When does an inspection robot pay for itself?

The calculation rarely works out on staff savings alone.

More reliable are: avoided exposure to hazards, more frequent inspection intervals with the same staff deployment, documented and comparable series of measurements, anomalies detected earlier and avoided unplanned downtime. At unmanned sites, the most dependable item is the eliminated journey to site.

A single prevented plant failure can justify the investment. This figure, however, can only be estimated – the sound approach is to state it as a range, not as a point value.

How to turn this into a reliable calculation is set out in the guide to cost-effectiveness: purchase, leasing or Robot-as-a-Service.