Revolutionising work at height

Mina Kamel, CEO and co-founder of Voliro Airborne Robotics, discusses the revolutionary potential of flying inspection robots for storage tanks eaking storage tanks cause severe damage to the environment, not to mention asset downtime and reputational risk for asset owners. All these potential risks can be avoided with regular inspections. Yet traditional inspection methods come with their own costs and challenges. Regular inspection of ageing infrastructure such as storage tanks, silos and pipes is crucial in order to maintain their performance and safety with minimum capital outlay. These inspections are often in difficult to reach areas and require placement of sensors in contact with the structure to gather more information about the material thickness and the internal structural integrity. Non-destructive testing (NDT) typically requires rope access teams, construction of scaffolding or bringing in crane trucks. All of this is costly, time-consuming and exposes workers to hazards. Furthermore, these laborious inspections often lead to a significant downtime of the plant and thus cause further costs. Voliro believes that flying inspection robots have the potential to...