Nestled in between Lithuania and Estonia along the Baltic Sea lies Latvia.  The capital of Latvia, Riga, is well known as a cultural center for the country with it’s many museums, art galleries, concert halls, art nouveau architecture, and pedestrian only medieval Old Town.  In 2015, Riga also became the home of a new company using drones to find solutions for large scale commercial undertakings.  Co-founded by Dainis Krūze and Janis Putrams, Aerones has stepped away from the idea that drones need to be small and light to perform best.  Instead the team of around 15 employees build large drones that are capable of cleaning wind turbines and skyscrapers.

Aerones has 2 main drone models.  One for cleaning windows on tall buildings and another designed for cleaning and maintaining wind turbines.  CEO Janis Putrams explained, “We saw the potential for heavy-lift drones as there seems to be a gap between small copters and big helicopters. Our initial goal was to build a drone that can lift 100kg. The current drone can lift 200kg and also has the feature to provide power with a tether for almost unlimited flight.”  With the use of these large drones a job that once posed great risk to humans can now be done easily.

To clean the many windows on a building traditionally would require a team of at least 2 people to stand on a scaffolding basket hanging off the side of the building.  The workers wear safety harnesses and helmets as they begin the tedious job of cleaning each window with long poles, rags, squeegees, and buckets of water.  This process could take hours to complete for a small building, days for larger ones.  The drone built by Aerones can complete the operation 20 times faster than a person could.  The drone looks like a full sized window pane with 28 motors whirring along the top side of the frame.  The drone is tethered from the top of the building as an extra security measure while it is also tethered to the ground.  The ground tethers provide the drone with a continuous battery and water supply.  On the front of the drone is an arm that can be positioned for vertical or horizontal cleaning.  On the cleaning arm are the power washing nozzles and safety buffers to prevent the drone from cracking a window if it bumps into it.  The entire cleaning process is overseen by an operator using the drone’s onboard HD camera.

Wind turbines are used all over the world to harness the power of the wind into a usable energy source.  As many countries rely on wind turbines to supply power and reduce the use of fossil fuels, their maintenance is critical.  When these wind turbines get covered in dirt, insects, bird droppings, or ice they can cause a 20% drop in earnings.  Much like the process of cleaning the windows on a building, a worker has to be tethered, hanging from the outside of a giant turbine to inspect it for any wear and tear.  Using the same principle to make a drone for cleaning windows, Aerones made some adjustments to create a drone to help clean, inspect, and repair wind turbines.  

The wind turbine cleaning drone is more square shaped then the rectangular window cleaning one.  It operates the same way through a tether to supply power and the cleaning agent.  But, this drone has a ton of other accessories added to it.  The ready to go accessories that can be attached to the drone include tools for blade cleaning, visual inspection, drainage cleaning, conductivity test, ultrasound inspection, de-icing, and tower oil cleaning.  While still in the works are attachable tools for crack stitching, sanding, decontamination, filler, infra-red treatment, finishing, decontamination, painting, eologix sensor applicator, and a 3M vortex applicator.

With the success Aerones has found with these 2 drone models it is only natural that they chose to also build a drone specifically for use in firefighting.  While the ladder on a fire truck can typically reach 70m, these drones can reach heights up to 300m in only 6 minutes.  The drone simply attaches it’s tether to a fire truck for continuous power and water supply.  It is a perfect solution for a fire that is located in the upper levels of a skyscraper.  And that is where Aerones excels, finding solutions for specific industry needs.  While most drone companies are focusing on how to make drones smaller and lighter, Aerones has found a way to embrace large drones in a practical way.

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