Is it a good idea to use a quadcopter with a thermal imager to detect oil and gas leaks?

Question

Quadcopter

Good afternoon!
I work as a technologist in an oil production company. Soon we will have a scientific and technical conference among young workers. And I would like to propose a topic on the use of quadcopters in combination with a thermal imager and a camera to detect oil and gas leaks by flying over pipelines. Pipelines are located mainly in swampy and forested areas, outside settlements.
And I have a few questions for you:
1. What are the weather restrictions?
2. Maximum flight range, preferably with a camera?
3. What is the maximum range of the remote control?
4. How do you like the idea of ​​flying around oil pipelines with quadrocopters?
5. Can the thermal imager be used during the day?
6. If any failure occurs or even one propeller stops working, how hard does it fall, break or land smoothly?
I apologize in advance if such topics have already been discussed here, but I don’t have much time to look at everything. Thank you!

Answer 1

1. The stronger the wind, the more difficult it is for the quadcopter to stay on its route. Rain/snow is the same. I will not tell you how this affects the camera, but the very possibility of flight is affected by precipitation catastrophically.
2. Several kilometers before recharging. On average, a quadrocopter for 30-40 minutes of flight is now quite easy to assemble practically at home, spending several thousand $
3. It depends on the technology. You can also use mobile communications, then - wherever it is.
4. Regular overflight is probably not very good, due to the fact that it should be cheaper and more reliable to lay a ground cable along the oil pipeline and attach chemical sensors to it to detect leakage. Quadcopters can be made so that in case of a false alarm, you can quickly send a “look” camera to the place if you are too lazy to walk, or ground conditions are difficult, but quickly and reliably through the air. But again, it depends on the weather. You have to decide the economics of how often you need to go to the site, and whether just a camera will help you figure out what to do, given its range.
5. yes
6. stabilization is lost. It falls differently, depending on what it falls on. In addition to the vertical speed, there is a horizontal one, and trees can meet there, and the device, for example, will roll over, catching on branches. In principle, the most fragile thing is the screws and the camera, the rest with such a weight can survive several falls.

Answer 2

Looks like a good idea

Answer 3

The idea won't fly. More than 20 minutes in ideal conditions, the copter will not last. Realistically - 10.
And this is ... ask more experienced technologists how the temperature of oil / gas in the pipe differs from atmospheric.

Answer 4

No more interesting ideas?

Answer 5

a) Better not a copter, but a motor glider: longer flight time
b) What is the use of a thermal imager for detecting oil and gas leaks if there is no fire? Here in English they suggest: "special sniffing equipment capable of detecting gases." You still need a GPS sniffer, otherwise it makes little sense.
I found it in the answers to other questions.

Answer 6

Flammar, Thermal imagers can be different, there are also those that are designed specifically to search for gas leaks, FLIR has several such models, the first of them was Gasfindir. But such thermal imagers are very expensive, and they are heavy for a quadric, even a professional one. There are more radical solutions, here is a quadrocopter specifically for searching for gas leaks.