intrinsically safe UAV

[Southern Oklahoma]

I work in the natural gas industry and recently my boss asked if my drone (P4) was safe to fly in a potentially explosive atmosphere. The company is looking into using UAV's for inspections and record keeping. I explained mine was not safe for that environment but would research and see what is available.

I can find where there are several in the development stages but cannot find any available at this time. Does anyone such a UAV currently available?

 

[alokbhargava]

What are the requirements for an intrinsically safe UAV?

I know P4 has no parts that generate sparks like DC motors with brushes.

But it's battery has push on type contacts and not screw type, it's temperature can go as high as 170 deg F

Not heard of batteries catching fire during crash though motors smoke ( no fire) if rotors get jammed for long with power on.

If any one of the above cross the limits, one can work on them to make it safe. I believe most of the UAVs available in the market will have similar characteristics.


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[Southern Oklahoma]

I will verify what the requirements are for this environment. Thanks for the information.

 

[Sfgiants24]

I work in an oil refinery, and we have used drones for inspection of equipment that is out of service, and also live flare stacks. Here is an article that gives some insight. It says if using drones on live equipment a gas sensor need to be used to detect hydrocarbon.
Drones cut risk on industrial inspections | Engineer Live

I am also interested in the subject, as is my employer.



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[Sfgiants24]

Look at this one here

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[alokbhargava]

From the above video, we get one definition clear:

Intrinsically safe means minimized ignition risk.

That's what I had thought of. We will need to figure out what are the sensors to do that and how to warn a drone to enter that zone.

In short we need to research on that gas sensing equipment with visual warning indication. We can then hook it up to P4 / higher version to make it intrinsically safe.

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[Brink]

To be 100% intrinsically safe, it would have to have no way whatsoever to communicate back to the transmitter, or to your phone. What a phantom is is mostly intrinsically safe. Being an officer on a Hazmat response team, I have considered this many times with other Hazmat technicians, and we always came to the realization that it is just safe enough to use in a volatile enviroment.

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[Meta4]

I work in the natural gas industry and recently my boss asked if my drone (P4) was safe to fly in a potentially explosive atmosphere. The company is looking into using UAV's for inspections and record keeping. I explained mine was not safe for that environment but would research and see what is available.

I can find where there are several in the development stages but cannot find any available at this time. Does anyone such a UAV currently available?

Here are a couple.
Probably not as refined as a Phantom.
ATEX DRONE LE 4-8X DUAL | Atex Blog
Intrinsically Safe Drone - SEE Forge creators of FAT FINGER

 

[Sfgiants24]

To be 100% intrinsically safe, it would have to have no way whatsoever to communicate back to the transmitter, or to your phone. What a phantom is is mostly intrinsically safe. Being an officer on a Hazmat response team, I have considered this many times with other Hazmat technicians, and we always came to the realization that it is just safe enough to use in a volatile enviroment.

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To be 100% intrinsically safe, the potentially spark producing electronics, including motors, need to be sealed so there is no chance a spark could ignite unburned gas. As far as transmitting, you would be outside the exclusion zone with your RC and tablet, so that's not an issue.


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[Don Ordes]

Does it matter what the Electrical Area Classification is where the drone if flying? It shouldn't have to be any safer than the electrical devices in that area. If there are fired regenerators in the plant area, would the Phantom 4 Pro drone be any less safe pass?