Abstract
Using aerial platforms for Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) of large and complex structures is a growing field of interest in various industries. Infrastructures such as: buildings, bridges, oil and gas, etc. refineries require regular and extensive inspections. The inspection reports are used to plan and perform required maintenance, ensuring their structural health and the safety of the workers. However, performing these inspections can be challenging due to the size of the facility, the lack of easy access, the health risks for the inspectors, or several other reasons, which has convinced companies to invest more in drones as an alternative solution to overcome these challenges. The autonomous nature of drones can assist companies in reducing inspection time and cost. Moreover, the employment of drones can lower the number of required personnel for inspection and can increase personnel safety. Finally, drones can provide a safe and reliable solution for inspecting hard-to-reach or hazardous areas. Despite the recent developments in drone-based NDI to reliably detect defects, several limitations and challenges still need to be addressed. In this paper, a brief review of the history of unmanned aerial vehicles, along with a comprehensive review of studies focused on UAV-based NDI of industrial and commercial facilities, are provided. Moreover, the benefits of using drones in inspections as an alternative to conventional methods are discussed, along with the challenges and open problems of employing drones in industrial inspections, are explored. Finally, some of our case studies conducted in different industrial fields in the field of Non-Destructive Inspection are presented.
Highlights
In recent decades, diverse industries are progressively employing larger structures, working coherently to perform specific jobs
The primary goal of this paper is to provide a review of the aerial inspection of industrial infrastructures along with case studies, discuss challenges faced by dronebased inspection, and suggest ways to address those challenges
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) are often subjected to various sources of vibrations that can affect the reliability of acquired data: (a) vibrations caused by external sources like strong wind gust, (b) vibrations caused by the maneuvers, (c) vibrations caused by aerodynamic sources like headwinds, (d) vibration caused by the stabilization system itself, and (e) vibration caused by the engines and propellers [63]
Summary
Diverse industries are progressively employing larger structures, working coherently to perform specific jobs. The thermographic survey is a complex process, due to the existence of three modes of energy transfer, as explained in [3]: (a) reflection, in which energy is delivered to an object from the same side that the camera is located; (b) transmission, in which energy is supplied from the opposite side where the camera is located; (c) internal, in which heat is generated internally Visual inspection is another type of inspection, where inspectors use cameras or their eyes to detect and localize possible defects. Rossi et al proposed a drone-enabled fully autonomous gas sensing system using metal oxide sensors to detect and localize gas leaks [8] They installed the system on a DJI hexacopter to evaluate the performance of the sensing platform in the presence of air turbulence generated by the drone’s propellers. PaintCopter was another significant drone designed in 2018 to perform the spray-painting of 3D surfaces in industrial sites [20]
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