{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T16:20:57Z","timestamp":1775578857676,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]],"date-time":"2019-03-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1552608000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010661","name":"Horizon 2020 Framework Programme","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["644271"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["644271"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010661","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>There is a strong demand in the oil and gas industry to develop alternatives to manual inspection. This paper presents AeroX, a novel aerial robotic manipulator that provides physical contact inspection with unprecedented capabilities. AeroX has a semi-autonomous operation, which provides interesting advantages in contact inspection. In the free-flight mode, the pilot guides the robot until performing contact with its end-effector on the surface to be inspected. During contact, AeroX is in its fully-autonomous global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-free contact\u2013flight mode, in which the robot keeps its relative position w.r.t. the surface contact point using only its internal sensors. During autonomous flight, the inspector can move\u2014with uninterrupted contact\u2014the end-effector on the surface for accurately selecting the points where to perform A-scan measurements or continuous B-scan or C-scan inspections. AeroX adopts an eight-tilted rotor configuration and a simple and efficient design, which provides high stability, maneuverability, and robustness to rotor failure. It can perform contact inspection on surfaces at any orientation, including vertical, inclined, horizontal-top or horizontal-bottom, and its operation can be easily integrated into current maintenance operations in many industries. It has been extensively validated in outdoor experiments including a refinery and has been awarded the EU Innovation Radar Prize 2017.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s19061305","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,18]],"date-time":"2019-03-18T04:06:55Z","timestamp":1552882015000},"page":"1305","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":149,"title":["Novel Aerial Manipulator for Accurate and Robust Industrial NDT Contact Inspection: A New Tool for the Oil and Gas Inspection Industry"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6065-2949","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miguel \u00c1ngel","family":"Trujillo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CATEC (Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies), C\/ Wilbur y Orville Wright 19, 41309 La Rinconada, Seville, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jos\u00e9 Ramiro","family":"Mart\u00ednez-de Dios","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Seville, Avda. Camino de los Descubrimientos, 41092 Seville, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2943-8239","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos","family":"Mart\u00edn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"La L\u00ednea Vertical, Camino de la Ermita 10, 11300 La L\u00ednea de la Concepci\u00f3n, C\u00e1diz, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Antidio","family":"Viguria","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CATEC (Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies), C\/ Wilbur y Orville Wright 19, 41309 La Rinconada, Seville, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"An\u00edbal","family":"Ollero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, University of Seville, Avda. Camino de los Descubrimientos, 41092 Seville, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Akhondi, M.R., Talevski, A., Carlsen, S., and Petersen, S. (2010, January 20\u201323). Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks in the Oil, Gas and Resources Industries. Proceedings of the 2010 24th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, Perth, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/AINA.2010.18"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"383168","DOI":"10.1155\/2013\/383168","article-title":"Wireless Sensor Network Modeling and Deployment Challenges in Oil and Gas Refinery Plants","volume":"9","author":"Savazzi","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Distrib. Sens. Netw."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Inspection Robotics. Available online: http:\/\/inspection-robotics.com\/."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Kim, S., Choi, S., and Kim, H.J. (2013, January 3\u20137). Aerial manipulation using a quadrotor with a two DOF robotic arm. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Tokyo, Japan."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Korpela, C., Orsag, M., and Oh, P. (2014, January 14\u201318). Towards valve turning using a dual-arm aerial manipulator. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Chicago, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2014.6943037"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"259","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2015.2510749","article-title":"Hybrid Visual Servoing With Hierarchical Task Composition for Aerial Manipulation","volume":"1","author":"Lippiello","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Jimenez-Cano, A.E., Braga, J., Heredia, G., and Ollero, A. (October, January 28). Aerial manipulator for structure inspection by contact from the underside. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Hamburg, Germany."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Suarez, A., Heredia, G., and Ollero, A. (2016, January 9\u201314). Lightweight compliant arm with compliant finger for aerial manipulation and inspection. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Daejeon, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2016.7759655"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Trujillo, M.A., Viguria, A., Marquez, J.C., Petrus, A.L., Jimenez, A., Garcia, J.J., and Ollero, A. (2018). Aeronave con Dispositivo de Contacto. (ES 2 614 994 B1), Spain Patent."},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"1190","article-title":"Eddy Current Testing in the Petrochemical Industry","volume":"61","author":"Birring","year":"2003","journal-title":"Mater. Eval."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Industrial Rope Access Trade Association. Available online: https:\/\/irata.org\/page\/history."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Paneque, J.L., Martinez-deDios, J.R., and Ollero, A. (2018, January 1\u20135). Robust Decentralized Context-Aware Sensor Fault Detection with In-Place Self-Calibration. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2018.8593680"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Honeybee Robotics. Available online: https:\/\/www.honeybeerobotics.com\/portfolio\/pipe-inspection-robot\/."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Ruggiero, F., Trujillo, M.A., Cano, R., Ascorbe, H., Viguria, A., Perez, C., Lippiello, V., Ollero, A., and Siciliano, B. (June, January 31). A multilayer control for multirotor UAVs equipped with a servo robot arm. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Hong Kong, China."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kondak, K., Huber, F., Schwarzbach, M., Laiacker, M., Sommer, D., Bejar, M., and Ollero, A. (2014, January 6\u201310). Aerial manipulation robot composed of an autonomous helicopter and a 7 degrees of freedom industrial manipulator. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2014.6907148"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fumagalli, M., Stramigioli, S., and Carloni, R. (2016, January 9\u201314). Mechatronic design of a robotic manipulator for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2016.7759711"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kamel, M., Alexis, K., and Siegwart, R. (2016, January 9\u201314). Design and modeling of dexterous aerial manipulator. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Daejeon, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2016.7759715"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Park, S., Her, J., Kim, J., and Lee, D. (2016, January 9\u201314). Design, modeling and control of omni-directional aerial robot. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Daejeon, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2016.7759254"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Papachristos, C., Alexis, K., and Tzes, A. (2014, January 6\u201310). Efficient force exertion for aerial robotic manipulation: Exploiting the thrust-vectoring authority of a tri-tiltrotor UAV. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2014.6907516"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Darivianakis, G., Alexis, K., Burri, M., and Siegwart, R. (2014, January 6\u201310). Hybrid predictive control for aerial robotic physical interaction towards inspection operations. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2014.6906589"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gioioso, G., Ryll, M., Prattichizzo, D., Bulthoff, H.H., and Franchi, A. (2014, January 6\u201310). Turning a near-hovering controlled quadrotor into a 3D force effector. Proceedings of the EEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2014.6907785"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"477","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2016.2519948","article-title":"Compliant Aerial Manipulators: Toward a New Generation of Aerial Robotic Workers","volume":"1","author":"Bartelds","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Ryll, M., Muscio, G., Pierri, F., Cataldi, E., Antonelli, G., Caccavale, F., and Franchi, A. (June, January 29). 6D Physical Interaction with a Fully Actuated Aerial Robot. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Singapore."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Staub, N., Mohammadi, M., Bicego, D., Prattichizzo, D., and Franchi, A. (June, January 29). Towards Robotic MAGMaS: Multiple Aerial-Ground Manipulator Systems. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Singapore."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2015.2418522","article-title":"The World Cup of Drones Flyability Wins the UAE Drones for Good Award","volume":"22","author":"Madhavan","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Maga."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Intel Falcon 8+ Drone Transforms Inspections Conducted in the Oil and Gas Industry. Available online: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IZ8yaP9FWEc."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Apellix. Available online: https:\/\/www.apellix.com\/."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Ronik Inpectioneering. Available online: http:\/\/www.inspectioneering.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Ultrasonic Data Presentation. NDT Resource Center. Available online: https:\/\/www.nde-ed.org\/EducationResources\/CommunityCollege\/Ultrasonics\/EquipmentTrans\/DataPres.htm."},{"key":"ref_30","first-page":"1","article-title":"Fundamental Actuation Properties of Multirotors: Force-Moment Decoupling and Fail-Safe Robustness","volume":"PP","author":"Michieletto","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Leonardis, A., Bischof, H., and Pinz, A. (2006, January 7\u201313). SURF: Speeded Up Robust Features. Proceedings of the Computer Vision\u2014ECCV 2006, Graz, Austria.","DOI":"10.1007\/11744023"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.1145\/358669.358692","article-title":"Random Sample Consensus: A Paradigm for Model Fitting with Applications to Image Analysis and Automated Cartography","volume":"24","author":"Fischler","year":"1981","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"(2019, February 10). Vicon Motion Systems Ltd UK. Available online: https:\/\/www.vicon.com\/."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/19\/6\/1305\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T12:39:02Z","timestamp":1760186342000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/19\/6\/1305"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]]},"references-count":33,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]}},"alternative-id":["s19061305"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s19061305","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]]}}}