By Emily Newton, editor in chief, revolutionized.com
Process industry inspections are a critical part of maintaining an efficient and safe facility. However, conventional approaches are time-consuming and may miss key details. Drones offer a promising alternative.
Industrial inspection drones are a far cry from their simpler consumer counterparts. These enterprise-grade devices feature more precise controls and better cameras and can host a wide range of sensor options for in-depth analysis. Using this equipment to perform facility inspections has several advantages over older methods.
1. New Perspectives
The most obvious advantage of inspection drones is that they can go where humans can’t. In-person assessments of roofs, cooling towers or other high objects may be impossible or impractical, considering falls are one of the most common causes of workplace fatalities. Drones make these surveys much more accessible.
Even if heights aren’t an issue, drones can hover at any point. Combining this flexibility with camera rotations enables inspectors to look at equipment from virtually any angle.
Unlocking these otherwise impossible perspectives makes it easier to spot potential issues. As a result, drone inspections are more comprehensive and reliable than entirely manual alternatives. That reliability is key to avoiding costly regulatory fines or dangerous workplace accidents.
2. Improved Safety
Similarly, drones make process industry inspections safer. The most obvious way is by removing fall hazards, but their safety improvements go beyond height-related risks.
Equipment in some facilities may pose risks to people if they get too close. These hazards include high temperatures, pinching or crushing risks from moving parts, emissions of hazardous fumes or electrical shock risks. Using a drone to inspect this machinery lets inspectors maintain a safe distance without sacrificing survey accuracy.
Facilities would have to temporarily shut down some systems to achieve the same level of safety with in-person inspections. With drones, organisations no longer have to choose between costs and safety. Considering water and waste management industries have the highest number of nonfatal workplace injuries of any sector, that advantage is hard to overlook.
3. Higher Efficiency
Industrial inspection drones are also more efficient than conventional approaches. The most straightforward reason is that these lighter, smaller entities can move faster than humans, but their efficiency benefits go further.
Inspecting large equipment with a drone requires less setup than doing so up close. Inspectors don’t need to erect any ladders, put on fall arrest systems or clear a path to walk to something. Similarly, there’s no equipment to put up after a survey other than the drone itself.
Machine vision algorithms extend these benefits by analysing drone footage in real time. These intelligent models can detect points of concern far faster than the human eye, enabling shorter but still comprehensive scans. In light of how experts recommend condition assessments at least every three years, this speed can lead to significant improvements over time.
4. Cost-Effectiveness
That time efficiency translates into cost-effectiveness. Because process industry inspections take less time when using drones, organisations spend less on labour costs for the duration of the survey. Inspectors can move on to other tasks to complete more in less time.
Drones drive further survey cost efficiency by removing the need for additional equipment. No cranes, safety harnesses, or other access and safety infrastructure is necessary. Purchasing the drone itself incurs upfront expenses, but the resulting efficiency will compensate for these costs over time.
Eliminating the need to shut down industrial processes during inspection leads to even more cost savings. A single hour of downtime can cost millions of pounds, so just one drone-led inspection can yield significant savings compared to a more disruptive manual process.
5. Providing Data for AI Analytics
A less obvious but equally beneficial advantage of industrial inspection drones is that they produce digital data from their surveys. This provides the information necessary for artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to accurately suggest process improvements.
AI is better than humans at pulling insights from data, but it requires a lot to work correctly. Recording this much information manually is time-consuming and introduces risks of human error, jeopardising AI’s reliability. By contrast, drones provide digital data in the form of sensor readings or video footage for AI models to analyse directly.
By analysing drone information with AI, organisations can highlight safety flaws they may have missed or uncover opportunities to improve their facilities or workflows. These AI-driven improvements can yield significant long-term benefits, and it all starts with rapid, reliable data collection.
Drone Process Industry Inspection Best Practices
As these benefits demonstrate, drones are the future of process industry inspections. However, like any technology, they require proper implementation to reach their full potential.
Making the most of industrial inspection drones begins with finding the right model for the business. Companies should start by outlining their needs and restraints. That includes estimated flight times to cover the entire facility, altitude requirements, humidity and temperature sensitivity, budgetary constraints and any needed sensors for specific measurements.
It’s important to keep future scalability in mind, too. Fully autonomous options may not be as common now, but they’re the fastest-growing commercial drone segment and offer further long-term cost efficiency. Capitalising on that potential now and accepting the higher cost could help companies get ahead of competitors in the future.
While drone inspections are inherently safer than in-person alternatives, they carry unique hazards. Thorough pilot training is crucial to minimise these dangers, as are safety steps like informing employees of upcoming surveys and not flying over areas when workers are present.
Drones are also most effective when organisations pair them with data analytics technologies. Implementing machine vision or predictive analytics engines to analyse drone data will make inspection results more valuable. While this innovation involves more upfront costs, it saves money in the long run.
Industrial Inspection Drones Are the Future of the Sector
The industrial drone market may be relatively new, but it’s mature enough to capitalise on. Whether fully autonomous or remotely piloted, these machines make process industry inspections safer, faster and more cost-efficient. They also provide more in-depth analytics potential.
Drones could become the new industry standard as more companies awaken to these benefits. Getting ahead of that trend could be key to remaining competitive in a rapidly evolving sector.
