A Guide To How Drones Are Used For Inspections

What Is a Visual Inspection and Why Is It Important?

Inspection that was once conducted with the help of eyes in traditional times has taken a toll with the help of drones. Drone inspections are being taking place in all fields that need visual inspections. Inspecting places that are high and out of range from human eyes are the ones that drones carry out easily. For example, inspecting a cell tower which becomes difficult with humans involved in the entire process. But this process can be reduced by twice the time if they can be performed by drones. 

Visual inspections aren’t about saving money but lives.

Inspections conducted earlier were costly and extremely dangerous. This involved risking lives of the people involved in the setup. Drones have changes the perspectives of people doing inspections. Not only have the procedures become cost effective but they save a lot of time too. Cell tower, regions are now just a matter of few hours. 

Let’s first get into understanding what does drone inspection mean and why is it so important!

It gets difficult to keep a check on tall cell towers or huge towers while one climbs on the rope, builds a scaffolding or even get around pressure vessels just to check their weekly maintenance. So this is exactly where drones step up and provide pictures and videos which help in catering people’s needs. Drones are sent at a greater height for aerial inspections where checking the cell towers or wind turbines becomes easier. These inspections are done to keep a proper check on the equipment’s of the company asses and making sure the processes are in check. This is also a way of avoiding further explosions and life threatening problems. Because visual inspections aren’t just about saving money and efforts but also about saving lives. 

As we are trying to understand that drone inspections (aerial inspection) can make wonders we also need to understand that not all inspections are visual. Some of them involve adding sensors to the unmanned vehicles that can sense the temperatures of the regions that are getting sensed. This involves adding multispectral sensors that can sense leaking and fires priors. 

Benefits of Drone Inspections

Apart from just saving the money that is spent on the flying of drones on the site and aerially inspecting the regions, drone inspections also tend to provide tones of benefits. Let’s dive deep into some of them,

• Reducing the potential risks that are on the table if all of this happens under human supervision. 
• Saving the downtime that is involved in the process of shutting down the pressure or vessels before inspection can be cut off with the help of drones. Because, stopping any kind of processes during inspections involves loss of progress and revenue at that time period.
• Cutting the insurances given to the employees because the entire process is being carried out by drones. So the corresponding insurances can be reduced and good industrial drone inspection can be conducted.
• Getting better records of the data that is collected via aerial inspection services.

Drone Inspections by Industry

The process runs in two steps. The first is inspect then repair. The inspection being the first step helps in analyzing the details of structure and repair becomes the confident cure to the damage. All this happens in utmost perfection and detail so that no mistakes happen. 

Inspections happen in various different places and different situations. Some of these include: 

• Infrastructural inspection (Bridge Inspections)

• Mining inspections

• Oil and Gas

• Turbine, Power line, Phone Mast and Pipeline Inspections

• Flare Stack Inspections

• Indoor Inspections

• Off Shore Inspections

Let’s dive into learning about few of the aerial inspection services in detail. =

Infrastructural inspection (Bridge Inspections)

When it comes to infrastructural aerial inspection services that involve inspecting things that are majorly, anthropogenically built or majorly similar these are the things that require drones, flying at different elevations, as well as inspections done in extreme details. The realm of construction and its industry has been quickly expanding which has a lead where is newer technologies step in. Drone inspections have tremendously helped in tiring operations of not just inspections but monitoring large infrastructure as well as construction sites. Drones for infrastructure inspection like that of bridges and roadways or even Railways are easily carried out without hindering any other industry facets. The analyses of the data that has been collected by drones basically helps in eliminating any future hazardous occurrences as well as predicting of significant risks. This eventually turns out to be a process that is not just helpful for the people who are eventually going to reside in these infrastructural regions, but also for the people who work at building such site.

Mining Inspections

The significance of mining in all industries is arguably increased and is considered to be a vital component of all industries. When it comes to the morning tones of regions, aerial inspections conducted by human eye on these enormous mining sites which involves inspecting storage tanks, the sites and the equipment’s it tends to be a tedious task. Does as a means of improvement and progressive terms, drones are used in mining inspections, not just for providing accurate data but also for complete aerial inspection services and visualization that our cost-effective and l less time consuming. The intelligent sensors and the mobility of the another vehicle helps in acquiring data which is full of extreme precision and eliminates the future problems that can possibly occur at mining sites.

Oil and Gas Inspections

When it comes to talking about the oil and gas industry, it becomes very difficult to face the challenges and overcoming in them and producing data full of precision. It is the aerial inspection services that tend to offer easy and simple inspections which also provide agility in the entire process as well as monitoring and serving of oil. Rigs helps in further mapping the data for operational measures.

Indoor Inspections

Indoor aerial inspections services are generally the ones that are difficult as compare to the Outdoor inspections. use drones that generally fly in areas that are covered with four walls. It gets extremely difficult to manage the inspection as well as the drone at the same time. Technology progressing has helped in the process of indoor inspections and made them highly convenient. In earlier times all this happened in extreme high or low temperatures with human surveillance. Now with the advent of technology, drones can survive extreme temperatures as well as produce accurate data at the same time.

Off Shore Inspections

Offshore aerial inspections are helping in mitigating lost revenue, capturing valuable data and ensuring safety and security for the people working at these dangerous sites. With the help of thermal and LIDAR data, one can analyses the radio metric temperature readings taken with infrared sensor as well as understanding exact distances and shapes taken with light detection and ranging to create point clouds.

The Best Inspection Drones

Now that we have understood where and how the aerial inspections are being done, we will get into the drones that carry out these operations. There are different kinds of drones for industrial inspection that are involved in different kinds of inspections according to their features and ability to capture the accuracy of data. in some cases, the balance between affordability and quality is been taken into consideration while in some places, the tolerance features of the camera is looked after. Let’s get into the specifications of the process and the drawings that are specifically used for different types of inspections.

• Flyability’s Elios 3 for Internal Inspections
• DJI Matrice 300 Drone for External Industrial Inspections
• DJI Phantom 4 Pro
• Yuneec’s H520
• Flyability’s Elios 3 for Internal Inspections

Flyability’s Elios 3 for Internal Inspections

When it comes for tough and rigid indoor inspections and a drone is made to fly in confined spaces, the Flyability Elios 3 is the one that can be fully trusted for accurate results. It is a drone that is generally surrounded by a cage and is extremely collision tolerant and is ideally professional for inspections that work in tight spaces and hard to reach internal work spaces.

DJI Matrice 300 for External Inspections

External aerial inspections are generally the ones that are done in regions that are open and the drone has a lot of space to move. In such situations, the Matrice 300 is the good to go drawn when it involves collecting data which is compatible with several types of payloads and includes high-quality cameras with exceptionally zoom functionality. Generally, when external inspections are taking place, it is this drone that is highly relied upon for fulfilling the current standards of the drone industry.

DJI Phantom 4 Pro

For roof inspections where affordability and quality are the two points that are majorly taken into consideration. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro is the drone that provides a perfect balance, as well as it is the one that is equipped with a 4K camera, precision as well as has an amazing battery life which helps in collecting accurate data for visual data of roofs.

Yuneec’s H520

Inspection is that in world those are wind turbines and cell towers are generally carried out by Yuneec’s H520 which has different types of cameras like the E90 CHO and E50. It has a battery life of almost 30 minutes and provides the ability to shoot videos in 4K with extreme precision.