Rakuten Mobile Inc. will work with Rakuten Group company Rakuten AirMap Inc. to conduct completion inspections of base stations for its mobile network using drones.

Traditionally, completion inspections would be conducted by an engineer that climbs the antenna tower on which the base station is installed and visually inspects the equipment, but these inspections raise several concerns regarding safety, the time required to conduct the inspections and personnel costs.

Using drones for completion inspections would allow them to be conducted in a shorter amount of time, more efficiently and with a higher degree of safety, as the UAS will be used to take multi-angle photographs of the newly constructed base stations.

AirMap's TowerSight will be used to conduct the completion inspections. A unified system, TowerSight uses automated drone workflows to allow tower companies and MNOs to transform their tower inspections. 

Thus far, Rakuten Mobile has conducted limited trials of base station completion inspections using drones in certain areas. The company will now fully adopt drones for completion inspections across the country.

“By using drones in completion inspections, Rakuten Mobile aims to improve the efficiency of base station construction and accelerate the expansion of its network area,” the company says.

To allow staff working on the construction of the base stations to manage and share information efficiently and chronologically, drone captures of the base station and surrounding area are shared through Rakuten AirMap’s cloud-based inspection system.

“Rakuten AirMap has been instrumental in establishing the infrastructure for safe and scalable drone use in Japan and will leverage its expertise in completion inspections to contribute to the growth of drone applications in business,” Rakuten Mobile says.