Unmanned Helicopters Automate Inspections in the Oil Industry

Netherlands based unmanned helicopter manufacturer, High Eye Unmanned Aviation, introduces a new twist in automating oil industry inspections

An RPAS, or remotely piloted aircraft system, adds unique flexibility to the industry’s non-destructive evaluation (NDE), pipeline right-of-way inspections and other operations and delivers capability that manned helicopters and even fixed-wing unmanned systems cannot offer. Their easy launch and recovery capability, long endurance, low operating costs, as well as the ability to hover for extended periods of time while providing operators with: extensive imaging, data collection in concert with other inspection equipment, recording in HD, IR and other spectrums, make it an ideal platform for a wide range of operations.

High Eye helicopters have been used in 2011 by Shell Oil, Dutch police, French navy, and various Hollywood film & television producers.