On August 16, State Grid Bortala Power Supply Company organized personnel to carry out independent inspection of drones on the 10-kilovolt line. Distribution line inspection is the focus of power supply guarantee work. Drones have become an important tool for distribution network line inspection. 

Compared with the previous manual operation of drone inspection methods, drones equipped with adaptive inspection technology do not require staff to remotely command. With one-click operation, a series of tasks such as identifying poles and towers, infrared temperature measurement, and taking pictures can be completed independently.

In order to effectively improve the application effect of independent drone inspection and effectively support the construction and application of a new power system and the construction of core business teams, the company planned in advance and established a joint research special group for adaptive inspection of distribution network drones with Information Industry Group Co., Ltd. and Zhongke Fangcun Zhiwei (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd. 

Through top-down linkage, main production coordination, "training + practical operation," and "outsourcing + independence" methods comprehensively promote full coverage of independent inspection of distribution network drones.

"After adopting adaptive technology, a drone with a team of two people can complete a 10-kilometer inspection task in one day, which is equivalent to the workload of our previous week of walking inspection. This greatly improves the work efficiency at the grassroots level," said Li Jingtao, an employee of the company.

As of now, State Grid Bortala Power Supply Company has used drones for independent inspection of 110 10-kilovolt lines, 36,700 poles and towers, a total of 1,815.93 kilometers, and discovered and dealt with 10,300 various defects. 

In the next step, the company will explore and deepen the application of drone adaptive technology, strengthen cooperation and exchanges in related fields, draw on advanced experience, better achieve lean operation and maintenance of the distribution network, serve and ensure that the operation safety of grassroots personnel is controllable,work is cost-reduced and efficiency-increased, and fully guarantee the safe and stable operation of the power grid.

China facilitated 110 million cross-border passenger trips in July and August, which marks a year-on-year increase of 30.0% and a 13.0% increase from the May-June period, said the National Immigration Administration on Tuesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday started holding bilateral events with foreign leaders who will attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), scheduled for Sept. 4 to 6 in Beijing.

At 10 a.m., Xi met with Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the Great Hall of the People.

During the FOCAC summit, Xi will attend the opening ceremony and deliver a keynote speech on Sept. 5. He will also host a welcome banquet for the leaders and representatives attending the summit.

Following the 2006 Beijing summit, the 2015 Johannesburg summit and the 2018 Beijing summit, the upcoming summit is another event gathering members of the friendly family of China and Africa. It is also the largest diplomatic event hosted by China in recent years, with the highest attendance of foreign leaders.

Starting from Friday, drones have been used to deliver food and essential supplies to visitors at the Badaling section of the Great Wall, marking Beijing's first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) logistics delivery.

The South Ninth Tower of the Badaling section was opened to the public at the end of 2023. To preserve the original appearance of the Great Wall, no commercial facilities have been set up in this area, making it difficult for visitors to replenish supplies such as drinking water and food, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

To address this problem, the Badaling Great Wall Scenic Area partnered with a delivery platform to launch Beijing's first drone logistics delivery route in the area. Visitors can now scan a QR code with their cell phones to log in to the delivery platform, and they can receive items such as medicine, drinking water and food delivered by UAVs in as little as five minutes.

The drone takes off from the rooftop of the Badaling Hotel. When a merchant in the scenic area receives an order from a visitor, a delivery person will quickly collect the order and bring it to the drone takeoff point. The delivery is then weighed, packaged and handed over to ground personnel who secure it to the drone and execute the delivery instructions. 

During the initial test flights, there were many orders for items like drinking water and emergency medicines, reports said. The drone delivery service operates from 10 am to 4 pm.

After the delivery hours, these drones switch roles to assist with waste management, a task that has traditionally been labor-intensive. 

Using UAVs for delivery improves the visitors' experience by providing quick access to essential supplies like drinking water, food and emergency medicines in remote sections, where traditional commercial facilities are not available. This is particularly important in the South Ninth Tower area, where visitors would otherwise have to endure long walks before obtaining basic necessities. 

In the future, UAV logistics delivery might be considered for more scenarios to address delivery challenges in hard-to-reach areas where delivery personnel struggle to arrive quickly, bringing even more convenience, experts said.