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Forge RoboticsAdvisory & Integration

Industrial drones

Industrial inspection drones for UK sites, matched to the task

Caged indoor drones for tanks and holds, thermal drones for hot spots, docked systems for large outdoor sites and specialist sensor platforms for thickness, gas and mapping. Forge Robotics helps you choose the category, source the right drone for the task, brief an authorised operator, and connect what it finds to the systems your team already uses. We do not sell one make, and we do not fly the drones ourselves.

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Our role

Advice, pilots and integration, not flying services

Most drone inspection pages are written by operators selling flights. This one is written for the person deciding whether a drone is the right tool at all, which kind, and how its findings would be used.

What we do
Match the drone category to your task and assess feasibility on paper. Help you source the right drone for the job on a manufacturer-neutral basis, and select and brief an authorised operator to fly it. Build the project before anything flies, with a supervised test and measures agreed in advance. Then connect what the drone finds to your maintenance, incident or security systems through Forge Anvil.
What we do not do
Fly drones, hold a CAA operational authorisation, or issue certified surveys, NDT results, class survey reports or structural assessments. Those stay with authorised operators and qualified people, and we plan the pilot around them.
Security patrols
We work with our security partner, Macaw Security Solutions, which already uses drones in its security work. Monitoring and response stay with them.
Where we stop
If a drone is the wrong tool, for example a flooded chamber, a zoned atmosphere or a one-off look a pole camera can do, we say so and point to the form that fits.

Categories

Four kinds of industrial drone, four different jobs

Described by function, not by brand. Capabilities vary widely between platforms in each category, so a published figure for one product says nothing about the rest.

Which industrial drone category suits which settingA section through an industrial site. A drone inside a protective cage flies inside a storage tank entered through a manway; a thermal drone flies over the gantry of an outdoor substation; a drone flies out from a dock beside the perimeter fence and returns to it; and a drone holds a contact probe against the wall of a steel vessel.storage tankmanwayoutdoor substationdock · fence linesteel vessel wall01020304

  1. 01Caged indoor drone

    tanks, silos, boilers, holds · close visual in the dark; 3D maps

  2. 02Thermal drone

    substations, roofs, flare stacks · surface temperature patterns

  3. 03Docked system

    perimeters, large open sites · scheduled or alarm-led flights

  4. 04Specialist sensors

    steel walls, stacks, voids · contact thickness, gas, LiDAR

Functional categories, not named products · a supervised pilot settles suitability · flights by an authorised operator

Caged indoor inspection drones

Problems it addresses
Getting a first look inside a tank, silo, boiler, duct, chimney or ship hold without sending a person in or building scaffolding.
Unsuitable for
Explosive atmospheres, flooded or heavily sprayed spaces, strong draughts, hot spaces that have not been cooled, and openings smaller than the cage.
Sensors or payloads
A camera with its own lighting, because enclosed spaces are dark; on many platforms LiDAR for positioning and mapping; optional gas or contact-thickness payloads on some.
What it produces
Video and stills of the interior, often located on a 3D point cloud, so a finding can be found again on the next visit.
Who interprets it
Your inspection or integrity engineer, or the class surveyor for a ship. The flight crew supplies data, not conclusions.

Thermal inspection drones

Problems it addresses
Finding hot spots and temperature patterns across substations, roofs, solar arrays, flare stacks, pipework and tanks from a safe distance.
Unsuitable for
Work that needs a precise absolute temperature, shiny or reflective surfaces, rain, strong wind or low sun that masks the pattern, and indoor spaces.
Sensors or payloads
A radiometric thermal camera, so each pixel carries a temperature value, paired with a visible camera; zoom for close detail from stand-off.
What it produces
Paired thermal and visible images with temperature data, and an anomaly list. It shows where to look, not always why.
Who interprets it
A qualified thermographer, with the electrical or asset engineer who owns the equipment. A ground check may still be needed to diagnose a fault.

Docked outdoor systems

Problems it addresses
Repeat flights over the same large outdoor site on a schedule, or a quick look after an alarm, launched from a dock that charges and shelters the drone (often sold as a “drone in a box”).
Unsuitable for
Indoor or confined spaces, sites without mains power and a reliable network connection, high winds at launch and landing, and heavy specialist payloads.
Sensors or payloads
Usually an integrated visual and thermal camera, sized to the dock. Specialist payloads normally need a larger system or a crewed flight.
What it produces
Scheduled imagery and video, thermal data, maps and alerts, usually in the system maker’s own software unless it is connected onwards.
Who interprets it
Your security or operations team for alarms; asset engineers for inspection findings. Software can flag an anomaly; a person confirms it.

Specialist sensor platforms

Problems it addresses
Measurements a camera cannot give: wall thickness on steel, gas in the air or along a line of sight, or an accurate 3D record of a space.
Unsuitable for
Contact thickness work in wind or on heavily scaled surfaces, gas work where the method does not match the gas, and mapping in featureless spaces without checks.
Sensors or payloads
Contact ultrasonic thickness probes with couplant; point gas sensors, laser methane detectors or optical gas imaging cameras; survey LiDAR.
What it produces
Spot thickness readings with the underlying signal, gas readings or images, and point clouds in standard survey formats.
Who interprets it
An NDT technician for thickness, a gas or leak-detection specialist, or a surveyor. The drone places the sensor; the specialist signs off the result.

Tell us the asset, the access and what the inspection has to decide. The integration review says which category fits, if any.

Request an integration review

Which fits

Start from the task, then check the conditions

A decision table for common inspection and monitoring tasks.

Which drone category fits the task, and what to check before choosing
Your taskCategory to considerCheck firstWrong tool when
Internal visual inspection of a tank, silo, boiler or vesselCaged indoor inspection droneManway size, lighting, gas-free status, temperature, link inside the steelThe space is zoned for explosive atmospheres, flooded, or smaller than the cage
Close-up survey of a ship’s ballast tank or cargo holdCaged indoor inspection drone, with the class society involvedWhether the class society will accept the method, and the inspection plan agreed in advanceThe surveyor needs thickness gauging or a close-up survey without remote techniques
Hot-spot survey of a substation, roof or solar arrayThermal inspection droneEmissivity of the surfaces, weather and sun on the day, load on the equipment, thermographer qualificationYou need a precise absolute temperature, or the surfaces are shiny metal
Repeat flights or alarm response over a large outdoor siteDocked outdoor systemCAA operational authorisation for the flights, power, network, launch area and supervisionFlights must happen beyond sight before an authorisation is in place
Wall thickness on steel at heightSpecialist sensor platform with a contact ultrasonic probeSurface condition, wind, access for contact, and an NDT technician for the readingsYou need full-coverage corrosion mapping rather than spot readings
Finding a gas leakSpecialist sensor platform with the right gas methodWhich gas, and whether the method sees it: a point sensor, a laser methane detector or optical gas imagingThe space itself may be an explosive atmosphere; detection is not protection

Categories, not products. Whether a given platform suits your site depends on its published ratings checked against a survey of the space, then a supervised pilot.

Limits

Seven distinctions that decide most drone projects

Each one can rule a category in or out for your task, which is why we check the task before recommending a platform.

Confined space is not the same as explosive atmosphere

A drone built to fly inside a tank is not thereby safe in a zoned area. Equipment in a DSEAR zone must be of the matching category, and we are not aware of widely available inspection drones certified for hazardous zones. Standard practice is to make the space gas-free and permit it before any flight.

Detecting gas is not protecting against it

A gas sensor on a drone reports what it measures. It does not make the drone, or the space, safe to work in. HSE says of gas detectors that a detector is not a substitute for safe working practices.

A thermal camera does not see everything

It measures radiation from a surface, so emissivity and reflections change the reading. Optical gas imaging sees only the gases its waveband and the temperature difference allow. Neither finds every defect or every gas.

Imagery is not an NDT result or a structural assessment

Photographs and video are evidence. An NDT result, a certified survey or a structural assessment comes from a qualified person applying a method to that evidence, and sometimes needs contact measurement too.

Automated is not unsupervised

The CAA’s principle is that all unmanned aircraft are under the command of a remote pilot, and it says no current system meets its definition of autonomous. A docked system that launches on a schedule still has a remote pilot responsible for it.

Indoors and outdoors navigate differently

Satellite positioning is unavailable or unreliable indoors and inside enclosed structures, so indoor drones position themselves with LiDAR or cameras. An outdoor drone that relies on satellites is not an indoor tool.

A drone is one tool among several

Aerial drones, underwater vehicles, magnetic crawlers and legged ground robots do different jobs. A flooded chamber is ROV work; a walk-in tunnel may suit a quadruped. We compare the forms before recommending one.

The UK rules behind these points are set out in our guides to confined space drone inspection and docked drones and drone security patrols, and for zoned areas in ATEX and hazardous-area inspection robots.

Pilots

We build the project before anything flies

One asset, one inspection, measures agreed in advance. The supervised test that follows ends with a decision, including the decision not to go further.

  1. 01

    Define the task and the decision

    One asset or one route, the inspection it replaces or adds to, and the decision the data must support. Name who will interpret the findings.

  2. 02

    Check feasibility on paper

    Access openings, atmosphere, temperature, wind, link, power and the aviation rules for the flight. We rule out categories that cannot do the job before anyone travels.

  3. 03

    Source the drone and brief the operator

    The right drone for the task, sourced on a manufacturer-neutral basis, and an operator authorised for the flight, selected and briefed on the site, the task and what the data must show.

  4. 04

    Run a supervised pilot with agreed measures

    Coverage against the existing method, what each method found, whether your engineer or surveyor accepts the evidence, recoveries, and time to a usable record. Exit criteria are written down first.

  5. 05

    Connect it to your systems

    Where the findings land, in what format, and who acts on them, connected through Forge Anvil. Scoped before the test, not bolted on after it.

More on how we structure trials: pilot programmes.

Your systems

Where the findings go after the flight

Most drone systems report into their own software, so someone has to notice a finding there and type it into the system that owns the work. That is where drone programmes stall.

Forge Anvil, the integration software we are developing, is built to talk to as many robots as possible, drones included, and pass what they find into the systems you already run. For an inspection or monitoring drone, the connection looks like this:

  • Each finding tied to the right asset record, tank, bay or zone.
  • Images, thermal data or readings attached in the format your maintenance or asset system already accepts.
  • A reading outside agreed limits raising a defect or work order, rather than waiting in an app.
  • For security use, an event passed to the video management or incident system your control room already watches.

What a given drone system can export, and what your systems will accept, decides exactly which connections a site gets, so we confirm that in the integration review rather than assuming it. The four ways robot integration can be done are compared in integrating a robot with the software you already run.

Name the systems the findings must reach. The integration review works back from there.

Request an integration review

Guides

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Does Forge Robotics fly drones or carry out drone inspections?

No. Forge Robotics is a manufacturer-neutral robotics advisory and integration business. We help you choose the drone category for the task, source the right drone for it, select and brief an authorised operator, build the project and a supervised test, and connect the findings to your systems through Forge Anvil. Flights are carried out by an operator authorised for them, and your qualified engineers, surveyors or thermographers interpret the results.

Which type of drone is used for confined space inspection?

A caged or collision-tolerant indoor drone, which positions itself without satellite signals, carries its own lighting and is protected against contact with walls. It suits tanks, silos, boilers, ducts and ship holds that are gas-free and large enough for the cage. It is not suitable for zoned explosive atmospheres or flooded spaces.

Do drone rules apply to flights inside a tank or building?

Since 1 January 2026 the UK drone regulation does not apply to operations in an area that is wholly or mainly enclosed and where no uninvolved person is present. Both conditions must be met. Whether a partly open space, such as a hold with its hatches open, counts as mainly enclosed should be confirmed case by case. Health and safety law, including the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, applies either way.

Are there ATEX certified inspection drones?

We are not aware of widely available inspection drones certified for use in hazardous zones. Under DSEAR, equipment in a zone must be of the matching category. The usual practice is to make the space gas-free, test it and issue a permit before flying. Any claim of certification should be checked against the certificate, the marking and the exact configuration.

Can a drone replace scaffolding, rope access or confined space entry?

Sometimes, for the looking. HSE guidance accepts remote visual inspection in place of entry only where it gives the same results and safeguards as entry would. Contact measurement, repairs and some surveys still need people or other access, and a class surveyor may ask for a close-up survey without remote techniques.

Do docked drones need a pilot?

Yes. CAA guidance is that all unmanned aircraft are under the command of a remote pilot, who may be off site. Flying beyond visual line of sight needs a CAA operational authorisation that covers it, so a docked system that flies out of sight cannot be used routinely until that authorisation is in place.

Can drone inspection data go into our maintenance or security systems?

Usually. Most drone systems report into their own software. Forge Anvil, the integration software we are developing, is built to take what a robot or drone finds and pass it into your existing systems: tying findings to asset records, raising a work order or sending an alert to a security platform. Which connections a site gets depends on what the drone system exports and what your systems accept, which we confirm in the integration review.

Sources

Regulatory and technical statements on this page are drawn from these public documents, read on 30 September 2026. They are general guidance, not advice on any site, flight or permit.

Get started

Start with an integration review

Tell us the asset or site, the inspection or monitoring task, and the systems your team works from. We come back with a written view of which drone category fits, if any, what the rules and the site require, and how the findings would connect. If the fit is real, we build the project: the right drone, a briefed operator, a supervised test and the connection to your systems.

Request an integration review