Drone software for utility inspections: what utilities use

Utility drone programs don't run on one platform. They run three kinds of software: the aircraft maker's flight and dock software (Skydio, DJI FlightHub 2, Percepto), an inspection-data platform that turns imagery into defects and work orders (Optelos, Utileyes, Cyberhawk, DroneDeploy), and an operations record of who flew what, and under which risk assessment. FlybyOps is built for that third layer.

The first two layers are the ones utilities talk about in press releases, so they're easy to find. The third is the program's own record, and it's the one that ends up in spreadsheets and disconnected tools, especially once contractors start flying.

The three layers at a glance

The layers pass data to each other: at ComEd, Skydio Cloud feeds Optelos. What matters is knowing which record lives where before someone asks for it.

Flight and dock control

This is the software that comes with the aircraft. It plans the route, flies it, and logs the flight. For docked drones, which launch from a box on site with no pilot standing next to them, it's also how the operations desk runs flights remotely.

Utilities have been public about this layer. In 2023 the FAA granted Dominion Energy waivers to fly Skydio docked drones remotely at power generation facilities across several states, according to Skydio and Inside Unmanned Systems. The same year ComEd began training its pilots on a Skydio Dock at its Chicago training center so they could fly inspection drones remotely. Percepto said in 2022 that Florida Power & Light would coordinate its docked drones on Percepto's AIM platform.

Software from the aircraft maker keeps a good flight log for its own aircraft. DJI's May 2025 update to FlightHub 2 exports summary reports and full flight record data (for DJI Dock 3 flights), and lets you define custom roles and access per project. Skydio's Asset Command turns a utility's existing asset data into ready-to-fly missions. If one team flies one brand of aircraft, this layer covers most of the flight log.

Inspection data platforms

The second layer is where the work product lives. These platforms take thousands of images, match each one to a pole, tower or substation, flag defects and push findings into the utility's work order system.

Utileyes imports asset maps from KML, CSV or GIS, assigns pilots, matches each upload to its asset by GPS, runs a QA check, applies severity ratings and hands findings to ArcGIS or a work order system. Optelos connects to EAM, ticketing and GIS systems, and takes uploads from internal pilots, Optelos's own pilots or third-party contractors.

Utilities have been public about this layer too. At ComEd, images go from the drones into Skydio Cloud, which is integrated with Optelos, and ComEd has built four AI classifiers for defects on cross arms, lightning arresters, insulators and fuse cutouts, according to Optelos's recap of ComEd's 2024 EDR Summit talk. In the UK, SSEN Transmission's head of operations and maintenance said in 2021 that Cyberhawk's iHawk was central to how his team manages inspections, maintenance, safety and compliance.

This layer handles volume. SDG&E's Risk-Informed Drone Inspection program performs about 13,000 pole inspections a year in its high fire threat areas, and the City of Loveland Utilities had inspected 1,102 poles by drone, nearly 28% of the city's poles, by the end of May 2025.

When an inspection platform calls itself a system of record, it means the imagery and the defects. These platforms answer what's wrong with a pole. They aren't built to answer whether the pilot who photographed it was current, or when that aircraft was last serviced.

The operations record, and who asks for it

The third layer records how the program runs: the pilot and their currency, the aircraft and its hours and maintenance, the job and its risk assessment, any incident, and which contractor had access to what. It's the layer usually sold as drone fleet management or drone operations software. It's also the least visible layer, and the one people ask about when something goes wrong.

The FAA. Under 14 CFR 107.7(a)(3), the remote pilot in command, the owner or the person on the controls must, on request, make available to the FAA any document, record or report required to be kept under the FAA's rules. Our guide to Part 107 recordkeeping covers which records that means.

The waiver. BVLOS and docked flights have run under FAA waivers, and a waiver comes with conditions the program has to show it met. AirData says PG&E uses its maintenance tracking to stay compliant with BVLOS waiver service requirements across its DJI and Skydio fleets. More on that in our guide to BVLOS waivers.

State regulators. A wildfire mitigation plan can name drone inspections directly. Xcel Energy's proposed 2025 to 2027 Colorado plan includes drone inspections for defects and maintenance and a comprehensive asset registry in high-fire-threat areas. Once inspections are part of a regulated plan, how they were flown becomes part of the evidence.

The size of the record follows the size of the program. NYPA reported nearly 100 drone pilots in 2023, when it approved first-phase funding for a five-year, $37.2 million drone program. That's nearly 100 sets of certificates and currency dates before a single aircraft is counted.

FlybyOps keeps projects, jobs, flight logs, equipment, risks, incidents and compliance records in one system of record, with scoped roles and an append-only audit trail. Other platforms in this layer: AirData schedules maintenance by flight hours, cycle count or calendar date for every aircraft and battery. DroneDeploy's Drone Operations Management manages equipment registration, maintenance, pilot certifications and compliance, and logs the flights flown in DroneDeploy's own app.

Where the record splits: contractors

A single team flying one brand of aircraft can keep a decent record in the maker's software. Many utility programs aren't.

Hawaiian Electric has contracted with E2 to run drone inspections in Maui County alongside its own staff. Southern Company, Georgia Power's parent, has more than 160 in-house drone pilots and over 200 aircraft, and has also used third-party contractors. At ComEd, trained maintenance inspectors fly the drones used for distribution asset inspections. Each of those groups has its own certificates, currency, insurance and incident history, and a contractor may bring its own logbook.

That's where the operations record splits. The inspection platform gets the contractor's images, because that's the deliverable. The contractor's pilot records, its risk assessments for the job and any incident on site stay in the contractor's system, or in an email attachment. When the safety team or an auditor asks who flew a circuit in March and whether they were current, the answer is in two places, and one of them belongs to another company. We wrote more about running that mix in our guide to the utility drone inspection program.

FlybyOps is set up so the contractor works inside the utility's record instead of beside it:

• Scoped access. Five roles (Admin, Project Manager, Operation Lead, Pilot, Ground Staff), and pilots and ground crew only see the jobs they're assigned to. Contractor access controls and flight approval workflows come with the Business plan, so a contractor can work one project without seeing the rest. Here's why pilots should only see the jobs they're assigned to.
• Pilots and aircraft. Pilot currency tracking and maintenance schedules come with the Business plan. Flight hours land on the right airframe automatically, and maintenance schedules run on flight hours, calendar intervals or number of flights, with an email reminder before each one comes due.
• Flights. Flight Sync logs DJI enterprise flights automatically from DJI Pilot 2. Flights on other aircraft, Skydio included, are entered by hand into the same record, with the same pilot, aircraft and job. Automatic sync for other manufacturers is planned, not live.
• Risk and incidents. A risk register with SORA 5×5 scoring, and incidents filed against a flight, job or aircraft, or anonymously on the Business plan. Admins and the relevant project managers are notified automatically.
• The trail. Every change is written to an append-only audit log, so an edited record shows who changed it and when.

Questions to ask before a utility rollout

We've flown commercially since 2018, including inspections of solar sites, wind turbines and network towers. Take these into any demo, ours included, and ask the vendor to show each one on screen rather than describe it:

1. Can a contractor work one project without seeing any other project or any other contractor's data?
2. Does it track each pilot's currency, and on which plan?
3. Do flight hours reach each aircraft's maintenance schedule without anyone retyping them?
4. Can someone report an incident anonymously, and who gets notified?
5. If a record is edited after the fact, does the system show who changed it and when?
6. Which plan includes API access, SSO and SCIM? At FlybyOps, API access starts on the Business plan, and SSO and SCIM come with Enterprise.

For a longer evaluation list, see our guide to choosing drone operations software.

The flight software flies the mission and the inspection platform finds the defect. The operations record shows how the program was run, and FlybyOps is built to keep it in one place, contractors included.