Dongseo Power, Visit to SME NearsLab for 4th Industrial Revolution Collaboration

"Support for Facility Operation Data and Demonstration to Advance Drone Inspection Technology"

Park Il-jun, President of Korea East-West Power (left), listens to an explanation about autonomous flying drones from a Nears Lab official. (Photo by Korea East-West Power)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Korea East-West Power announced on the 21st that Park Iljun, CEO of East-West Power, visited Nears Lab in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul. Nears Lab is one of the 17 domestic small and medium venture companies participating in the East-West Power and 4th Industrial Technology Win-Win Cooperation Alliance project.

According to the agreement, East-West Power is promoting purchase-conditional new product development for companies including Nears Lab, demonstration testbeds, provision of big data from power plant operations, and joint research and development projects.

Nears Lab is the only domestic small and medium venture company possessing core technology for inspecting wind turbines using AI-based drones. It is a specialized company in autonomous flight drone development and aerial photography for facility safety inspections.

CEO Park received explanations from Choi Jaehyuk, CEO of Nears Lab, about AI-based autonomous flight drones and safety inspection technologies utilizing them. He suggested using decommissioned power plants if demonstration is necessary.

CEO Park listened to impressions and suggestions from participants in East-West Power’s 4th Industrial Technology Win-Win Cooperation Alliance project.

East-West Power plans to continuously support Nears Lab with operational data and testbeds for drone inspection technology advancement targeting 66 turbines at Yeonggwang Wind Power.

Since June last year, East-West Power and its subsidiaries have supported facility inspection demonstrations using autonomous flight drones at the Gyeongju and Jisan wind power complexes they operate for about four months.

In December last year, a contract was signed for the drone diagnostic system.

An East-West Power official stated, "We will make further efforts to develop domestic 4th industrial technology through win-win cooperation with small and medium enterprises, including inspections of solar and wind power facilities using AI-based drones, monitoring spontaneous combustion in coal yards, and developing solar module cleaning robots."