When carrying out drone inspections in confined and narrow spaces, the abundance of beams, corners and protruding structures means that LiDAR blind spots can easily lead to collisions. To address this long-standing industry challenge, the Scout 137 has introduced full-coverage Virtual Cage anti-collision in firmware V2.4.0, reshaping the safety framework for flying in enclosed environments and making complex inspection scenarios safer and more reliable.
The limits of traditional collision avoidance
Conventional drone collision-avoidance systems rely heavily on the live field of view of the LiDAR sensor and can only react to obstacles the sensor is currently able to detect. The moment a structural member or corner enters a LiDAR blind spot, the aircraft loses awareness of that obstacle and the risk of an accidental impact rises sharply. This is a key reason why incidents continue to occur during inspections in tight spaces.
A new approach: full 3D mapping that eliminates blind-spot risk
The Virtual Cage feature breaks through these technical limitations. It builds on the drone's 3D panoramic map of the environment, wrapping the aircraft in an all-round virtual safety perimeter. During the initial scan, the Scout 137 accurately records the position of every obstacle in the work area — walls, floors, ceilings, steel beams and protruding structures — and stores that environmental information permanently.
Once the environment has been modelled, the invisible Virtual Cage stays around the aircraft throughout the flight. Even when an obstacle temporarily moves out of the LiDAR's live field of view, the drone can still rely on the stored 3D environment data to continuously recognise its position and actively avoid a collision, adding a reliable extra layer of protection for the operator.
Raising the safety standard for confined-space inspection
By moving from purely reactive, real-time collision avoidance to active, memory-based all-round protection, the Scout 137 Virtual Cage closes a long-standing safety gap in confined-space inspection. The result is intelligent, built-in protection that reduces both equipment damage and operational risk, and reinforces the safety baseline for detailed industrial inspections.
If you would like to explore how ScoutDI drone systems can be applied to inspections in ship cargo tanks, FPSOs, storage tanks and other confined spaces, please contact Tecway. We will be glad to provide further product information and technical support.