Most of the hullabaloo around drones these days relates to military undertakings or amateur pilots capturing spectacular videos. Chicago-based ComEd is set to start flying the unmanned aircrafts for a different reason altogether.
The power company announced Tuesday that it is the first public utility in the country to receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate drones, which will be used to inspect power lines and assess weather-related damages.
The project is a joint effort with Illinois Insitute of Technology. The school will provide a licensed pilot on top of engineering support for the project.
In the same statement, ComEd said that it is looking into using underground robots to investigate hazardous manholes.
These new robotics programs from the local power monopoly are sort of freaky, but they also sound incredibly cool.