After extensive research and development by our in-house Innovation Hub, Texo Drone has successfully developed and deployed the Texo UAS Thickness Gauge; designed for thickness measurements to be performed at height without the need for traditional manual access solutions.

A first for the industry – the custom-built UAS is designed with state-of-the-art multiple propulsion and flight control system redundancies to ensure the safest operation even in the event of failure of a thrust component or flight controller.

The system has been designed to undertake a wide range of thickness measurement applications and is able to ascertain precise measurements on both flat and curved surfaces, including external and internal FPSO, fuel tank storage vessels etc.

This UAS integrated UT payload has been deployed across a wide range of sectors, including both offshore and onshore Oil & Gas, wind turbine structures, telecoms and maritime assets.

With the ability to indicate, via a unique spot identification system, all UT missions are precise in acquisition and instantaneous in capture and delivery. The measurements are transmitted wirelessly in real time to a PC or laptop up to 300 metres away.

All UT UAS operations are overseen by Texo’s accredited and certificated NDT payload technicians, ensuring accurate data set capture and validation of acquired measurements.

Inspection data is combined with a precise photogrammetric visual overlay of the completed survey, pinpointing exact measurement locations on the structure/surface to an accuracy of sub 10mm – therefore providing clients with verified inspection data.

The system benefits from a number of highly advanced features including: Multiple Echotechnology ensuring just the metal substrate is measured.

All probes have Intelligent Probe Recognition (IPR), which automatically adjusts settings in the gauge at the same time as transmitting recognition data – the result is a perfectly matched probe and gauge for enhanced performance.

Additionally, the Automatic Measurement Verification System (AMVS) ensures only true measurements are displayed, even on the most heavily corroded metals.

All of these enabled technical features ensure seamless transition between manual and UAS inspection methodology.

Bespoke dedicated software, acts as the interface between the UAS and the inspector’s PC allowing storage of measurements from the gauge in either a grid or string format, which can be used later in other proprietary programs.

In addition to our external UAS UT systems, we are currently in advanced field trials of our Internal UAS Integrated UT Gauge.

This UAS UT system has been specifically designed for internal measurement and inspection scopes, with bespoke illumination and flight control.

Field trials will be completed end Q2 18 and deployed and cleared for commercial mission scopes Q3 2018.