![Drone flight - tank survey - DNV GL](/siteassets/images/contact-images/ind_189_key-image_1.jpg?mode=crop&scale=both&quality=90&format=webp&width=768)
- Tanker
- Bulk
- MPV
Using drones to speed-up surveys
DNV GL has been using camera-equipped drones in surveys since 2016. The concept, the technique and the equipment were developed by the surveyor team in Gdansk in response to customer enquiries. Go on a drone survey with them.
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7 Slides
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03 June, 2019
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![Drone flight - tank survey - DNV GL](/siteassets/images/contact-images/ind_189_key-image_1.jpg?mode=crop&scale=both&quality=90&format=webp&width=768)
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Using drones to speed-up surveys
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It is an early spring day in Gdansk. On board a dry-docked shuttle tanker two DNV GL surveyors, Leszek Alba and Tomasz Żarski, are climbing down a manhole into an empty ballast water tank to do a drone survey.
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It took the DNV GL Gdansk team plenty of practice time and six months of engineering work to get to this point. Flying a drone inside a ship’s cargo hold or cargo tank is tricky. “We had to learn how to configure the settings to make the drone predictable inside a steel compartment,” says Alba.
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Alba pours contact gel into a reservoir on the drone, then fires up the device while Żarski watches the laptop screen, his hand on the switches of a remote operating panel.
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Alba carefully pilots the drone up into the air and against a transverse beam while the gel drips down onto the ultrasonic measurement head.
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The moment the device touches the beam, Żarski activates a device which holds the drone in place so the measurement head makes contact with the steel structure. Then he flips another switch to take an ultrasonic reading.
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It takes only seconds to reach the next spot and take another measurement. Manoeuvring the drone from one measurement point to the next is precision work that requires utmost concentration.
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Each time the laptop screen shows the thickness reading transmitted by the drone. Everything looks fine and within spec.