ChimneySpector: Autonomous MAV-based indoor chimney inspection employing 3D laser localization and textured surface reconstruction

Inspection of industrial chimneys and smoke pipes induces high costs due to production downtimes and imposes risks to the health of human workers due to high temperatures and toxic gases. We aim at speeding up and automating this process with sensors mounted on multicopters. To acquire high quality sensor data, flying close to the walls of the chimney is inevitable, imposing high demands on good localization and fast and reliable control. In this paper, we present an integrated chimney inspection robot based on a small lightweight flying platform, well-suited for maneuvering in narrow space. For navigation and obstacle avoidance, it is equipped with a multimodal sensor setup including a lightweight 3D laser scanner, stereo cameras, and a high-resolution camera for surface inspection. We tested our system in a mock-up chimney modeling several surfaces found in real chimneys, and present results from autonomous flights and the reconstruction of the chimney surface.