboCup2025: social media round-up part 2

  24 Jul 2025
Find out what participants got up to during the second half of RoboCup2025 in Salvador, Brazil.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence