In a recent field trial at the RelyOn NUTEC test facility in Trondheim, Norway, ScoutDI's Scout 137 tethered drone system completed a fully automated surface scan of a large industrial tank in 1 hour and 19 minutes. During the run, the drone captured 4,516 high-resolution images and generated a live 3D point-cloud model at the operator station, giving the team a clear, real-time view of scan progress across the tank wall.
The trial shows that for confined structures such as large storage tanks, industrial drones are no longer limited to visual inspection alone. With standardised flight paths and consistent data capture, they can also provide the baseline data needed for later review, condition comparison and long-term trend analysis.
Automated surface scan: more efficient, more controlled tank inspection
The automated surface scan feature was released last year and is now a core tool for many industrial clients performing tank inspections. During this in-tank operation, the drone filled the 3D point cloud zone by zone and layer by layer, while operators could follow the scan sequence in Scout Portal, keeping full visibility over coverage across the entire tank.
Setting up the feature takes about one minute. Operators only need to mark reference points at the top and bottom of the tank wall and define the horizontal step distance. Once the scan starts, an automatic distance-lock function keeps the drone at a constant safe stand-off from the tank surface, adapting to vertical walls, curved shells, hopper slopes and other non-standard industrial geometries — so the feature is no longer limited to purely cylindrical tanks.
Standardised, repeatable scans that support asset trend analysis
The core value of automated inspection goes beyond operational convenience. The flight path is defined once and repeated identically on every subsequent visit, so data collection follows a highly consistent standard. That consistency is the foundation for tracking tank corrosion, coating degradation and structural deformation over time. Only when each inspection follows exactly the same capture logic can multi-cycle data be compared side by side — enabling AI-based defect analysis and predictive maintenance further down the road.
Practical value: better inspection efficiency, significantly shorter schedules
The automation is not intended to replace human oversight. Operators still monitor the drone throughout the run; automation simply removes repetitive manual piloting. In practice, that translates into a clear efficiency gain. In an earlier project at the Stovanfossen hydropower dam, the same feature increased the effective inspection area per day by 50% and cut the schedule of a single inspection zone by 40 days, delivering strong efficiency and cost benefits.
From storage tanks and dam faces to silos and other large confined industrial structures, Scout 137's automated surface scan is reshaping how non-destructive inspection is performed in confined spaces — standardised, fully covered and easier to operate.
Closing thoughts
For large industrial structures such as storage tanks, silos and hydropower dam faces, traditional manual inspection often struggles with large volumes, repetitive route planning and inconsistent data standards. Scout 137's automated surface scan helps clients cover large areas in a shorter time and, through unified paths and point capture, provides a solid data basis for multi-cycle condition comparison, corrosion trend judgement and maintenance planning.
Tecway Maritime will continue to follow ScoutDI's applications across storage tanks, ship compartments, FPSOs, silos and other large industrial structures, and provide clients with safer, more efficient and more standardised industrial drone inspection solutions.
If you would like to learn more about ScoutDI industrial drone case studies and relevant application scenarios, please feel free to contact us.