Flyability, the market leader in confined spadrone inspections, has announced a new partnership with WinCan, the global leader of smart sewer inspection software. Together, Flyability and WinCan are unveiling a custom integration between Flyability’s Elios 3 drone and WinCan’s Web solution. This will streamline data management, making it possible to convert drone-captured sewer data into industry standard-compliant reports.

Initial Situation and Challenges

Before implementing WinCan solutions, creating reports in our company was an extremely time-consuming and complex process. The image data from sewer TV recordings were manually integrated into Word documents and supplemented with overview diagrams. This manual process took a lot of time and significantly complicated both management and data exchange. Dependence on an external partner for larger projects further limited our flexibility. When our business partner dissolved in 2012, we decided to overcome this bottleneck by acquiring our own vehicle system and the "ProTouch" reporting solution from WinCan. A year later, we expanded our system with a WinCan VX license, laying the foundation for future-oriented, independent reporting and management of our projects.

Manhole inspections pose complex challenges for inspection crews and maintenance planners. Not only do they require different camera equipment than pipelines, but manhole inspections also have different data collection needs including multi-level inspection procedures.  

WinCan Mobile is a sewer inspection application for smart devices that helps collect, organize and share manhole inspection data. It allows operators to quickly record asset dimensions, material, construction, system information and much more. This data is tied to a geographical location, which allows users to transfer data into GIS software and support planning via asset management integrations like Trimble’s Cityworks or CentralSquare EAM.

You can also snap photos of the asset’s condition, making it easy to identify key defects and determine future maintenance. When inspections are complete, the project syncs back up to WinCan Web, where it can be processed and reviewed.  

Streamline Manhole Project Creation

Sewer inspection software doesn’t exist in a void: It is only as valuable as the data you collect – and the equipment it integrates with. Smart system operators seek out flexible software that lets them pick the right equipment for the job, regardless of manufacturer. 

Coding standards help wastewater professionals keep data organized, communicate more effectively, and ensure regulatory compliance. By providing a standard method of identification and classification, standards like those detailed in NASSCO’s Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP) provide common ground for municipalities and contractors who may otherwise inspect and code to internal standards rather than those of the region they are in.

WinCan’s new MACP reference poster can be used to help your inspection team easily identify the components of a manhole and properly code defects.

An upgraded version of WinCan’s CleverScan software module (1.7) includes several new and updated features to improve user experience. 

Manhole inspections are an essential task for municipalities. By some estimates, manholes account for 40% of inflow and infiltration, and the structural integrity of manholes impacts the safety of roadways. These key factors make it especially important for municipalities to collect manhole data and use powerful software that allows them to do so efficiently. Now, WinCan’s new Manholes Module makes it easy for municipalities to integrate them into a sewer management workflow.