Large tanks are used to manufacture pharmaceutical products at scale. These tanks are made from stainless steel as they are easy to clean, which is necessary!
After each production run the tanks are cleaned with acid and lye, but when a new cleaning method is implemented, the tanks must be inspected to ensure it has worked and hasn't done anything to the tanks.
During this inspection process a fluorescent substance, Riboflavin, is sprayed into the tank. The tank is then cleaned, leaving the fluorescent substance anywhere the tank hasn't been correctly cleaned. This allows the team to make an informed decision on the best cleaning solution to use.
If Riboflavin remains after the first round of cleaning, then the cleaning process must be adapted, and the Riboflavin must be re-applied and re-cleaned until the cleaning process succeeds in leaving no more Riboflavin inside the tank.
In general, the protocol requires cleaning personnel to enter the tank twice:
Using a large screen, Rockenschaub live-streamed visual data from the drone, following the two steps outlined above except replacing manned entry with drone entry:
Here are the benefits the pharmaceutical company realised from the tests with the Elios 2:
Source: Flyability