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Robot ou humain ?

Cell tower inspection

Tower climber inspection vs Drone tower inspection

Estimations modélisées par Whirrwork, pas des faits. Méthodologie · Bilan des prévisions

Humain · Par an276 000 $USClimber inspection
Robot · Par an133 200 $USDrone inspection
Délai de retour sur investissementimmediate
Année de basculedéjàBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper.

États-Unis · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

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Charge de travail
Hypothèse

Towers inspected per month.

Hypothèse

Hours per day.

Hypothèse

Days per month.

Hypothèse

Months per year.

Personnel
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS OEWS May 2025 national median hourly wage, SOC 49-9052.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of total employer compensation cost for private industry workers in June 2026 (ECEC), so total cost = wage / 0.70.

ilostat.ilo.org

Nominal 4.4% a year, 2015-2025 (ILOSTAT hourly earnings).

Prix
Calculé AeroDeploy (drone inspection company)

Midpoint of $800-$1,500 per tower for a climber, as quoted by a drone company.

Calculé Scanixx

Midpoint of $300-$600 average US drone tower rate.

Robot
Hypothèse

Towers that still need a climb (hands-on testing, torque checks, repairs).

Hypothèse

Electricity price per kWh (USD). Check your bill; energy is rarely a big line.

Finances
Hypothèse

Annual financing / discount rate. Nobody publishes yours; 8% is a round mid-2026 commercial borrowing guess.

Hypothèse

Years in the NPV comparison.

Hypothèse

Share of a human service price that is labour (rises with wages). Used to escalate and to adjust US service prices to other countries.

Hypothèse

Share of a robot service price that is labour (pilot, technician). The rest is equipment, which learning curves make cheaper.

Hypothèse

Share of a lease or RaaS fee that pays for hardware (learns down). The rest is service and support (moves with wages).

Download these results (CSV)

Résultats

OptionPar moisPar anPer unit (tower)Coût initialDélai de retour sur investissementBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Humain Climber inspection Référence 23 000 $US276 000 $US1 150 $US— — — —
Robot Drone inspection 11 100 $US133 200 $US555 $US— immediate — 622 677 $US

What moves the answer most

Each bar shows the 5-year NPV of the best robot option when one input moves to the low or high end of its range, with the rest held at your values.

5-year NPV vs baseline: Drone inspection5-year NPV vs baseline: Drone inspectionWorkloadlow value: 2 → 62 268 $UShigh value: 200 → 6 226 766 $USClimber inspectionlow value: 800 → 314 496 $UShigh value: 1500 → 930 857 $USDrone inspectionlow value: 300 → 752 649 $UShigh value: 600 → 492 704 $USWork that stays humanlow value: 0.05 → 695 933 $UShigh value: 0.4 → 439 536 $USFinancing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → 670 308 $UShigh value: 0.12 → 566 170 $USWage growth per yearlow value: 0.0236 → 605 892 $UShigh value: 0.0636 → 640 104 $US622 677 $US0low valuehigh valueSource: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/tower-inspection/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.

Cost per unit to 2035

Real terms (today's money). Robot hardware follows Wright's law; wages follow each country's history. Shaded band: robots-slow to robots-fast scenarios. Estimations modélisées par Whirrwork, pas des faits.

ChartCoût humain par unité (Base), Coût robot par unité (Base), Coût robot par unité (Robots : progrès rapide), Coût robot par unité (Robots : progrès lent). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/tower-inspection/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.0,00 $US500 $US1 000 $US2026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / towerscenario rangeCoût humain par unité (Base)Coût robot par unité (Base)Coût robot par unité (Robots : pr…Coût robot par unité (Robots : pr…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/tower-inspection/). Modelled estimate…

Année de bascule: déjà

What the spreadsheet misses

Sécurité
Tower climbing has one of the highest fatality rates of any job; fewer climbs is the main win.
Qualité
Drones produce 3D models and audit trails; they cannot torque a bolt.
Flexibilité
Climbers can fix what they find on the same trip.
Edge cases
RF exposure, wind and guy wires complicate flights.
Customer experience
Faster turnaround for carriers.
Jobs and redeployment
Climbing shifts from inspection to repair and installation.
Réglementation
Part 107 or equivalent; carrier safety standards for climbers.

Voir aussi

Sources de cette page

Les notes et les sources sont en anglais ; la version anglaise fait foi.

  1. Drone inspection cost vs traditional methods: tower climb $800-$1,500 vs drone $350-$600; roof ladder $300-$800 vs drone $150-$400; solar manual $0.008-$0.012/W vs drone $0.003-$0.006/W AeroDeploy (drone inspection company), 2026 · vendor
  2. Cell tower drone inspection, average US rate $300-$600 per tower Scanixx, 2026-10 · vendor
  3. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
  4. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: wages and salaries 70.0% of private-industry compensation (series CMU2020000000000P) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-06
  5. Mean nominal hourly earnings of employees by sex and occupation (ISCO-08), DF_EAR_EHRA_SEX_OCU_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), from national labour force and earnings surveys, 2025
  6. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): Germany 2022-2025, total labour cost vs wages and salaries per hour Eurostat, 2025
  7. Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
  8. 令和6年賃金構造基本統計調査 (Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2024), table 1 by occupation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (via e-Stat), 2024-06
  9. Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
  10. Average annual wage of employed persons in urban units in 2024 (by position and by region) National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2025-05-20
  11. Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
  12. Wright, T. P. (1936). Factors affecting the cost of airplanes. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 3(4), 122-128 Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936
  13. Nagy, B., Farmer, J. D., Bui, Q. M., & Trancik, J. E. (2013). Statistical basis for predicting technological progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e52669 (62 technologies; Wright's law among the best hindcasters; errors grow with horizon) PLoS ONE, 2013