Flyability's Elios series features a protective carbon-fiber cage that prevents crashes upon impact, allowing it to fly into high-risk, confined spaces such as storage tanks, boilers, sewers, and mines for safe inspection. Born out of EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne).
Key Features
- Collision-tolerant carbon-fiber cage design
- Stable flight in GPS-denied environments
- High-intensity lighting and high-resolution video recording
- Point cloud reconstruction and defect measurement
- Confined space inspection workflow
Pros
- Replaces high-risk human entry into confined spaces
- High crash tolerance lowers operational stress
- Fully operational indoors without GPS signals
Cons
- High equipment unit cost
- Limited battery life requiring multiple flights for large spaces
- Professional training required for operation
Use Cases
- Internal storage tank inspection
- Boiler and chimney examination
- Sewer and culvert investigation
- Mining and underground space exploration
Editor's Note
In occupational safety statistics, the fatality rate for confined space entry is alarmingly high. A drone that goes in instead of a human doesn't just save costs—it saves lives.
FAQ
Initial inspections can, though confirming defects and performing actual repairs still require human entry. Its core value lies in assessing conditions beforehand to minimize the frequency and duration of hazardous entries.
Can human entry be completely eliminated?
It uses onboard laser distance sensors and inertial measurement units (IMUs) for relative positioning, reconstructing the space during post-processing. While absolute coordinate precision is limited, it is more than sufficient for locating wall defects.
How does it know its location without GPS?