Team UAV wraps 500 transformer drone inspections for National Grid Electricity Distribution

The inspection program required groundwork before any drone took off. Team UAV ran technical trials to settle on equipment, camera positions and capture techniques, with a central goal of collecting imagery consistently enough that photos from different sites would work for AI analysis. Working from NGED's national asset list, the team planned and carried out inspections across Cornwall, Wales and the Midlands, and where access restrictions, vegetation or missing infrastructure blocked a site, it identified suitable locations and alternative assets. Crews uploaded imagery from the field into a custom GIS database that linked each set of images to an individual transformer location alongside survey information and metadata.

The project pairs Team UAV's data capture with Softwire's AI and software development, and both companies frame it as a test of whether aerial imagery and computer vision can automate parts of condition assessment. According to Favour Eboh, innovation engineer at National Grid Electricity Distribution, pole-mounted transformers play a critical role in delivering electricity to homes and businesses, particularly in rural communities, and the project will assess the technology's potential to support future network asset management. The outcome of that assessment is not yet known, and the initial phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.