Q&A with Hitachi & Jacobs Execs on Joint Dragonfly Solution

The energy sector is no stranger to technology innovation, consultancy KPMG saying it allows for an influx of innovative solutions that create new possibilities, “helping the industry to unlock a clean and resilient energy system that's fit for the future”. 

One such innovation proving groundbreaking to the energy sector is the Dragonfly Project.

Built jointly by a Jacobs and Hitachi partnership, Dragonfly provides AI-powered condition assessment and guidance to cost-effectively manage collection system infrastructure.

The advanced robotic system autonomously navigates and inspects confined spaces like pipelines, power plants and refineries, reducing the need for human entry.

Equipped with cutting-edge sensors, Dragonfly captures high-resolution, real-time data, enabling energy companies to make informed decisions that enhance safety, efficiency and reliability. 

To discuss the capabilities and impact of Dragonfly, Energy Digital speaks with Raja Kadiyala, Global Vice President for Digital Solutions at Jacobs, Rajesh Devnani, Vice President and Energy & Utilities Industry Lead at Hitachi Digital Services and Ravi Vennelakanti, Vice President, R&D Division at Hitachi America.

Raja spearheads Jacobs’ digital strategy and technology development. With expertise in areas like digital twins, AI and cybersecurity, he has spent nearly three decades advancing Jacobs’ global leadership in innovative, data-driven infrastructure solutions.

Over at Hitachi, Rajesh leads the Energy & Utilities vertical, focusing on delivering client success through industry-centric digital solutions. With a strategic approach, he drives growth and innovation, leveraging Hitachi’s extensive portfolio to transform energy and utilities sectors through cutting-edge technology.

Ravi is a seasoned expert in digital transformation and big data analytics and leads Hitachi America’s Big Data Analytics Solutions Laboratory. With more than 25 years of experience, Ravi drives innovation from research to market, harnessing data-driven strategies to solve complex industry challenges across various sectors.

Here, the trio explore the innovative Dragonfly Project and discuss how advanced robotics and AI are transforming infrastructure inspections in the energy and utilities sectors.

Q. What are the societal impacts of the Dragonfly solution?

Raja: Every year, wastewater utilities in the US spend roughly US$4bn to understand the condition of their sewer system. Performing condition assessments of sewer pipes is essential for ensuring the continued functionality, reliability and safety of sewer infrastructure while optimising maintenance efforts and resources.

One challenge in this process is converting the inspection video into actionable data and insights. Dragonfly does this by automatically analysing the inspection video and providing a detailed condition assessment. Dragonfly then takes this condition assessment to the next level by providing prescriptive asset management guidance on what the utility should do, given what the inspection video illuminated.

Solutions like Dragonfly allow utilities to better understand how best to spend their limited capital funding, by focusing on the activities they need to undertake to ensure that the buried infrastructure operates as designed and does not have failures that would impact the environment or quality of life.

Q. How has the co-creation effort benefited each side? 

Rajesh: It has been a great blend of capabilities. Jacobs is one of the leading engineering firms on the wastewater side and has deep domain knowledge of collection system condition assessment, asset management and capital improvement planning by combining these capabilities with the digital capabilities of Hitachi spanning machine learning, video analytics and data analytics. 

The partnership combines the power of two global companies to accelerate the time to market of this solution and leverages the best of digital and deep domain capabilities from both the partners.

Water is a core sector for Jacobs and Hitachi has a prime charter of supporting societal good through its Social Innovation agenda. This co-creation contributes towards the core mission of both the organisations.

Q. What are some of the challenges that had to be overcome, and what unique ways did the Jacobs-Hitachi team work together to address them?

Ravi: The quality and consistency of the data is always a challenge for machine learning efforts. Luckily, the team was able to leverage its global presence and scale to properly curate a large data set with proper and consistent data labelling to feed into the machine learning pipeline.

Q. What does the landscape for AI enabled solutions look like for the Utilities industry?

Ravi: I will be honest in saying that the water utility sector is typically a little gun-shy in implementing new technology. Machine learning and AI solutions are certainly in that category.

We are beginning to see the adoption of solutions that aid in operational performance, such as energy and chemical usage, and forecasting solutions to help assist in identifying water consumption abnormalities. Dragonfly is one of a handful of solutions that leverages AI for classification and extends it into prescriptive analytics.

Q. What has been the industry feedback on Dragonfly?

Raja: As Dragonfly automates a key process used by just about every utility, does it efficiently and accurately, we have had great feedback from our clients. There has also been great industry recognition as well, with Dragonfly being awarded a smart water project of the year award and the recent Global Water Summit. Dragonfly was also a finalist for AI Infrastructure Product of the Year at CogX.

Q. What are other major opportunity areas for AI to create a real impact for water utilities?

Raja: Water is increasingly a scarce resource and there needs to be strong impetus on water conservation and recycling. In addition to AI having great use cases in the maintenance domain, which can help prevent catastrophic failures and mitigate environmental concerns, AI can be leveraged effectively to promote water reuse and conservation.

AI also has vast applications in promoting a resilient water infrastructure and promoting water quality, sustainability and energy optimisation in water/waste-water processing.

Q. What does it take to scale a solution like Dragonfly from a concept/prototype stage to large scale commercialisation?

Raja: The global connectivity and understanding of the market is key to drive scale and commercialisation. Having a solution that is properly architected to allow for scale is another important element.

Lastly, having a team and workflow that can utilise the data generated as a solution scales to provide continual improvement allows us to continue to drive innovation and meet client challenges.

Q. In your own words, how HDS is positively contributing to the utilities space?

Rajesh: Apart from water utilities, Hitachi is playing a leading role in the power utilities space too and we are working on multiple co-creation initiatives with key partners and clients to drive digital-led transformation and innovation in the power utilities sector.

One key example is our Intelligent Infrastructure Monitoring solution, which enables distribution substations to automate monitoring, inspection and management leveraging vision based technologies.

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