Drone based inspection services in industrial contexts: Risk assessment and market opportunities

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an emerging technology with the potential of introducing disruptive innovation in a large number of industrial and civil applications. In particular, many studies have highlighted the achievable advantages for “three Ds” (i.e., dull, dirty, or dangerous) missions, which actually represent their natural market niche. A huge potential market in such sense is constituted by high-risk industrial installations including Oil&Gas, chemical, power generation, shipbuilding, etc. where significant improvements can be achieved in terms of safety and ergonomics. This paper proposes a comparison between traditional inspection approaches and innovative drone-based services in high risk industrial contexts, with the objective of obtaining a clear picture of the safety risks involved.