Drone Inspection Services

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are finding applications in an increasing number of industries. Intertek has added the use of drone and robotics to create an inspection program capable of acquiring data that would eliminate working in hazardous locations (flare tip, at height, rope access, confined space, offshore under platform, etc.) and costly additions such as scaffolds, manlifts, downtime, and personnel hours. Thanks to the data collected by drones, key energy stakeholders now have more actionable insights into energy-generating equipment, projects, and operations, empowering them to make smarter decisions.

ACTIVITIES

Inspections & Mapping

Inspections and mapping services for cell towers, cooling towers, oil and gas infrastructure, solar farms, wind farms, power lines, and nuclear power plants.  

The drones are equipped with obstacle avoidance capabilities and can navigate very close structures, allowing them to capture minute details. They can take high-resolution images or video that clearly show cracks, damage, misplaced wires and other defects at elevations and angles that humans cannot access or maneuver. This allows for collection of more comprehensive data without exposing the inspection team to risks.

Confined Space Tank Inspections

Accessing and inspecting the confined spaces in the oil and gas industry, construction sites and other facilities can be challenging. You no longer have to send personnel into unsafe areas or dangerous confined spaces. Drones are designed to easily navigate and operate safely in a wide range of confined spaces while performing the inspection at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods. 

Thermal Imaging

Thermal imaging detects leaks, faulty structures and energy loss in a fraction of the time it would take to manually inspect a property. Using drone thermal imaging can detect an area that may be prone to malfunction in the future.

HSSE 

Safety and Hazardous analysis both visually and by the emerging AI technology for automated analysis.

Digital Twin Creation 

Create a base set of data to aid the initiation of the Digital Twin data set.

3D Model Creation/Enhancement 

When there is no 3D Model available Intertek will be required to supplement the gap of information by using a UAV operation. The resultant photographic or laser data captured shall be processed into the appropriate Mesh or Point Cloud file that can be used for viewing in Digital Twin and as an input to build a 3D model. For this the Point Cloud needs to be converted to LFD format.

Emissions 

Heat (Infra-red) and Gas detection:  This may be required to be processed locally for actionable outcomes and fed into the Digital Twin as a record.

Turnaround (TA) / Shutdown 

This may be the primary business purpose for creating a 3D Model, to enable 4D planning with the Digital Twin as the secondary purpose.

4D Technology 

PoC (Path of Construction) combination of 4D with Reality Mesh.

Brownfield Project 

A project that executes as part of an upgrade on a live Asset, this may have pre-shutdown, shutdown and post shutdown scopes. Thus, this may include PoC and detailed TA scope.

Decommissioning Project 

A project that is removing a unit or whole asset (typically offshore facility) to a remote yard for recycling.

METHODOLOGY

Intertek will utilize one or more of the following methodologies to collect Photogrammetric, Thermal and/or LiDAR data appropriate to the requested Scope of Work for each operation:

• Aerial RGB image capture for Ortho View
• Aerial RGB360 image capture
• Aerial RGB image capture for Point Cloud/Reality Mesh
• Localized aerial image capture for Corrosion Analysis (AIR project)
• Aerial image and video capture for use in Hazardous Analysis Software
• Aerial RGB and Infra-Red image and video capture for Inspection
• Aerial RGB image and video collection for Emissions
• Aerial Infra-Red image and video capture for Inspection 
• Internal and Confined Space RGB image and video capture.
• Aerial Optical Gas Investigation image and video capture for Emissions
• Aerial LiDAR (Laser) data collection for Point Cloud/Reality Mesh