Flyability Elios 3

Caged and collision-tolerant, the Flyability Elios 3 is made to fly where inspectors would rather not enter: tanks, boilers, mines and sewers. According to the manufacturer, it is 48 cm wide and 38 cm high, weighs 1,900 g (2,500 g maximum take-off weight) and flies for more than 12.5 minutes, or up to 17 minutes with the high-capacity battery. LiDAR-based SLAM keeps it positioned without GPS and builds a 3D map during the flight, while a 4K camera (3,840 × 2,160 at 30 fps), a radiometric thermal camera and 16,000 lm of lighting record the inspection data.

Typical missions: inside tanks, boilers and pressure vessels, mine galleries, tunnels, sewers, nuclear facilities and water treatment plants. Optional payloads add survey LiDAR, ultrasonic thickness measurement, radiation and gas sensing, and a tether unit supplies power from the ground. Before buying, check access openings against the 48 cm width, compare dust and moisture with the IP44-equivalent protection stated by the manufacturer, and plan pilot training and confined-space permits.

In this range, the CUES Steerable Pipe Ranger II and SROD S300EHD crawlers inspect pipe runs on a cable; the Elios 3 covers chambers, shafts and vessels no crawler can reach, and jobs needing a 3D model. Flyability was founded in 2014 near Lausanne, according to the company. Robot Distribution backs your first missions with pilot training.