Skipper NDT Wins the ECC Industry Award in the Integrity Category

Skipper NDT has been recognized with the Energy Connections Canada (ECC) Industry Award in the Integrity category for its groundbreaking UAV-based pipeline geolocation technology. This distinction highlights the company’s significant contribution to advancing infrastructure integrity and inspection methodologies within the energy sector.

Developed through several years of research and development in collaboration with major utility and energy companies and leading research laboratories, Skipper NDT’s solution enables high-precision mapping of buried metallic pipelines using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). By combining the physical principles of magnetism with a powerful suite of proprietary patented algorithms, the technology determines the three-dimensional position and depth of underground pipelines with inch-level accuracy.

The UAV-agnostic system integrates advanced hardware and software capable of filtering magnetic noise, autonomously acquiring and processing magnetic field data, and delivering precise geolocation of buried infrastructure. It has proven particularly effective in challenging environments such as rivers, rocky terrain, and steep or mountainous slopes where traditional ground-based inspection is limited.

Extensive field validation by major operators has confirmed the technology’s reliability across a wide range of conditions, including pipeline diameters from 3 to 47 inches, diverse soil types, multiple transported products (water, oil, gas), and complex geometries. Beyond geolocation, the system supports integrity management by detecting abandoned facilities, identifying compromised mechanical structures, and assessing pipeline out-of-straightness following geohazard events.