Parrot Anafi Indoor Flying experience

[daws901]

Hi,

I may be required to fly indoors (in a large oil tank for inspections), what experience does anyone have with flying indoors? From a risk mitigation standpoint , I know the Anafi requires a little too much reliance on the GPS but from flying inside my house, it seems to just disable autonomous flight modes. How likely are fly aways if something interferes with it whilst it is indoors?

Thanks

 

[dashSolo]

I fly indoors quite often (16'X12'X12'), the turbulence from the props below 6' will cause drifting but not unmanageable. You just need minor adjustments and confidence to fly all headings. Once you get it airborne keep the throttle movement to a minimum.

If you lack confidence and need GPS, you can buy a GPS indoor repeater, which are cheap and effective.

 

[daws901]

Cheers thanks very much for this!

 

[pmh1nic]

I'm wondering if the large amount of metal in the tank will have any impact on flight characteristics?

 

[daws901]

and...what about wifi reflections?

 

[Liger 1956]

As someone who has been involved, before I retired, in statutory inspections of storage tanks and pressure vessels I am interested in what can be seen on photos/videos taken by the Anafi inside the tank. They are very dark places with temporary artificial lights and the internal surface is not normally very clean. If a meaningful inspection can be carried out remotely then it would save thousands of pounds in scaffolding and manpower.

 

[daws901]

If you can get scaffolding and everything else in there I don't see an issue with getting lights (spotlights/ flood lights for that matter) in there as well. I have no doubt the anafi or any other drone for that matter wouldnt be able to do the job without an external lighting source (unless that was actually on the drone itself - can't imagine what kind of specialist drone would cost for something like that but you can get LED lighting attachments for that kind of stuff)

 

[Liger 1956]

Do you know what type, and size of tank it is? It could be a fixed or floating roof. If it is the latter then there will be temporary columns inside to support the roof. The interior lighting is normally only ambient lighting to see your way around and inspectors would have their own lighting for close examinations. Also although the tanks are normally certified gas free they can be within a COMAH site and subject to DSEAR in the UK. I have had to leave my car keys at reception when being involved in carrying out these types of inspections as they are not certified for explosive atmospheres. I can envisage that reference points would need to be placed on the walls of the tank so that the photos/videos can be referenced to certain areas. That would then allow any areas of concern to be visually assessed or subject to some form of NDT which may require scaffolding.

I am very interested how you get on with this job so please keep us informed.

 

[daws901]

As far as I know they are Oil tanks that are roughly 13.5m width by 20m tall. It is definitely fixed roof. You are probably thinking of the huge industrial oil tanks spanning some 100m across that rise up and down? Based in Guernsey as well so I am not sure on what regulations apply. Thank you for the insight you have provided though!! I'll let you know how it goes, if it goes ahead at all.