The inspector’s extended arm.

Motorised brush

Clean acoustic contact — gentlest tool first.

A good reading needs clean acoustic contact between probe and metal; the enemy is air, trapped in rust, oxide, coatings and paint. The motorised brush varies speed to the contamination, and three tool groups of increasing abrasive effect ship with the payload — ScoutBrush SiC (light cleaning), ScoutBrush Metal (rust and scale, field-verified through ISO 8501 grade C), and ScoutSleeve abrasive sleeves (hardened coatings, heavy oxide).

Start with the gentlest head that gives a usable A-scan and step up only when needed — the abrasive sleeves cut into the substrate itself if overused. Heads swap in seconds, so one payload preps any surface the plan calls for.

Articulating arm

Overhead bulkheads to vertical walls. One payload reaches both.

Four corner magnets clamp the payload to the steel and hold it steady — no thrust fighting wind, no operator vibration in the reading. The spring-loaded carbon-fibre pivot then articulates through 110° of sweep: the probe presses overhead bulkheads and overhangs (the −20° end), then re-orients without landing to read vertical hull plates, tank walls, and angled stiffeners (the +90° end).

Once docked, an integrated wiggle shifts the probe up to 5 mm up or down without releasing the magnets — nudge past a rust patch, a cavity or an inclusion without re-attaching, re-cleaning, or losing the location.

Inspectors who run a 5-day campaign on rope often re-rig three times for different orientations. This payload re-orients in-flight.