Percepto Successfully Passes the SOC 2 Type II Audit

Data security and privacy has been a priority at Percepto since day one. And now we’re thrilled to announce we have successfully passed a SOC 2 Type II audit. In this blog post, we’ll explain what an SOC 2 Type II audit is and why it’s essential for any drone inspection program.

Automated drones collect and transmit enormous amounts of data, including images and videos of critical infrastructure. Since these drones have become integral components of critical workflows, ensuring data security has become a top priority for both government and enterprise stakeholders. Any company that utilizes drones for inspection and monitoring must have robust security measures in place to protect sensitive data and intellectual property, as well as prevent unauthorized access to systems and physical sites. Data security is also needed in order to maintain compliance with legal requirements and foster trust with clients.

As a drone industry leader, Percepto has consistently emphasized data security and privacy both internally and for customers. That commitment was recognized several months ago when we received ISO 27001, and successfully passing a SOC 2 Type II audit is yet another milestone in our commitment to data security compliance.

What is an SOC 2 Type II audit?

SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls) is an audit based on standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The audit assesses how companies store and manage customer data and includes a comprehensive evaluation of their security processes.

Percepto was audited by Ernst and Young (EY) who confirmed that we meet all standards for SOC 2 Type II, including access controls and reviews, software development, network and platform monitoring, vendor risk management, security and compliance monitoring, and more.

Why is SOC 2 Type II auditing important?

Working with a SOC 2-audited provider like Percepto gives drone program managers and IT personnel an additional layer of assurance that sensitive data will be safely stored and managed and that the infrastructure, tools, and processes they implement will meet the highest data protection standards in the industry.

Percepto’s success in the SOC 2 Type II audit underscores our unwavering commitment to data security and customer trust. By subjecting ourselves to such rigorous external auditing and evaluation, we have demonstrated our dedication to safeguarding sensitive data.

As drones continue to play an essential role in critical workflows, Percepto’s data security compliance sets a benchmark for the industry, ensuring a safer and more secure environment for all stakeholders involved in drone operations.

Drones and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have become a vital component of the aviation ecosystem. As drone activity has expanded both in terms of use cases and ubiquity, regulatory bodies worldwide have begun introducing rules and regulations that aim to integrate UASs into national airspace systems safely.  Many of these emerging regulations directly impact companies that are using drones for inspection and monitoring of their sites.

One such example is the new remote ID regulation in the United States and Europe, put in place to ensure safe UAS flights while promoting public security and privacy.  As of the respective deadlines, which are September 16, 2023, for the US, and January 1, 2024, for the EU, regulations mandate that all drones in operation must possess remote capabilities.

To prepare for these deadlines, we’ve put together an overview of the new regulations, including information about how you can remain compliant.

Why do we need remote ID?

Remote ID is an important component of public safety and security in drone operations. The new regulation enables regulatory bodies to locate a drone’s Remote Pilot In Command (RPIC) and identify the drone owners whenever the need arises, for example in an emergency situation.

 

What is a remote ID?

Remote ID regulation requires drones to broadcast their location, altitude, and take-off location information with other relevant parties, enabling to identify the drones and their operators while in flight. To protect operator privacy, access to pilots’ personal information is restricted solely to the respective regulatory bodies and authorized officials.

What information does the drone broadcast?

From take-off to shut down, the drone broadcasts:

• Drone /Operator ID
• Drone location and altitude
• Drone velocity
• Control station location and elevation
• Time mark
• Emergency status

What are the deadlines for remote ID operations?

USA regulations

The new regulations state that any drone weighing more than 0.55 pounds must transmit a signal containing its serial number, position, and altitude. The drone’s serial number will be connected to the owner’s registration data in the FAA’s database, and authorized officials will be able to access the owner’s information using the serial number, similar to the process of checking vehicle registration using a license plate number.

The Remote ID rule contains two basic deadlines. First, drone manufacturers must begin making remote ID-compliant drones by December 16, 2022. Drone pilots, under part 107 of the regulation, must fly remote ID-compliant systems beginning on September 16, 2023.

European regulation

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has also introduced remote ID regulations for UAS operating in EU airspace.  The new legislation states that any drone that is not tethered or weighs more than 250 gr must transmit a signal containing its operator ID number—a designated number that every UAS operating organization receives from regulatory bodies—as well as its position and altitude.

Authorized officials of the National Aviation Authority (NAA) in the relevant EU member state will be able to access the drone owner’s information using the operator ID number.  The remote ID rule states that as of January 1, 2024, all drones operating in Europe must have remote ID broadcasting capabilities.

How Percepto is ensuring compliance with the remote ID regulation deadlines

Percepto is committed to full compliance with the new regulations. Let’s look at how Percepto is adapting to accommodate the new remote ID regulations:

New Percepto Air drones will include internal WiFi antennas that broadcast the ID, location, altitude, and velocity of the drone, making compliance simple. A second channel interface (e.g., cell phone, tablet) broadcasts the RPIC location and the operator must approve the location request sent in order to take off.

Compliance with USA deadlines

The FAA’s new Remote Identification (ID) rule took effect for manufacturers late last year.  To prepare for the new regulation, Percepto has implemented remote ID broadcasting capabilities into its drones. As of December 16, 2022, all new Percepto Air drones are compliant with the new regulatory requirements.

The second step of the remote ID regulation in the USA requires operators to begin using remote ID-compliant products by September 16, 2023. To help customers meet that requirement, we have developed an operational process for equipping all US Percepto Air systems already deployed at customer sites with the needed modifications to be compliant by the deadline.

Europe

To prepare for the new regulation, Percepto is implementing remote ID broadcasting capabilities into its drones. As of January 1, 2024, all new Percepto Air drones will be compliant with the new regulatory requirements.

In addition, all Percepto Air systems already deployed at EU customer sites will be equipped by Percepto with remote ID broadcasting capabilities by January 1, 2024.

The bottom line

Remote ID regulation is an important step in the development of the UAS ecosystem, and, with the approaching deadlines for implementation in both Europe and the United States, every company that utilizes UASs in its operations needs to be aware of the new requirements. If you have questions about remote IDs or would like to speak to a regulatory expert, contact us.

Insights from Percepto’s market survey

A series of high-profile methane leaks at sites around the world, such at Aliso Canyon, California and Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea, have brought the oil and gas industry under increasing scrutiny in the past decade. As our understanding of the environmental ramifications of these leaks continues to grow, oil and gas industry leaders are reinforcing their commitment to implementing extensive protective measures in their facilities. The question is, are they doing enough? Are utilities and heavy industry facilities inspecting their critical assets sufficiently?

To answer that question (among others), we conducted a market survey on visual inspection practices that queried 200 managers and executives within the global energy and oil & gas industries.

The growing need for inspection and monitoring

In light of the survey results, it’s important to understand why frequent visual inspection and monitoring are so critical. Utilities companies and heavy industry facilities are responsible for delivering critical infrastructure and resources, from electricity to natural gas and fertilizer, and almost always work with potentially hazardous materials. Therefore, failures and malfunctions can have catastrophic ramifications. As severe weather events become more frequent due to climate change, power utilities are also under pressure to ensure their grid is as resilient as possible and to restore power quickly after storms and other major weather occurrences.

In addition, changing societal priorities have led to increasingly strict environmental regulations, especially regarding emissions. Heavy industry is responsible for an estimated 40% of carbon emissions, and the real number may be even higher as gas emissions are notoriously underreported. In the past, the industry may not have been held accountable for its emissions, but that is no longer the case. For example, in the U.S., the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act contains extensive climate change legislation, including large fines for emissions, which companies can ill afford. The new legislation has put energy providers under pressure to both cut emissions and produces greener energy to remain compliant.

Traditional inspection is so difficult that it doesn’t get done enough

Despite the importance of visual monitoring and inspection, our survey showed that energy and oil & gas companies are falling short. Failures and malfunctions can happen at any time, which is why ideally, critical assets should be surveyed daily. However, our survey showed that only 1% of companies conduct daily inspections. Worryingly, 12% conduct inspections only monthly, or even less frequently. The significant time lags between inspections exponentially increase the likelihood of small issues becoming major problems. Beyond the safety and waste-reducing benefits of timely inspections, more frequent monitoring can also deliver huge environmental benefits, such as reducing fugitive emissions through faster detection of gas leaks.

A bigger concern is the fact that the assets inspected least, such as tanks, pipelines, powerlines, and electric poles are precisely the assets that could cause the most damage if they break down or if something goes wrong. They are also the assets that are the hardest to inspect, whether because they pose a higher risk to employees, are geographically far apart from one another, or need to be shut down to be thoroughly inspected.

Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents said that budget and resources were the main barriers to conducting more frequent visual inspections. Yet without sufficient inspection, failures are often caught at a late stage, at which point they can lead to catastrophic loss of life, billions of dollars in fines for environmental damage, and huge losses in productivity.

Preventing the next disaster

Most companies want to become good corporate citizens, remain resilient in extreme environments, and respond quickly to mitigate disasters. However, our study shows that it simply isn’t feasible to achieve those goals using traditional manual, labor-intensive inspections, especially for hard-to-reach and critical assets.

Indicating that the majority of companies recognize the value of more automated monitoring, our survey showed that while only 16% of companies are currently using drones for monitoring, a whopping 81% plan to start doing so in the near future.

When implemented as part of an end-to-end autonomous monitoring solution, drones make it easier than ever for companies to conduct inspections with the frequency needed to ensure the highest levels of safety, asset reliability and adherence to regulations. Without them, the next disaster is just a matter of time.

Get the full survey report here.

With emissions regulation tightening and public awareness of environmental issues growing, the oil and gas industry is under increasing pressure to up the ante when it comes to site inspections. At the same time, there’s the constant need to keep costs down and productivity up. The burning question is HOW?

Relying on what’s worked before is no longer enough. Legacy inspection techniques are labor-intensive, costly, and often put personnel at risk. And while there has been a lot of buzz about oil and gas inspection automation, it isn’t always clear how drones for the oil and gas industry are actually used, or what oil and gas inspection software is needed to enable full automation of both upstream and downstream oil and gas inspection.

To go beyond the buzz and make sense of it all, we’ve put together a list of five key use cases where automated drone inspection excels in meeting pressing challenges facing the oil and gas industry.

OGI Inspections

Oil and gas facilities have hundreds of assets, miles of piping, and thousands of connection points where leaks can occur at any time. Legacy oil and gas pipeline inspection requires a refinery inspection team of several employees and or contractors to cover such a wide range of assets. The inspections are extremely time-consuming, costly, and hazardous for the inspection team. Moreover, they don’t catch all the leaks, as even a large inspection team can’t be everywhere at once.

Autonomous drone inspection and remote ops dramatically reduces the time needed for inspections and offers an improved vantage point that helps detect leaks that would be missed using legacy inspection methods.  Utilizing the Percepto OGI system allows facilities to inspect more assets more often, with less personnel, and without putting employees in hazardous situations.

Power Distribution Inspection

Inspecting substation and power distribution systems is expensive, hazardous, and time-consuming. Yet insufficient inspection can lead to large single events and ongoing downtime events that can cost a facility hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.

Oil and gas inspection automation systems like Percepto’s reduce the time needed to conduct these inspections by 50% – 80%, which means that inspections can be conducted more frequently. In addition, the data collected in the inspections can be run through Percepto’s AIM software. This saves the process owner additional time in data review since it pinpoints the actionable insights needed to make smarter business decisions. The analytics also support preventative maintenance, detecting trends that can indicate a potential problem before it happens.

Time isn’t the only thing saved. The costs of traditional inspections and reports range from $50,000 to >$250,000, depending on the size of the facility. Automated drone systems like Percepto’s lower costs dramatically, which also helps support more frequent inspections that allow the site team to find anomalies before they fail, as well as track and trend potential anomalies. In fact, in some plants where the Percepto system is active, power distribution failures have decreased by more than 20%.

Floating Roof Inspection

Heavy rain or storm conditions can sink the floating roof system on above-ground tanks. To prevent this from happening, oil tank inspection staff must inspect the drains frequently. However, these hazardous height inspections are dangerous and time-consuming and therefore are not conducted as frequently as they should be, and subpar inspections often lead to failures.

Percepto’s drone-in-a-box can reduce drain inspection time by 80% – 90%,  which means that inspectors can increase their inspection frequency significantly and aren’t exposed to danger in the process. In addition, the inspections can be launched instantly, and the results given to the process owner in real time, enabling smarter, data-driven business decisions, and allowing them to respond to potential failure situations.

Emergency Response

One of the key challenges in emergency situations is getting accurate information to the decision-makers in real time. Inability to do so often leads to poor decision-making and inflated response times that can result in destruction, injuries, or even death.

Percepto’s drone-in-a-box can be remotely launched within minutes when an emergency arises, providing real-time visual, thermal, and gas detection data to the decision-makers and a constant live feed to facility and corporate personnel. When emergency response leaders have instant access to real-time data, they can make faster and better decisions, limit risk to personnel, and reduce potential damage to the facility. In addition, they can easily collaborate with corporate partners through the AIM software.

Flare Stack Inspection

A single flare failure can abruptly halt oil & gas facility operations, leading to production loss and unplanned expenditures, as well as major environmental damage. Yet legacy inspection methods require the flare to be shut down, which also leads to loss.

Drones for the oil and gas industry eliminate the need for plant shutdown with aerial inspections that can be done while the flare remains fully functional. When drones collect data, employees are kept out of harm’s way, and flare inspections take mere hours rather than days or weeks. The inspections, which utilize state-of-the-art thermal analysis software tools, can be conducted more frequently and improve sustainability by ensuring that pollutants aren’t released into the environment.

Advancing to better inspections and smarter data

Those five use cases are all critical areas where automated oil and gas drone inspection can significantly improve performance across every meaningful vector—safety, sustainability and environmental protection, productivity, and efficiency. Other use cases include heater and reactor inspections.

Yet no matter the use case, the need for autonomous monitoring and inspection in the oil and gas industry is clear. Given the tightening global environmental and safety standards, it gives companies a way to “future proof” their facilities and meet the demands of the modern world.  And since Percepto has now received the first-ever FAA waiver that allows drones to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) without costly ground-based DAA systems or humans onsite, oil and gas companies can reap the benefits of remote autonomous operations from day one, without the delays of lengthy regulation approvals.

Anyone who has ever bought a new car knows the feeling—once the keys are in your hand, you can’t wait to take it out on the road. The same is true for companies who purchase a drone-in-a-box (DIB)—they want to start using it right away, without lengthy delays for regulatory approvals, and without having to buy additional expensive safety equipment. However, before the FAA issued a game-changing “true BVLOS” waiver for DIBs, there was no other option.

That changed for US based customers in May 2023, when the FAA issued a waiver that enables Percepto pilots to operate uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in shielded airspace, without humans on site, and without expensive and cumbersome ground-based detect and avoid (DAA) systems such as radar systems. With the new waiver, there is no waiting period—companies can set up their drone and start using it right away. It’s the DIB equivalent of being able to drive your car out of the dealership lot the minute the salesperson hands you the keys.

Gathering speed: the progression of regulation

The current waiver wasn’t issued in a vacuum. The regulatory landscape is constantly evolving, and over the past several years, Percepto has been working closely with the FAA, proving the company’s dedication to safety and the reliability of the Percepto system. In fact, Percepto team members were active contributors in the landmark report by the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), which helped pave the way for the current waiver.

Our work with regulators has become a process of cross-fertilization. As Christopher Doherty, Aviation Safety Inspector, FAA AFS-830 Special programs, said in the Percepto panel at Xponential 2023, “We’re asking industry to push us into more forward-thinking so we can stay ahead of the curve about getting all of these waivers out for these particular operations.”

Enter the era of “True BVLOS”

The latest waiver is truly revolutionary because it allows companies to conduct inspection and monitoring flights remotely, with a pilot located anywhere in the US, with no need for humans onsite or for detect and avoid (DAA) systems.

Under the waiver, low-risk “shielded” BVLOS operations are authorized 200 feet above and around assets located at critical infrastructure sites. And at non-critical infrastructure sites, shielded BVLOS operations are permitted 50 feet higher than the tallest obstruction located within a half-mile of the site.

Even the previous highly automated BVLOS waiver required either two people on-site – a pilot and a visual observer – or costly ground radar systems to ensure clear airspace. The current waiver eliminates those requirements, opening the door to major savings for anyone who operates any kind of critical or non-critical infrastructure in the United States.

This waiver, while nationwide, is currently limited to Percepto drones. It means companies operating a Percepto drone can conduct such BVLOS operations without having to apply for any special waivers or exemptions. They’re ready to fly from day one!

The new look of autonomous inspection

With true BVLOS, critical infrastructure located in remote areas can now be inspected with the same frequency and granularity as infrastructure anywhere, with minimal, or even zero, marginal cost, beyond the cost of the drone-in-a-box itself. A single control center located anywhere in the US can manage inspections of well heads, oil tanks, solar fields, pipelines, and more.

“In a manual operation, you send a pilot out to the field with a drone, with a payload, an optical gas imaging camera. They physically have to set everything up, do their safety procedures, cool the camera, do those inspections manually,” says Danny Allen, Geospacial Intelligence Supervisor, ConocoPhillips. “So, you’re driving back to the office, you’re uploading that data, and now you introduce a whole other aspect of reviewing all that data. So, we’re looking at about a three-day time span before we can inspect something and give a report. … [Now] we’re able to generate those reports, give those reports back to the team the next morning, and they can go and do the repairs.”

Michael Hull, Director of Generation Technology, Vistra Corps, agrees. “Solar sites are not staffed 24/7 by any stretch, two days at most. And we want those folks, when they’re out there turning wrenches, fixing things rather than having to do inspections…It used to be if we wanted to get inspection data and that good information about where our opportunities are, we had to pay for it. Now that we’re completely autonomous it’s changed to ‘how can I be flying these drones more frequently? What else can I be doing to generate value?’ rather than looking at how do I minimize the cost of my inspections. And that completely changes the model for what you’re going to do with an asset like this.”

Conclusion

The new “true BVLOS” waiver is ushering in a new era of completely remote ConOps for inspection and monitoring operations at critical and non-critical infrastructure sites nationwide. Any company can start leveraging that potential today, with Percepto.