Caged-drone surveys inside boilers, stacks and silos during plant shutdowns
TL;DR Furnacewing flies caged inspection drones inside boilers, chimneys, silos and tanks while a plant is shut down, then hands engineers a 3D map with marked defects. Power, cement and steel plants pay per job. The pitch is simple - decide where to build scaffolding before you build it.
Looking inside a boiler or a 60-metre stack usually means scaffolding or rope access, and people working in dark, dusty confined spaces. One 2026 study of aerial robots calls this work dangerous, dirty and dull, and notes that enclosed spaces on ships alone kill about one person a week[1]. Plant teams run on tight shutdown windows, so every day spent erecting access before anyone can even see the damage is a day of lost output.
The legal side is changing too. The Boilers Bill 2024 cleared Parliament in April 2025 and keeps periodic inspection and certification by state inspectors, while allowing authorised third parties to inspect[2]. Plants still need to see inside, and they need records they can show an inspector.
First, the regulatory bit - Furnacewing offers visual and thermal survey support only. It does not certify boilers. Statutory inspection stays with the inspector, and the drone footage is evidence the inspector may use.
A two-person crew arrives during a planned shutdown with a caged drone built for collisions. It flies without GPS, using LiDAR to map the space, and carries 4K and thermal cameras, with an ultrasonic thickness probe as an option[3]. Within 48 hours the plant gets a 3D model with tagged tube damage, refractory cracks and corrosion, so scaffolding goes up only where a human must touch metal.
The seed proposed autonomous drone swarms for factory quality control. I reframed it, because line QC is better done by fixed cameras and swarms indoors struggle with missing satellite signals, low light and metal walls[1]. One piloted drone inside a shutdown asset is where flying actually beats the alternative.
The buyer is the maintenance or reliability head at a thermal power station, cement plant, steel works, refinery or sugar mill. The money comes from the shutdown budget that already pays scaffolding and rope-access contractors. I found no public price for drone boiler surveys in India, so price per job against the scaffolding you avoid. Inspection agencies acting as authorised third parties are a second buyer, hiring the crew rather than owning drones.
The new boiler law, passed in April 2025, opens inspection to authorised third parties[2]. Indian hardware exists - one Chennai drone maker lists a boiler-interior drone with a thermal camera[4]. Drone Rules 2021 cut registration to a ₹100 fee and moved pilot certificates onto the Digital Sky platform[5], so a crew can get paperwork done in weeks.
There's no public figure for confined-space drone inspection in India. The signal is on the supply side - an Indian maker now sells a purpose-built boiler drone[4], and a Swiss caged-drone maker lists power generation, cement, mining and chemicals as core users of its caged drone[3]. Count your market bottom-up from plants with large boilers or kilns in two states.
The Chennai maker sells the hardware, an 8 kg drone that fits in a 400 mm sphere with 10 minutes of tested flight[4]. The Swiss maker builds a caged drone, and a French power plant credits it with saving time because no scaffolding was needed[3]. Both sell drones rather than inspection outcomes. The gap is an Indian crew that owns the analysis, the report format inspectors accept and the shutdown scheduling.
| Difficulty | Moderate (46/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹1.3–2.4 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The flying is the easy part. Selling into plant maintenance means safety approvals, vendor registration and long payment terms. Crews have to work around shutdown dates you don't control, and reports need to be good enough that inspectors and engineers trust them over their own eyes.
Yes, this needs drone paperwork, and the boiler law sets the limits on what your report can claim.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
AI should never be the one to decide that a tube is safe to run. That stays with the plant engineer and the statutory inspector.
Want to work out the AI layer for Furnacewing? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I like this for a founder from power-plant or cement maintenance who already knows shutdown managers. If you're a drone hobbyist without plant contacts then it is a weak fit. First prove one thing - that a plant built at least 30% less scaffolding after your survey on a real shutdown, signed off by its engineer.
Expect roughly ₹1.3–2.4 Cr, most of it caged drones, sensors and a trained two-person crew. Losing a drone inside a boiler is a real cost, so budget spares.
Yes. Each drone is registered and each pilot certified under the Drone Rules 2021 on Digital Sky. Indoor-only flights may differ, so ask DGCA or a drone lawyer.
Yes, plants everywhere shut down to inspect boilers and stacks. Check your aviation regulator's rules for indoor flights and the local boiler inspection law.
The free Furnacewing validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the drone, boiler-law and plant-safety checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for plant maintenance heads, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Furnacewing or something close to it? The hard work is winning the first shutdown slot and getting the report accepted by an inspector, and I can help you plan both. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.