Drone Inspections

Drone inspections, an opportunity for companies.

Carrying out inspection with drones, contrary to what may seem, is not an investment, but an economy. Since the regulation of Drones was launched in mid-2017, people and companies have begun to understand the real potential of these aircraft and the advantages of replacing conventional methods with fast flights and objectives of multirotor drones.

What are the advantages of conducting an inspection with Drones?

1 – Economy

Currently, to carry out inspections, companies basically need people and equipment such as scaffolding, ropes, helmets, safety nets, among others. Conducting inspections with drones will considerably decrease the need to use these resources, including freeing them up for maintenance activities themselves.

2 – Speed

Drones are equipment that can be ready for flight in a matter of minutes. This is a huge advantage if we take into account the time needed to assemble scaffolding, interdict a certain area for inspection to take place, climb the team, assemble abseiling equipment and finally carry out the inspection at human speed.

A conventional survey service for an offshore oil platform can take an average of 14 days to perform, on the other hand, carrying out inspection with drones, some companies announce that they can perform the service within 4 days.

3 – Availability

Industries such as steel, chemicals, electricity and oil and gas are clear examples where equipment and part of the production are required to be inspected for inspection.

A human could not approach a flame with a very high temperature to perform an inspection unless it was turned off and properly cooled.

The cost figures for carrying out this type of action end up being extremely high and even making inspection impossible in many cases, causing risk to people and production.

Carrying out inspection with drones in these cases would significantly increase the availability of the entire production infrastructure, generating a significant gain in production.

4 – Frequency

Due to the high cost and the technical infeasibility of carrying out conventional inspections, many companies choose to do only one inspection by sampling. In practice, this means not carrying out the inspection on various structures and depending on a series of external factors to guarantee the real safety and smooth functioning of the production infrastructure.

As drones have the power to carry out the inspection in less time, collect information from previously impossible locations and act at a relatively low cost, companies gain the opportunity to inspect the entire area required and also reduce the time between one inspection and another.

5 – Security

According to data from the Ministry of Social Security, in 2020 there were 985,405 occupational accidents in the UK and 2,096 of these died on the job.

This statistic is worrying for the government and companies, which struggle annually to reduce the number of accidents by providing training, awareness and investing in safety mechanisms.

Certainly, places that pose risks to people, offer opportunities for using drones. Conducting drone inspections of high, unhealthy locations or where there is a risk of electric shock, helps to reduce accidents at work and the liability claims that companies have to pay annually.

In this way, the job security areas of small, medium and large companies have become increasingly interested in the use of drones for inspections.

6 – Information

The inspection with Drones can provide a number of new data that will assist companies in making decisions.

These inspections are no longer based solely on aerial images, drones can still use thermal sensors, gas sensors, cameras with very high-quality zoom and even generate three-dimensional models to measure structures and even identify small cracks and anomalies invisible to the naked eye.

Currently, applications with artificial intelligence have also grown amid the solutions for inspection with drones. In this case, drones can automatically identify problems that previously their operators could not yet identify during the flight, or software can later process these images to point out the flaws and generate reports on the conditions of the inspected location.

Where can I apply for a drone inspection?

There are many opportunities for inspection with drones, such as:

• Inspection of facades of buildings, factories and condominiums;
• Inspection of roofs, chimneys, exhaust fans and ventilation pipes;
• Inspection of bridges, viaducts and walkways;
• Inspection of power towers, antennas, cell towers, radio and TV;
• Inspection of highways and railways;
• Inspection and monitoring of works;
• Inspection of wind farms and solar energy farms;
• Inspection of onshore and offshore oil and gas platforms.

In general, drones have an excellent acceptance in all situations of difficulty and risk for human action.