Q&A WITH TERRA INSPECTIONEERING

StocExpo presenter Marien van den Hoek, co-founder and commercial director of Terra Inspectioneering, explains why you need drones and robotics HOW DID TERRA GET STARTED WITH DRONES? After working for big companies in the process industry for more than 40 years, I started my own company in 2012, because I had a vision that in the new era of inspections in dangerous confined spaces, we should replace the people with robotics. It’s very, very difficult to make changes in the process industry and initially take-up was low. Acceptance was hindered by legislation, which is far behind what you can actually do with drones. In 2016 I came together with two other companies and we founded a company called RoNik Inspectioneering. We had three sets of expertise. One company specialised in inspections compliance with the rules and regulations for the process industry. One company was a start-up company developing drone hardware and software for the process industry, because normal commercial drones are not suitable. And then there was myself. After many years I know all the big customers in the industry and I had my network. By bringing those three elements together we could give our...