Flyability Adds Wall-Thickness Sensor to Elios 3 Drone for Inside-Tank Inspections

Swiss company Flyability launched a new payload in the US on May 2, 2024, called the Elios 3 UT, which lets its drone measure the thickness of metal walls through brief physical contact with the surface. The launch is taking place as part of a nationwide demo tour and expands the capabilities of a drone first introduced in May 2022 as the first internal-mapping drone with a LiDAR sensor built to withstand impacts.

A drone built to collide, not avoid

The Elios 3 wasn't designed to steer clear of obstacles. It was built to run into them. The drone is wrapped in a protective cage that lets it touch walls, pipes and structural elements inside enclosed industrial spaces such as storage tanks, pressure vessels and ship holds, all without crashing. That design has made it a standard tool for facility operators who need to inspect areas that are barely safe for a person to enter, or where entry would require an expensive facility shutdown.

What exactly does the new payload add

Until now, the Elios 3 has mainly been used for 3D mapping of enclosed spaces using LiDAR. The new payload, called UT (ultrasonic thickness), adds a genuine physical-inspection capability: brief contact with a metal surface lets the sensor measure wall thickness on the spot, a critical data point for detecting corrosion inside tanks and pipelines.

• Product name: Elios 3 UT (ultrasonic thickness payload)
• US launch date: May 2, 2024
• Base model: Elios 3, first launched in May 2022
• Primary use: Measuring metal wall thickness to detect corrosion
• Target environments: Storage tanks, pressure vessels, ship holds and enclosed industrial spaces

Checking for corrosion without draining the tank

Wall-thickness inspection is a common regulatory requirement across industry, but the traditional method carries a high cost: the tank must be drained, entry safety must be verified, and a human inspector must be sent inside to take manual measurements. This process takes the facility out of service for extended periods and often requires expensive personal protective equipment. Combining LiDAR and ultrasonic thickness measurement on the same crash-resistant drone body is meant to reduce that need: a single automated flight can document the geometry of the space while simultaneously quantifying wall degradation, without halting facility operations.

Practical questions still remain for the market to answer on its own: how accurate is the ultrasonic measurement when taken from a hovering drone rather than a hand-stabilized device, and how does it hold up against industry regulatory standards for pressure vessels and energy infrastructure. The nationwide US demo tour looks like an attempt by Flyability to convince field inspection and safety engineers, not just procurement managers, that the technology holds up in practice before it becomes a fixed part of preventive maintenance programs.