Enclosed-space drone approved as inspection tool

The indoor inspection drone Elios 2 has been given the seal of approval by RoNik Inspectioneering, a Dutch company that performs visual and ultrasonic inspections using wireless robotics.

Elios 2 is a product of the Swiss robotics company Flyability, which was founded in 2014 with the aim of “turning drones into real partners for humans”. It has been designed to handle the tasks that more traditional drones would find difficult or impossible.

UK supplier COPTRZ claims it is “the single best drone for indoor inspections currently on the market, providing safe operations in a variety of both open and confined locations providing data that would otherwise be unreachable”.

COPTRZ has been offering Elios 2 since its release in May this year, working with clients such as Severn Trent Water, which has reported savings of over £750,000 since the instigation of the Elios 2 to its practices.

Steve Coulson, COPTRZ managing director, commented: “This is fantastic news for the surveying and inspection industry as well as UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] pilots.” Using the Elios 2, he said, “will massively decrease the time taken for inspection tasks and provides the most enhanced data available on the market”.

Industry observers say drones could boost UK GDP by £42bn in the next decade and create 628,000 new jobs.