Inspection and Creation of Digital Twins of Amplitel (Telstra) Mobile Tower Portfolio

With a team of highly qualified and experienced remote drone pilots and technicians, Sensorem visited over 5,500 sites, capturing high-quality, unique data on critical infrastructure across a vast and diverse landscape.

What did the client need?

Many of the sites we visited were located in hard to reach terrain. Amplitel required a comprehensive and scalable solution to support its digital transformation journey, aimed at modernising the way critical telecommunications infrastructure is managed. As part of this transformation, Amplitel needed high-resolution digital twin capture and detailed Tier 1 inspections to enable accurate condition assessments, maintenance planning, and compliance reporting.

Sensorem’s solution provided more than just imagery — it delivered interactive, 3D digital replicas of each site, allowing Amplitel and its customers to remotely explore assets, reserve space for antennas and other tower infrastructure and make informed decisions without the need for site visits. Leveraging the latest in AI technology, Sensorem’s proprietary asset management and visualisation platform can automatically detect and classify all tower components, streamlining workflows and enhancing asset visibility across Amplitel’s national network.

By implementing drones to perform the data collection, we were able to provide the client with detailed, actionable insights, reducing costs and ensuring the ongoing safety and performance of essential assets in some of the most remote and challenging environments in Australia.

What is a digital twin?

A digital twin is a virtual replica of either a physical object, process or system, often to a smaller scale. Entire structures, buildings, cities, regions or systems can be virtually twinned, so the user can then able to use real-time data to simulate its behaviour and monitor its performance.

Digital twins are used to test different scenarios and optimise operations. This then reduces the need for manual inspections of physical assets, making digital twin technology a game-changer.

Inspection and digital twin creation

We leveraged the high-resolution visual imagery and sensor data that our unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) captured to generate highly accurate 3D models. These models, enhanced with data on the asset’s condition and dimensions as well as the state of the environment around them, form the basis of a comprehensive digital twin.

We used our UAVs to continuously update the digital twin technology so that it can be used to inform proactive maintenance, predict degradation and behaviour and enable informed decision-making without the need for costly and challenging physical personnel visits to the site.

Digitising critical infrastructure

To support Amplitel’s mission of digital transformation, Sensorem delivers a cutting-edge solution for visualising mobile phone towers and poles. Leveraging the latest enterprise drone technology, Sensorem captures high-quality data and transforms it into detailed digital twins of the infrastructure. This data is then seamlessly integrated into Sensorem’s proprietary cloud-based asset management and visualisation software, DRONOS Telco.

The technology Sensorem employed

The success of the project was further enhanced by the continuous development of Sensorem’s DRONOS Telco software. This cloud-based asset management and visualisation platform now features cutting-edge AI-powered capabilities, enabling automated identification of tower equipment and detection of defects, making asset monitoring more efficient than ever.

DRONOS Telco not only provides Amplitel with an unparalleled visualisation of their existing equipment and assets but also offers critical insights into available space for leasing to Amplitel’s customers. This comprehensive and intuitive platform enables real-time, accurate assessments of tower capacity and equipment locations, streamlining decision-making and optimising the utilisation of Amplitel’s infrastructure. This innovative approach enhanced operational efficiency while supporting Amplitel’s broader digital transformation goals.

Project success

In 2021, Sensorem’s partnership with Amplitel expanded to include Tier 1 inspections, marking a new level of service excellence. These inspections focused on capturing ultra-high-resolution images of both the telecom towers and surrounding areas, addressing crucial aspects like ground maintenance, earthing and corrosion repairs.

As part of the project, Sensorem’s in-house team of telecommunications data analysts performed comprehensive desktop analyses, ensuring that every detail of the infrastructure was meticulously reviewed and actioned.

Over the past few years, Sensorem’s team has covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres across Australia, completing tens of thousands of drone flights. With a strong emphasis on training, safety management and quality control, combined with our unique deliverables, Sensorem has cemented its position as a trusted, premier drone inspection provider for critical telecommunications infrastructure.