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About
ScoutDI is a Norwegian drone technology company specializing in fully digitalized asset inspection for industrial environments. Their flagship product, the Scout 137 Gen 3, is a tethered drone system engineered for confined spaces, tunnels, offshore structures, tanks, and other indoor industrial assets that are difficult or dangerous for human inspectors to access. The Scout 137 comes equipped with survey-grade LiDAR as standard, enabling precise 3D mapping, anti-collision navigation, and accurate spatial awareness in GPS-denied environments. A 3.5x optical zoom camera with autofocus captures high-resolution visual data, while the unique UTM Payload combines surface cleaning and ultrasonic thickness measurement in one seamless step — eliminating tool swaps and repeat visits. All collected data is automatically location-tagged and accessible via the Scout Portal, a cloud-based platform for reviewing, analyzing, and sharing inspection results. The tethered design provides unlimited flight time — a critical advantage over battery-powered drones — ensuring complete inspections of large structures without interruption. ScoutDI's technology is trusted by major energy and infrastructure operators including Ørsted, Shell, and Equinor. Real-world deployments have demonstrated up to 50% faster inspections compared to traditional methods, significant safety improvements by removing the need for climbers and scaffolding, and dramatically better data quality and coverage. The system is ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 certified, making it suitable for enterprise and regulated industries.
Key Features
- Unlimited Flight Time: Tethered power supply eliminates battery limitations, allowing full, uninterrupted inspections of large industrial structures.
- Survey-Grade 3D LiDAR: Built-in LiDAR enables precise spatial mapping, anti-collision navigation, and accurate location-tagged data collection in GPS-denied environments.
- UTM Payload (Clean & Measure): A unique payload that combines surface cleaning and ultrasonic thickness measurement in one operation, eliminating tool swaps and repeat inspection passes.
- Scout Portal: Cloud-based data platform for reviewing geo-tagged inspection results, generating reports, and sharing findings with stakeholders.
- Autonomous Inspection Capabilities: Proprietary autonomy features enable semi-autonomous missions, reducing operator workload and improving consistency across large-scale inspections.
Use Cases
- Inspecting internal surfaces of offshore oil and gas storage tanks on FPSOs without requiring rope access climbers.
- Conducting visual and structural inspections of offshore wind turbine foundations to improve safety and documentation quality.
- Performing autonomous concrete structure surveys on large hydropower dams, replacing scaffolding-based methods.
- Carrying out drone-based tunnel inspections to assess structural integrity faster and more safely than manual methods.
- Performing ultrasonic thickness measurements in confined industrial spaces using the integrated UTM Payload in a single pass.
Pros
- No Flight Time Restrictions: The tethered design means inspections are never cut short by battery life, enabling thorough coverage of large tanks, tunnels, and offshore structures.
- Improved Safety: Removes the need for human climbers, rope access teams, and scaffolding in hazardous confined spaces, significantly reducing risk.
- High-Quality Geo-Tagged Data: All inspection data is automatically location-tagged and organized in the Scout Portal, delivering consistent, auditable, and easily shareable results.
- Proven Enterprise Adoption: Deployed by major operators including Ørsted, Shell, and Equinor with documented efficiency gains of up to 50% faster inspections.
Cons
- Tethered Operation Constraints: The tether providing unlimited power also limits range and maneuverability in extremely complex or labyrinthine confined spaces.
- Enterprise Pricing: The system is priced for industrial and enterprise buyers; it is unlikely to be cost-effective for small businesses or occasional use.
- Specialized Use Case: Purpose-built for industrial asset inspection — not a general-purpose drone platform, limiting applicability outside its target industries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Scout 137 used for?
The Scout 137 is designed for visual and ultrasonic inspection of confined spaces and indoor industrial assets such as storage tanks, tunnels, offshore wind turbine foundations, hydropower dams, and FPSOs.
How does the tethered design provide unlimited flight time?
Instead of relying on onboard batteries, the Scout 137 receives continuous power through a physical tether connected to a ground station, eliminating flight time limits imposed by battery capacity.
What data does the Scout 137 collect?
The drone captures geo-tagged visual imagery (via a 3.5x optical zoom camera), 3D point cloud data (via survey-grade LiDAR), and ultrasonic thickness measurements using the UTM Payload.
What is the Scout Portal?
The Scout Portal is ScoutDI's cloud-based software platform for accessing, reviewing, and sharing inspection data collected by the Scout 137, with all data automatically geo-tagged for easy navigation.
Which industries use ScoutDI's technology?
ScoutDI serves the oil and gas, offshore wind, power generation, infrastructure, and maritime inspection industries, with customers including Ørsted, Shell, and Equinor.
