Could Drones Replace Tower Climbers?

Could drones replace tower climbers? Could one of the most dangerous and highest paying blue collar jobs in the cell and utility industries be going the way of typewriter repairmen? Drones and robots seem to be the future.

“We will take tower climbers off the towers. That’s our goal and we expect it to fully occur within five years,” said [Lee] Priest [CEO of ETAK]. He said some of ETAK’s drones already have robotic arms that can touch the towers. “We are also looking at remote robots that can climb towers,” he said. “They can use the safety climb as well as the pegs to get up towers.”