Follow Live: How a Pole-Camera Gets Smart
Tracks
ACCESS GRANTED STAGE
Knowledge Level - NDT Level I/NDT Level II
Presentation Topic Level - Intermediate
Target Audience - General Interest
Target Audience- NDT Engineers
Target Audience- Technicians/Inspectors
| Tuesday, October 7, 2025 |
| 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM |
| Access Granted - Stage - Fiesta 5 |
Speaker
Ekki Zwicker
Product Line Leader Robotics
Waygate Technologies
Follow Live: How a Pole-Camera Gets Smart
Presentation Description
Traditional confined space inspections in vessels, reactors, and boilers rely on manual robot control, data capture, and report generation. This leads to disconnected data, hindering its use for asset management and digital transformation.
Advanced robots offer 3D interactive control, data tagging, and digital twin creation. Additionally, the latest robots offer automated reports and seamless integration with asset management systems.
While pole cameras are still widely used for vessel inspections, they lack the automation capabilities of the latest robotic technology. This presentation proposes integrating robotic navigation and control technology into pole cameras, enabling automation for visual inspections.
Together with the audience, we will explore this concept live using the system and highlight its application in real-world industrial inspections in sectors such as oil and gas, chemicals and power generation.
Advanced robots offer 3D interactive control, data tagging, and digital twin creation. Additionally, the latest robots offer automated reports and seamless integration with asset management systems.
While pole cameras are still widely used for vessel inspections, they lack the automation capabilities of the latest robotic technology. This presentation proposes integrating robotic navigation and control technology into pole cameras, enabling automation for visual inspections.
Together with the audience, we will explore this concept live using the system and highlight its application in real-world industrial inspections in sectors such as oil and gas, chemicals and power generation.
Short Course Description
Biography
Ekki Zwicker earned an M.Sc. with honors in Mechanical Engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and a Ph.D. with honors from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). He was a senior researcher at ETH’s Autonomous Systems Lab and co-founded Alstom Inspection Robotics, which became GE Inspection Robotics. Under his leadership, GE Inspection Robotics became a global leader in mobile inspection robotics. After its acquisition by Waygate Technologies, he became Global Product Line Leader for Robotics. Ekki has received multiple technology awards, including the prestigious IEEE/IFR Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award in Robotics and Automation.
