# Smarter Waste Facility Operations with Automated Drones in the UAE

- Event: NestGen ’25
- Published: March 7, 2025
- Length: 35:24
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/FfPHwgMuec0/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## Transcript

**[0:21]** hello everyone and welcome to another exciting session at n25 I am aushi your host for today and today we are diving into work game game changing topic on how automated drones are optimizing VTE facility management operations in the UAE well see let's see managing large scale Bas facilities comes with unique operational challenges constant monitoring safety risk and efficiency those are the major bottlenecks traditional inspections and surveillance methods are slow they are labor intensive and often require uh reactive rather than they are being proactive but but wait that's why we are here with our expert speaker to uncover all of this but before we move on there are a couple of house housekeeping rules that I would like to walk you through first if you have any questions drop them in the Q&A box anytime we'll address them towards the end of the session second engage with us let us know

**[1:22]** in the chat box where are you joining in from and what aspect of drone automation interest you the most third but not the least join the conversation online take a screenshot use the hash nin and post it on LinkedIn or Twitter and share your insights and tag our speakers as well before moving ahead a huge shout out to this year's sponsor your support has helped us immensely lastly but not the least our expert speaker for today let me ask you one thing what if you think aor control mon land htis drones and even track waste disposal patterns in real time that's exactly what today's session is about leveraging drones drone autonomy to create safer more efficient and smarter waste management system to take us to the transformation we have samud rames the technical product manager at the Drone center with an expertise

**[2:24]** in AI driven drone automation Samu will walk us through how autonomous drone technology is reaching shipping Waste Management operations enhancing safety and ensuring reg while ensuring Regulatory Compliance Sam welcome on board the stage is all yours thank you AI for the introduction so yeah today's session is All About Auto automated drones uh to use uh to make make ourselves smarter in Waste Management operations so we have deployed the DJ doc with the FlytBase software uh to one of our key client in the UA uh so the the presentation uh the use case is about how the automated draws uh have helped them uh to to make theel easier and you know like more comfortable and mostly secure as well

**[3:24]** uh can go to the next slide yes yeah so these are some some of the key solutions that we found uh that we implemented to our uh client in the UAE so for them why to use the drawn was a big question so they currently have chip label and uh they they have been using a traditional methods as well for was dumping monitoring of the dumpyard and also uh for uh surveillance and security as well so when when they approached us so what new technology you have and that that can be used for us to you know like uh to enhance our operations to efficiently efficiently use the technology uh for for the better tomorrow so these are some of the key solution uh in in the rest management uh operations so for them SE surveillance

**[4:28]** and monitoring was the key uh sector so with the help of DJ do 2 and software of course the uh flight B software for a control room setup so they can monitor they can surveillance their entire uh field of operation so so the Cent have multiple locations in in the entire UAE it's not only one location they have tens of other locations in maybe in Dubai Abu Dhabi sha so doc helped them to get all the surveillance or or the security data as well uh and the next one is volumetric calculations in this particular uh dumpyard so with the help of poetri calculations they can analyze uh and plan plan efficiently that what they can do uh to enhance their operations as well so uh and detection of Hazard so this was their uh main key uh you know like uh uh questions so how we can use

**[5:33]** the Drone to detect the hazard so with the help of AI of course uh we can enable the drones to identify fire hazard or gas leakage so the the technology is uh available in the market now uh so everything is almost ready made the hardware is ready made you have the DJ doc you have a gas sensor which I will run through the next uh uh next presentations as well so uh with the help of this technology we are enabling an efficient operations so again when when the Cent when any client come come to us for a for a solution the first thing we ask is what the current challenges you face so based on the challenges you have then we will propose a solution so as as I should in so feds part of the feds so we are the drawn solution provider so we provide solution based on the customer equirement whether it

**[6:36]** can be automated draws manual draws the different type of sensors and different type of software platform uh and they combine everything and be the solution so when when I asked the client when me and my team were there also so we asked the client what are your key challenges so first one was uh to manage the landfill it was tricky because uh you know the dumpyard are like hard to reach areas and people would not love to go there uh so it's not it's not it's not a great area to be so with the help of the drawn you can send uh from from a location the DJ do to uh can cover like 10 K 10 square kilometers right so from one point it can go to that land area and gather all the terid and monitor and get the data back to its control room and security again was the key uh problem the

**[7:40]** challenge so people dump illegally the Bas or you know like different uh different uh things on the dump card so it can be hazardous it uh it's it's not it's not safe to uh send someone also in this particular area uh so environmental monitoring is something that uh we have pushing in the market so you know there are some standards uh there are some air quality standard hazardous gas recovery uh standard so with the help of all the new technology on the new payloads so we have uh designed a solutions to analyze the air quality the Hazardous gas so that they can uh be safe and uh will be help for them tomorrow so some of some of the other key challenges what we find was inefficient waste collection so they wanted an efficient way of doing their traditional work uh

**[8:43]** and Hazard hazard waste detection also as I told so that there could be some gas spills uh there could be some fire incident happening so these are some of their key challenges so with the next uh slides uh we will go one by one what we did what what we propose to them and how it help them to you know like betterment uh their use of operation so this was done in the UA so see the same can be you know like copied and take over to other regions as well and you know like to use it in the safe way so the security and surveillance was the main thing so with the help of the drawing with the help of the ai ai uh hardware and software available in the market we use the draw to analyze uh illegal illegal uh you know like vehicles or uh a person uh trespassing to that particular location so this helped them to

**[9:50]** uh you know like analyze okay with with the help of just a cctvs they they could not able to uh get birth view or an awareness of that entire uh you know like entire field so we have deployed multiple dogs around one particular field and uh it it it gives them routine surveillance so they have a routine surveillance early morning afternoon and even evening midnight so uh the night operation is something very crucial for them because people usually uh come in the night right so uh illegal vehicle passing or people trespassing so these were uh solved with the help of the DJ do and and the software course so this helped us to analyze uh and uh why why the automated draws are used for uh surveillance rather than a traditional method so if you can go to the next uh option

**[10:55]** so so you can see on uh the draws also give us a real time monitoring of of the area so we have designed a control room setup for the client uh and across the software platform as well so uh with the help of these systems so a real time surveillance is carried out to to see uh who is uh dumping waste illegally so uh this is for security and surveillance U go to the next slide uh know uh again a border security is uh something important as uh the field The Dumping a field uh is the traditional service traditional method like CS you cannot put like all over all over things so uh the drawn can capture all these uh border security uh border data and with the help of thermal sensors I can you can identify uh people uh

**[12:01]** cars with the help of AI again you can detect these people uh detect the number plates and then it it's stored back to their control room or basic basically basically the server that they have go to the next SL yeah this what say so with the help of AI so we have identified that number P uh in real time uh I know like this has recently launched the a so with the help of that it this this should be uh more accurate and more data can be efficiently captured as well so so this is about the security and surance so this was uh the key challenge that they had and we're happy that we saw that with the DJ doc to and the the software as well so the next thing would be for

**[13:04]** monitoring of uh you know like environmental monitoring can go to the next slide so uh so for them the land field management is something very important as well because they want to know what is happening in their in their fet so how many dump are already there and based on that they can plan their you know like uh calculations or next next St effectively so with the help of a liar sensor uh if you with the Rons we can easily identify uh the volumetric calculations of of of the Landfield so uh you can see the stock whe stock Vol calculation of the material and based on that they can uh identify multiple again multiple different options as well go to the

**[14:06]** next these are some of the examples of uh data capture from the draw so as I told the draw definitely go back to like 78 years back current draws have very very equipped with high resolution camera all the DRS even even even the DJ mini draws have very high resolution cameras now but draw if we have are more used for Enterprise commercial purpose so definitely this we should be having a higher megapixel camera higher accurate cameras to you know like map the system M the field as well so uh these data are captured from from the drawn and then they sent to the software to analyze analyze the data if you can click on next yeah this are this this is the output that that they got from from the data

**[15:06]** capturing so the step would be simple the drawn captures the data send the data to the software and the software analyze and give you the data with the help of again AI we have analyzed where they kept the steel where they kept the metals or you know like hazardous gas so we have efficiently developed a system where they can filtered everything uh filtered dump had like a common waste waste hazardous waste steel and also the other metals as well you can see the uh data so this help to efficiently resource on the so this was again a key challenge for them because they had everything on on their board right so this was their uh key output that that we got we can go next yeah so with the help of again draw routine inspection the of the software you have one click option for routine inspection so every day morning 7 morning 10: midnight

**[16:12]** anywhere you you have a routine inspection a regular monitoring is necessary to understand what's happening the same is copied from continuous uh uh construction monitoring so you have a 30 days data from the day one to day 30 so you know what's happening uh how much has been cleared how much has been dumped again so these datas are then carried out for their environmental team so the slide will be mainly for environmental we can go to the next slide so environmental monitoring is something uh we have proposed them with the help of different gas sensors uh name of sniffer 4D stability we are partner with the company called stability uh and these these systems can directly be attached on the DJ do for any autonomous Solutions the market uh so then the data is sent to the control room and in efficient uh to to ensure the compliances that that we met uh

**[17:17]** to you know like to give a standard data for the better tomorrow of course so if you can go to the next slide next yeah so different m multiple gases also detected from the sensor can H2S CO2 Co and yeah different sensor different gases detected from this a single sensor and and uh and then it was sent to their HSC team and environmental team to further analyze so this is important for them to analyze so the same is carried out from uh hazardous uh detection as well okay to the next yeah so yeah the data then sent to the main server as I told so the hsf team then take the so if you can see the sensor on top is the gas detection

**[18:17]** sensor so so with the help of these systems we we make show that okay the data that they have or field that they are using uh is safe for operation and it it is complies with the St local standards to the next one yeah uh so we support on regular gr you know sa they have a vision 2030 so they want to go carbon zero so that that's what we push also in the Middle East so to go come zero and and uh to to make to make the environment clean as long as we have sustainability something uh we been working on uh we really worked hard to be be sustainable in the company as well outside as well so as environmental monitoring is required per standard so with the help of the draws we we get the data

**[19:24]** uh then then we get the air quality uh data and we make sure it compliances with the local standard so this is about the environmental monitoring that the cl be using look to the next one yeah this is again um this again something important for them for their everyday efficient root planning uh the traditional method they don't want what they will do like they just blindly go to the particular location and whether it or not they don't know they just grow to that and it waste the resource uh and also it was the energy and the time also with the help of the drawn we get the continuous data the data is sent to the control room every day and then they will analyze okay so in this particular location there's a lot of dump uh so they will send the particular truck to that particular location so uh an efficient root planning is carried out uh

**[20:27]** just because you have to systems that have a routine routine inspection routine monitoring way can click on next so yeah again a real time monit frame which I discussed before uh so with the help of real time monitoring again in waste collection so you get the real time data from that particular field as as I told they have multiple field so every every feed from different feied is sent to the their control room then they they get and they plan their uh routing routing you know like missions uh very efficiently CLI on next yeah so detection of Hazard was again one more key challenge for them uh because they in in this in this field uh the based comp yards so a hazardous

**[21:27]** materials uh can be taken consideration because we uh people don't know like that they they just dump the Hazardous things so and that could lead a disastrous conditions like it can be a hazardous gases or like fire incident so with the help of the Drone with the help of a thermal sensors and the gas leak detection uh we deploy the Drone whenever we want uh and we analyze the situation and the early detection carried out uh This was done in a real time as well with the client so uh this was the key uh point when we did the proof of concept also with the client and they they were impressed with the system that we have developed for them uh the system consist of the thermal camera the system consist of the gas sensor the software so everything combined CAU them an early a

**[22:29]** bird view of what happened what what could happen or and they how how they can uh take an immediate step instead of you know like uh sending someone to that particular location in a fire truck and that can be false on run as well and click on the next so yeah this are like compressive comp haard monitoring so you can with the help of AI again uh you can analyze which bar are you know like stopped or which bar of Hazard is exposed so these this Hazard barrels could cause a disastrous condition later these are very uh as I told we we have made an filtered plan for them so these barrels are kept in one location uh and other materal kept in one location but still this could be hazardous and this can cost very in a disastrous situation as well so the with with the help of the drawn and AI

**[23:34]** as I told so you can analyze and get the data capture the data as well if you click on next yeah so detction as so so with the help of AI you can you can identify the people as as I told the earlier SL slides as well so uh this also taken as an Hazard because we don't know the react reaction of a person also so in times of an fire incident so people safety of people is something people of safy of Labor of worker is something very important so then with the help of the speaker as well on top of the draw so we will announce okay there is an there an Al so there's a par incident happen so we need to look at the places so uh so these uh or also uh enhance the safety Protocols of of the system click on

**[24:41]** next yeah again improve Regulatory Compliance as I told with the with the gas detection sensor with the safety protocols you make sure that you are under uh the local compliances for the HSC uh health and health and safety approvals and everything so that when when you when you on the site uh you feel safe to work and be safe to uh work click on next yeah this again U an add on to the detection of uh Hazard so fire detection was uh carried out with the help of a thermal drawn uh with with the air of course so we have designed the system to identify any early fire detection as well on next yeah so again real time monitoring of

**[25:46]** the incident so that they can get a bird view if you can see the video so you see a bir view of where where fire like taking place and based on that uh you can you can the situation C fire cck on next yeah again a rapid response is very critical in this time uh this times of you know like disasterous condition each second counts uh this this is this is also made for like first respond operation as well but for the compan Yes again so they uh they they want to know and they they can they have to send qu immediates to their location the ha trucks or anything so that again they want to make them conce so we click on

**[26:48]** next this is an add on to the uh water uh for the environmental monitoring so with the help of a uh different sensors like multispectral sensors we analyze the water and soil uh so you can analyze a erosion of the soil especially in The Dumping G near to the water bodies uh so with the help of the system so you make sure that okay this uh this the field which you work on erosion proof and then you can plan uh your daily operations yeah on so as I told water and soil monitoring is something which carried out with the same same sensors uh to analyze any any damages caused to the environment and water soil uh to make sure you are you are under the local laws local standard law

**[27:51]** haveck on next yeah so this is like a overview of what we discussed so as I told uh the drones which we used for w smarter R operations so help for surance for environmental operations volumetric calculation fire detection and also incident response so efficient water collection so combined all these uh made them smarter to use the draw uh and uh they they can efficiently plan uh and efficiently use the system uh to you know like uh to to make them themselves like comfortable uh confident and they use the Dron so this is about the Dron autonomous Dron automated Dron to use in the was management system the next slide will be thank

**[28:52]** you wow wow Sam what an in this was an insightful session was incredibly amazing like we have seen how autonomous drones are you know just redefining waste facility management by enhancing efficiency improving safety and you know enabling realtime environmental monitoring from fire detection while ensuring Regulatory Compliance to water and soil tion wow that was completely packed with a lot of insights thank you thank you so much for sharing how these drone automation is you know solving industry challenges like operational efficiency again the compliance the security threats for that matter which is one of the biggest threats when it comes to you know such large facilities yes that's true so I think the message is out loud and very clear waste facility operations are becoming smarter and drones are definitely playing the you know pivotal role in that yes so before we wrap up uh there are a

**[29:53]** couple of questions let's take them up from the audience and then we could just call it for let me just hand over couple of questions uh we have a question from Nish he wants to ask generally what is an average size of an Waste Management Field okay so uh as I told so the climent which we work is a comet body so they have multiple locations so the average average field would be somewhere between like 5 Square kilomet to largest the smaller itself is like five square kilm because every from 2.5 to 5 Square kilm I would see the smaller operations because uh everything will be connected to that particular dumping yard so from maybe from Dubai and charg is combined to one particular you know like dumping GE so these are an aage siiz uh like dumping facilities there okay and in the other region it could be bigger like or could be smaller as

**[30:57]** well depends it basically depends geography to geography geographically yeah yeah okay okay understood uh next again we have how frequent are this drone operations happening in the waste field are this daily operation or operation are two to three times a week so uh the security operations are every day carried out every day uh the routine inspections they have a minimal routine inspection time so uh it will be one in like one time in the morning and one time in the evening so you can consider two times two times a day uh but again it depend depends on each you know like each facility how they want to use how want to use the Dr we are also seen uh people using uh like three times a week so you know like just to know like know around what's in their field as well so for volumetric calculation I don't think they need every every day twice so maybe once in a week should be done and also for fire hazardous fire

**[32:00]** incident it's it's when it happens right so but for routine inspection ideally two times a day okay that was nice uh next we have how do AI power drones integrate with existing Waste Management systems and iot networks okay so uh the AI on board like currently we just use the software on board uh you know you have a Hardware on board also now uh with with the help of the system so uh we have integrated with their current control room setup they were using the Milestone system so that's the VMS system right so with the help of this a real time field is sent and a real time data of number of people number of label uh each day passing trespassing so this been sent to that control room yeah start I think we can take this one last question um this is around

**[33:03]** regulations so the person has to ask what are the regulatory hurdles for deploying fully autonomous drone operations in Waste Management okay so in the UA uh it's bit hard I mean for the private companies it's really hard to get uh because in the in in the in the Middle East uh in in Dubai as well uh so you have to get permits before you fly so people from the Mina region can comment on that as well so you need to get permits before FL but the current uh uh company or current client which work with it's a government body right so for them a pilot license is uh you know like they can get a pilot license that means they can get a six-month license and six month they can fly so based on this based on this six month pilot license so they can they can fly whenever they want in that particular uh read in that particular field only understood other than that it it

**[34:07]** could be bit hard to get permits uh not that hard but it takes some some time to get permits uh and they can they can get a a routine inspection permits as well so typically when it comes to the European audience it's around 3 to 6 months is it the same case for the Middle East as uh no uh in in Dubai as I know that could takes at least 3 to four weeks to to get everything okay two two to four weeks you can you can say okay that's pretty reasonable yes I think that's all for today thank you Sam thank you so much for sharing such a insightful you know details on the entire project I think the audience find just a lot of information and they might reach out to you for their next employment yeah thank you Sam thank you so much today thank you everyone have a have a evening thanks and flight L team as well

**[35:08]** have a great day see you guys