Offshore staff
HOVIK/TRONDHEIM, Norway – A drone developed by Scout Drone Inspection (SDI) has performed an assessment of a 19.4-m (63.6-ft) tall oil tank onboard the FPSO Petrojarl Varg.
The video shot by the drone was interpreted in real-time via an algorithm to detect cracks in the structure. Altera Infrastructure hosted the test on the vessel, with the video livestreamed via SDI’s cloud-system back to Altera Infrastructure’s headquarters in Trondheim, where engineers could monitor operations.
SDI has been collaborating with DNV GL on the drone development to address typical challenges of offshore tank inspections.
These can cost the offshore or vessel operator hundreds of thousands of dollars, SDI said, due to the need to take the tank out of service for days for ventilation purposes and to construct scaffolding.
With manned inspections, surveyors may have to climb or raft into hard-to-reach corners of the tank. According to the partners, use of a drone in combination with an algorithm to compile and analyze video footage can cut survey times and staging costs substantially, while also improving surveyor safety.
SDI’s drone uses LiDAR to navigate inside the tank since GPS reception is not available in the enclosed space. The LiDAR creates a 3D map of the tank and all images and video is geo-tagged with position data.
During the FPSO test, a pilot controlled the drone using the drone’s flight assistance functions, but as the technology matures, the company said, it should be able to navigate with increasing autonomy.
DNV GL has been developing artificial intelligence to interpret the video to identify any cracks. A longer-term goal is for the camera and algorithm to detect anomalies below the surface such as corrosion and structural deformations.
06/10/2020
