At an industrial or chemical plant, a drone-in-a-box is a perimeter patrol and alarm-check tool. It flies set routes along fences, gates, car parks and storage yards and goes out to check intrusion alarms. Its geofences keep it out of process units and explosive-atmosphere zones. Video, detections and logs stay on site.
- The European Commission counted 11,059 Seveso III establishments in the EU27 in 2022.
- Seveso III is a safety directive. It does not prescribe security technology, but its safety reports must consider external causes of major accidents.
- Drone patrols at these sites must avoid ATEX-classified zones and process units, which is done with geofences.
- Offline-first control keeps sensitive site imagery off third-party clouds by default.
- Nestua's software runs in development builds. The drone and base station are still being built.
What security problems do industrial and chemical plants face?
Large plants have long fence lines, many gates, rail sidings and outdoor storage, and copper, metals, fuel, tools and finished goods are all targets for theft. Chemical sites add a safety dimension. In its September 2025 report on how the Seveso III Directive (2012/18/EU) is working, the European Commission recorded 11,059 Seveso establishments in the EU27 in 2022, up from 10,836 in 2018. About 43% were upper-tier sites. Germany held 34% of them, followed by France (11%), Italy (9%) and Spain (8%).
Seveso III does not set intrusion-security rules. Article 5 obliges operators to take all necessary measures to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences. Annex II requires the safety report to describe accident scenarios with causes internal or external to the installation. How far site security feeds into that analysis is for the operator and the national competent authority to judge. Separately, the manufacture and distribution of chemicals is a sector listed in Annex II of the NIS2 Directive.
Why do static cameras and guard patrols leave gaps?
- Blind spots. Tanks, pipe racks and stacked containers block sight lines. Fixed cameras cover gates well but miss stretches of fence behind structures.
- Patrol frequency. A guard on foot or in a vehicle covers a large site only every so often. Between rounds, the perimeter is watched only by sensors.
- Alarm fatigue. Fence sensors on long perimeters raise alarms from wildlife and weather. Every unverified alarm either sends a guard out or gets ignored.
How would a drone-in-a-box patrol an industrial plant?
A drone-in-a-box unit consists of the drone, a weatherproof base station and an edge node that controls that one drone. In Nestua's design:
- Perimeter patrols. In the browser mission editor, the security team draws waypoint routes on a satellite map along the fence line, gates, car parks and storage yards. Missions are uploaded, started and stopped from the browser, and each action is audited.
- Process-unit no-fly zones. Polygon geofences cover process units, tank farms, flare areas, ATEX zones and neighbouring land, and circle geofences cover stacks and masts. A breach either blocks the command or triggers return-to-launch, depending on policy.
- Alarm-triggered checks. When a fence or gate alarm fires, an operator sends the drone to that point. Commands are only counted as done once the drone's MAVLink acknowledgement arrives, and critical commands need typed confirmation.
- Person and vehicle detection. A YOLO model on the edge computer's NPU detects people and vehicles. AI rules map detections to notify, record, hover or return-to-launch, within the safety policy and geofences. The system does not identify individuals.
- Operator verification. The control room sees WebRTC video and a live map showing the drone's position and trail. It works in any modern browser, and the web app can be installed as a PWA. Local ring-buffer recording allows clips to be exported for incident files.
- Roles and audit. Admin, operator and viewer roles, an event journal, a command log and config change tracking record who did what and when.
Why does offline-first matter at a chemical site?
Aerial video of a chemical plant shows its layout, its storage and its weak points, so many operators will not want it on a vendor's cloud. In an offline-first design, the control plane, AI, video and logs run on the edge node at the site. Uploading recordings off-site is disabled by default. The site also stays protected if its internet connection fails or is deliberately cut. If remote monitoring is wanted, the optional cloud uses a WireGuard tunnel with signed commands, and remote commands can be set to need local approval.
Regulatory and privacy notes
- Seveso III. Directive 2012/18/EU applies to sites holding dangerous substances above set thresholds. Discuss any new technology on site with your safety team, and with the competent authority where your safety report requires it.
- ATEX. Directive 1999/92/EC requires employers to classify places where explosive atmospheres may occur into zones. Treat these zones as no-fly areas unless your explosion protection document says otherwise.
- Drone rules. Automated patrols from a box are normally a "specific" category operation under Regulation (EU) 2019/947. Member States may restrict flights over or near sensitive sites through geographical zones under Article 15. See our EU drone regulations guide.
- Privacy. Workers, contractors and passers-by may be filmed. GDPR and the EDPB Guidelines 3/2019 apply, and works councils may need to be consulted under national law.
This page is general information, not legal advice.
What to evaluate for an industrial plant
- Can geofences be drawn precisely around every ATEX zone and process unit, and how is a breach enforced?
- Where are video and logs stored, and can off-site upload be disabled entirely?
- How does the drone respond to loss of link, low battery or a failed component? Fail-safe return-to-launch should be the minimum.
- What are the camera's night performance and the drone's weather limits? Ask vendors for tested figures.
- Can fence and gate alarms trigger verification flights, and are all actions exportable for incident reports?
- How is the drone's radio link encrypted, and can it be paired only with its own ground station?
- Who holds the operational authorisation, and how does drone flight fit your emergency plan?
Sources
- European Commission, report on the functioning of the Seveso III Directive, COM(2025) 508 final (19 September 2025): eur-lex.europa.eu
- Directive 2012/18/EU (Seveso III), Article 5 and Annex II: eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2012/18/oj
- Directive 1999/92/EC (ATEX workplaces), Article 7 and Annex I: eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/1999/92/oj
- Directive (EU) 2022/2555 (NIS2), Annex II: eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2022/2555/oj
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, Article 15: eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2019/947/oj
- EDPB Guidelines 3/2019 on processing of personal data through video devices: edpb.europa.eu