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Enhancing Safety and Efficiency in Heavy Industries through Drone Technology

Drones have been used for industrial purposes since the early 2000s, when they were first deployed for aerial photography, security surveillance and mapping. Since then, drones have evolved to perform more complex and challenging tasks, such as inspecting heavy industrial assets across several industrial verticals including oil and gas, power generation, mining, maritime and a host of others.

One of the main drivers of this evolution is the improvement in drone capabilities, including flight endurance, flight time, navigational capabilities, stability, maneuverability and advanced autonomy. These features enable drones to access hazardous areas, harsh environments, GPS denied spaces and remote geographic locations.

Another driver is the advancement in sensor technology, such as high definition cameras, thermal imagers, LiDAR sensors, electromagnetic, gas detectors and a variety of UT remote sensing technologies. These sensors allow drones to collect high-quality data and images that can be used for inspection purposes. For example, drones can detect cracks, corrosion, leaks, defects and anomalies in various industrial assets.

The biggest benefit drones provide asset owners and inspections across all the industries where they’re used is the ability to collect high-quality data remotely. Enabling safe, efficient and accurate remote data collection drones help reduce risk, lower costs and minimize downtimes.

When people refer to drone inspection what they mean is using a drone to get data—that’s it. The phrase can be a little misleading, because it implies that the drone is actually doing the inspection. In reality, inspectors collect data with the drone, which is the first step of the inspection.

After collecting the data, inspectors review it. Inspectors typically do data QC and preliminary reviews on-site to ensure they’re getting all the data they need and again in more detail back in the office, carefully going over any potential problem areas. Finally, after collecting and reviewing the data, the inspector makes a report sharing their findings, which can then be used by the asset management teams.

Here are some examples of inspections being carried out by drones:

  ●  Upstream oil and gas. Drones can fulfill a number of visual inspection requirements for topsides and structural integrity programs.  This becomes particularly useful in the offshore environment when eliminating the need for people working at heights, erecting scaffolding or working over water, resulting in marked improvement in cost and risk. In addition to visual inspections, drones equipment with specialized sensors are now capable of fulfilling non destructive testing (NDT) requirements.  Measuring wall thickness of piping and vessels are now possible thus reducing the need to put inspectors at risk.

“An increased frequency in inspections can help you catch potential issues earlier than you would otherwise, leading to savings over time by optimizing the life of your assets.”

  ●  Midstream & downstream oil and gas. Drones can be used to perform a number of visual inspections, leak detection, security, turn around surveillance, pipeline integrity and regulatory compliance.  And similar to the upstream use cases, drones are now being used to perform NDT requirements.

  ●  Power and utilities. Drones can inspect transmission lines, substations, insulation damage, solar panels, hot spot detection, wind turbines and hydroelectric dams for faults, wear and performance.

  ●  Construction and engineering. Drones can inspect a wide range of infrastructure assets including bridges; traditionally engineers would use ropes or mobile platforms attached to vehicles for bridge inspections. Drones now allow safer inspections by capturing footage of infrastructure areas from the air. Drones provide high-resolution images, which can be analyzed using algorithms to detect structural defects. They also create 3D models and infrared images, aiding in concrete delamination identification. This in turn provides detailed images and videos, allowing for thorough quality control assessments of buildings, roads, railways and tunnels for structural integrity, safety and quality.

  ●  Mining and metals. Drones can inspect mines, quarries, smelters and processing plants for productivity, efficiency and environmental impact. Drones streamline the time-consuming process of surveying and mapping mining areas. Having the ability to capture high-resolution imagery, create 3D models and provide accurate topographic data for planning and decision-making. In mining, confined space inspections are critical to detect a wide variety of defects, structural integrity and corrosion. Drones are revolutionizing safety by making confined space inspections safer and smarter.

However, drone inspection applications are not without limitations. Some of the challenges that drone operators currently face include:

  ●  Regulatory and legal issues. Drones must comply with the rules and regulations of the countries and regions where they operate. These may vary depending on the type of airspace, the weight and size of the drone, the altitude and speed of the flight and the data privacy and security requirements.

  ●  Weather and environmental conditions. Drones may be affected by adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow, fog, wind and dust. These may impair the visibility of the drone or the sensor data quality. Moreover, drones may encounter obstacles or interference from birds or complex geometry in close proximity to the target area..

  ●  Human factors. Drones still require human supervision and intervention in some cases. For example, humans will need to monitor the drone's battery level, flight path, data transmission and emergency situations.

  ●  Classified Areas. The oil and gas industry often operates in challenging environments, including highly explosive or hazardous areas. There is no aerial drone that is intrinsically safe. So operating near these areas requires meticulous planning, adherence to regulations and a strong focus on safety and efficiency.

How Drones Help Lower Costs While Increasing Safety for Work in Oil and Gas

The biggest benefits by far in adopting drones for work in oil and gas are safety and savings.

Drones can be leveraged to perform inspection work in the most hazardous and hard to reach locations in a facility, potentially eliminating rope access, scaffolding, confined space entry and working over water. 

Rope access is a requirement in hard-to-reach and typically elevated locations, requiring highly specialized crews with complex ascending and repelling equipment. Erecting scaffolding is people intensive, a major source for dropped objects and highly disruptive to the general work area.  Confined spaces are a major occupational risk, requiring special monitoring equipment for people entering the confined space. Working over water can require a combination of ropes, scaffolding and fall protections, but has the added risk of falling to sea. In most locations, working over water also requires the deployment of a standby watch vessel.     

The time and cost savings that come from using drones for oil and gas inspections are also significant, but may not be as obvious. One of the biggest opportunities is derisking planned outages for major project upgrades or maintenance turnarounds. 

Drones can be used on the front end by surveilling the planned work area and thus giving the onshore execution team a current assessment of asset conditions. During major integrity campaigns, drones can reduce campaign duration by completing the most challenging areas, thus reducing rope access, scaffolding and overwater work, which are more risky and time consuming. Improvements in outage execution can get plants back online faster, which can represent tens or even hundreds of thousands in savings from lost production time.

Savings also come from avoiding the need for scaffolding. Scaffolding is expensive, requires large crews to erect and takes a considerable amount of time, thus consuming high demand bed space. It can cost tens of thousands to erect and then dismantle scaffolding to inspect a single storage tank—and that’s just for one inspection. Drones make it so you don’t need all that scaffolding, representing another way they help you save money.

And because drone inspections are a lot less expensive than in-person inspections, drones allow you to do inspections more often. An increased frequency in inspections can help you catch potential issues earlier than you would otherwise, leading to savings over time by optimizing the life of your assets.