Case Study: Anji Bureau of Water Resources Deploys First Phase of Urban Autonomous Drone Infrastructure for Patrol, Search and Rescue Support 

Built Upon a Shared Network of A2Z AirDocks, the Autonomous Patrol Drone Ecosystem Surveys 315 Square Kilometers of Protected Reservoirs and Urban Waterways. While on standby for rapid response patrol, the fleet and dock network also support on-demand retail delivery for local cafes.

Customer: Anji Bureau of Water Resources

Background
As China's first National Ecological County, Anji became world famous as the backdrop of some of the most epic scenes from the Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Decades ago, the local government in Anji recognized the unique natural ecosystem was one that needed to be preserved and protected with the county going so far as to eschew major industrial development investments, and instead embracing bamboo production in its lush forests, organic agricultural practices on its famed Anji white tea farms, and expanding ecotourism throughout the mountainous region. At the heart of this new strategy that prioritized ecological preservation, was an all-out effort to ensure that as the county grew rapidly, it was still delivering the cleanest drinking water possible. This responsibility was entrusted to the Anji Bureau of Water Resources, which has taken to the skies in its efforts to keep potentially-harmful toxins from entering its reservoirs and tributaries. 

Partnering with A2Z Drone Delivery, the Bureau developed a phased roll out plan for a large-scale regional shared drone infrastructure built on the backbone network of A2Z AirDocks. In its first phase, the Bureau is now conducting autonomous patrol of its 37 kilometers of urban waterways in and around the metro-center of Anji City. Currently, a small fleet of A2Z Longtail Patrol drones conduct autonomous daytime and nighttime flights monitoring for illegal dumping and external runoff, as well as illegal construction, fishing, boating and swimming in and around the waterways that snake through the city.

Additionally, while the drones are on standby for rapid patrol response, the shared fleet and dock network are made available to local retailers to conduct on-demand drone delivery from local cafes to the region’s popular resorts. By sharing the autonomous fleet beyond the core waterway patrol missions, local cafes are able to significantly minimize the cost of real time drone deliveries.

Customer Needs
The Anji Bureau of Water Resources is tasked with delivering clean water to a population that now exceeds 450,000 residents. With its reservoirs and their tributaries sprawling more than 84 kilometers through the eco-conscious county, the Bureau sought a way to monitor these areas more efficiently than having traditional ground patrol vehicles traverse city streets, mountain roads and dense bamboo forests. In the first phase of this project, the Bureau chose to focus on the waterways within Anji’s built-up urban center where patrol drones would need to navigate known obstructions like buildings, power lines, etc.

“Our county’s comprehensive approach to protecting and preserving our water quality has been a decades-long initiative combining local water resource programs with a renewed economic agenda that prioritizes ecological sustainability,” said ChongShan Wan, director of the Anji Bureau of Water Resources. “With our water sources navigating much of the urban center of Anji City, it has traditionally required a great deal of manpower and resources to patrol those areas with standard ground vehicles and personnel. We recognized the transformative efficiencies of autonomous unmanned aerial patrols to deliver near real-time monitoring of our water infrastructure, especially amongst our high-traffic urban centers.”

In phase one of this innovative rollout, the Bureau chose to focus its autonomous UAV patrol infrastructure on the waterways and reservoirs surrounded by the densely-populated city streets of Anji City. To prevent potential contamination events, the Bureau needed a UAV solution that could provide virtually nonstop aerial patrols across a large-scale urban environment. The unmanned system needed to conduct visual patrols, but also give the Bureau team the ability to interact with people on the ground. As with any local government agency, the solution also needed to be as budget conscious as possible, minimizing manpower while delivering actionable data intelligence.

“With a new capability to conduct patrols continuously over our urban water infrastructure, we also needed to be able to engage with people on the ground in real time,” said Wan. “Anji County is a very popular region for outdoor enthusiasts to come and experience our amazing ecology. Often, they do not realize they are swimming in our drinking water source, so the ability to communicate with people on the ground from our drone fleet was important. Also, the cold running water in these tributaries can easily become dangerous to swimmers, so we wanted to be able to leverage the drone system to assist struggling swimmers or deliver first aid supplies if need be.”

Solution
While fixed-wing UAVs offer extended range to fly patrol missions, the Bureau needed the ability to navigate a vertically-built environment, conducting patrols from both higher elevations above buildings as well at low-level over rivers and lakes. The drone solution also needed to be able to hover over an area to conduct more in-depth monitoring and, in instances when activities necessitated, communicate with people on the ground or deliver life-saving supplies in times of need. To enable these autonomous unmanned patrol missions, A2Z Drone Delivery developed a network of its A2Z AirDocks that could automatically recharge the drones and keep drones perched far above people and property while seamlessly blending into the urban built environment.

With a network of elevated AirDocks permanently installed strategically throughout Anji City, the companion A2Z Longtail Patrol drones could fly preplanned patrol routes, stopping to recharge when needed. The combination of elevated AirDock Dual (servicing two drones simultaneously) and AirDock Quad (servicing up to four drones simultaneously) stations meant the infrastructure could also easily extend drone resources to support drone-born services for partner agencies and applications. Leveraging the A2Z AirDocks ensured the Bureau would be able to seamlessly expand the reach of its network into the surrounding rural county regions as the patrol project entered its upcoming expansion phases. 

In partnership with the Bureau, A2Z Drone Delivery customized a payload package for the Longtail AirDock Edition. The companion drone for the AirDock ecosystem that is based on its proven RDST Longtail delivery drone, this new model is specifically modified for compatibility with the AirDock’s automatic charging feature. The Longtail AirDock Edition’s customizable payload bay can be outfitted with an array of sensors or tools for just about any mission parameters. For this deployment, A2Z Drone Delivery relied upon the Longtail Patrol payload, which included a high-resolution camera for crisp daytime footage alongside a high-res infrared camera for nighttime patrols. To enable communication with teams or people on the ground, the Longtail Patrol also features a powerful megaphone and a super-bright LED light to illuminate night operations. A2Z Drone Delivery augmented the Patrol payload with its purpose-built RDS2 commercial drone winch able to deliver first aid kits when needed, or deploy a floatation device with which the powerful drone can tow struggling swimmers back to the shoreline. 

Further minimizing the manpower necessary for conducting ongoing reservoir patrols, A2Z’s suite of flight operations software enables a single operator to orchestrate the entire network of eight AirDocks deployed in this initial program phase, ensuring the fleet of two patrol drones could easily reach the full urban sprawl of Anji City from a central operations station. As the patrol drones conduct their prescribed flights autonomously, real-time data is streamed to A2Z’s web-based interface. This interface enables Bureau staff to monitor each patrol flight live, pause missions and control patrol payloads, view patrol logs, schedule new patrol missions, etc. The software suite also leverages AI computer vision tools to automatically identify potential activities of concern for the water Bureau team. As AI callouts are identified, the team could decide whether immediate interaction is necessary, in which case the flight operations manager could commandeer manual control of a Longtail Patrol mid-flight to respond, or log the location of the incident for future investigation. 

Results
Partnering with A2Z Drone Delivery to deploy this urban drone infrastructure and companion multi-purpose drone fleet enables the Anji Bureau of Water Resources to combine live monitoring of its protected urban waterways with lifesaving capabilities all within a single-operator environment. With the Longtail drones operating at altitude, spinning propellers are kept far from the structures, power lines, and other potential urban obstacles as the drones relay actionable patrol intelligence in near real-time. 

Previously, traditional methods of ground patrols once required multiple days to patrol the waterways throughout urban Anji City. The team would segment the waterways for patrols, but even with a full complement of staff, some segments would rarely be inspected visually. Now, with just two Longtail Patrol drones hopping  between eight AirDocks on a series of pre-planned routes, the Bureau is able to patrol the 315 square kilometer city in just 1.5 hours, which includes roughly 30 minutes perched atop the AirDocks for recharging. With a single pilot overseeing the entire network of AirDocks, and the autonomous fleet of automatically-recharging patrol UAVs, the agency is able to repurpose its resources to further improve monitoring and evaluations throughout the system. By augmenting the Longtail Patrol payload with an A2Z Drone Delivery commercial delivery winch, the drone team could also respond to instances of swimmers in distress by lowering a floatation device and towing the swimmer back to shore. Adding the winch also ensured the team could make deliveries and pick up payloads within the massive reach of the AirDock network, enabling local on-demand retail deliveries at a fraction of the cost of establishing an independent drone delivery operation.

“With the deployment of these unmanned patrol capabilities, we’ve been able to massively improve our ability to monitor the rivers and reservoirs throughout Anji City,” said ChongShan Wan. “Not only has this drone infrastructure network enabled us to better monitor the impacts of urban life on our water resources, but we have also opened the door to other advanced drone services for our county’s residents.”