Q INSPECTION TECHNOLOGY
THE 24 T
DRONE SQUAD
With four of the latest models in its arsenal, the
he twelfth of October 2017 was a gusty day in Gdynia, Poland, and outside the DNV GL station, Leszek Alba was waiting for the wind to change. As one of the classifi cation society’s 16 specialist drone
surveyors, he was preparing to fl y the production-built Custom drone to assess the stability of its video transmission – an essential requirement for inspecting remote structural components in tanks and cargo holds. DNV GL carried out its fi rst production
drone survey in June 2016, and has now become one of the leading providers in this fast-developing and exciting new fi eld. “When we started out, we wanted to fi nd
a safer, cheaper and more effi cient way of fulfi lling the requirements of close-up surveys,” explains Cezary Galinski, senior principal surveyor and head of the DNV GL drone squad. “During these inspections, a surveyor has to be able to touch a surface to check the condition of the material. So, instead of taking the surveyor to the component, we are now able to bring the component to the surveyor – on 4k high-defi nition video.” Galinski’s team is headquartered in Gdynia
but also works out of regional hubs in Dubai, Shanghai, Singapore and Houston. So far, the team has conducted more than
25 drone production surveys all around the world. Typical ships include tankers, bulkers and, more recently, semi-submersibles and
jack-ups. “These are the vessel types that require close-up surveys,” says Galinski. DNV GL now has four drone types in its
arsenal – the Custom drone, the DJI Phantom, the Mavic drone, and the Flyability Elios drone – each with different capabilities and areas of application. The one thing they all have in common is that they were modifi ed in Leszek Alba’s workshop. This cellar room, fi lled with carefully catalogued shelves, spare cables, batteries, soldering irons and a variety drones in different stages of construction, is where DNV GL customizes off-the-shelf drones to make them fi t for inspection purposes. “Commercially available drones are
designed and built for users who fl y them outside in open spaces and shoot footage of objects below,” says Galinski. “So, one of the fi rst things we have to do is change the drone’s software settings for adjusting the camera angle. This enables us to fi lm objects that are in front of – or actually above – the drone.” Adding protective gear is the next step.
“We have to fl y the drones close to ship structures, therefore we developed a special cage for the DJI Phantom drone. And we equipped the Custom drone with a protective wire to shield its propellers, and the camera and lighting systems that we attach to it to enable it to operate in dark spaces,” says Alba. Galinski’s survey team has also fi tted the
Custom production drone with a zoom camera, which means that, instead of having to fl y within distances as short as one metre from
Ambitious: Cezary Galinski, head of DNV GL’s international drone squad, based in Poland
the structure, the drone can now take high- defi nition images from much further away. This is particularly important when
surveyors need to fl y the drone over open seas and ocean, and proved to be essential to the success of DNV GL’s fi rst offshore drone survey, which was carried out in July 2017 on the semi-submersible vessel Safe Scandinavia – a tender support vessel (TSV) owned and operated by Prosafe to support Statoil’s drilling operations off the coast of Norway. “It was a great opportunity for our survey
team to demonstrate the Custom drone’s ability to check the condition of remote external components in very challenging offshore conditions,” explains Galinski.
DNV GL drone team has mastered how to survey ship structures – and now has its sights set fi rmly on offshore surveys
DNV GL’s drone team has carried out 25 production surveys around the world
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