Industrial inspections often occur in risky areas of a facility, where significant health and safety equipment is required to reduce the risk of injury to human workers. For example, inspecting a non-operational holding tank that had been used to store hazardous waste might traditionally require a well-equipped team of human operators to physically enter the space, capture samples of any remaining material in the tank and visually inspect the interior walls and elements of the tank for signs of corrosion or depredation. Imagine that this tank still contains some level of hazardous material that might require limited exposure within the tank, meaning people have a short amount of time where they can be exposed before having to exit the tank and another person would enter and pick up the work. This is a very real example of an industrial inspection that is dirty and dangerous, where robotics are helping to reduce the risk to human workers and accelerate the inspection process.
Read the full article at Manufacturing.net.