Storage tanks, such as oil tanks, are commercially used worldwide. Storage tank inspections are an important procedure; in the situation where the tank is damaged or fractured, highly flammable oil may leak out, contaminating the environment and potentially causing an explosion in the presence of a spark or fire. To eliminate the hassle and danger faced by manual inspectors, Performance Rotors produces drones to conduct oil tank inspections.
Problem: Tedious Oil Tank Inspection Process
Identifying defect locations in confined space bulk storage oil tanks from drone inspection videos for reports is a pain point for various drone inspection, taking up to 80% of the inspection time. The manual way is time-consuming, tedious, and confusing, due to poor synchronisation of directions in the videos and the actual orientation of the drone with respect to tanks.
Project Overview
To improve upon the current efficiency of drone oil tank inspection, our solution seeks to refine control of drones to streamline data collection and processing in oil storage tank inspections. A vision subsystem is integrated on top of the drone, comprising of an onboard computer and RGB camera that allows the drone to collect more in-depth data of the surroundings. The data is then run through a SLAM algorithm (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) to produce a 3D map. The 3D map of the oil tank interior produces better visualization for the inspector, allowing for much more efficient identification and localisation of defects.