SeekOps Inc., a gas sensor manufacturer and service provider, said Aug. 12 it will integrate its proprietary SeekIR gas sensors with the newly developed US-1 Unmanned Aerial System (UAS).

This new platform, manufactured by Impossible Aerospace, allows SeekOps’ natural gas leak inspection service to address larger geographical areas and complex facilities. The US-1 offers industry-leading flight times three-times greater than other all-electric multirotor drones. Through this partnership, SeekOps builds on its state-of-the-art offering for oil and gas operators.

SeekOps
Impossible Aerospace and SeekOps Inc. pilots during flight training in Austin, TX. (Source: Business Wire)

“A drawback of UAS for industrial inspection is the limited flight time of all-electric multirotor systems. SeekOps’ unique capabilities in drone-based gas detection are augmented when coupled with Impossible’s novel UAS. Longer endurance translates to less down time, enabling superior performance and measurement capability,” Andrew Aubrey, SeekOps CEO, said.

The combination of the SeekIR miniature natural gas sensors and the US-1 UAS increases coverage area capabilities in SeekOps gas detection operations. SeekOps will soon be scaling for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), further expanding their performance envelope and service offering.

Impossible Aerospace and SeekOps manufacture their respective products in the USA. The companies were founded in 2016 and 2017, having cooperated on technology development at Tesla and NASA. An initial flight demo proved to the SeekOps team that the Impossible team had developed a system that could dramatically enhance the value of SeekOps’ services. Both teams look forward to working together on future technology development.