Drones in the maritime environment
Coastal regions have not only geographical but also economic characteristics that are interesting for the use of drones - both in the air and under water.
- German
Coastal regions have not only geographical but also economic characteristics that are interesting for the use of drones - both in the air and under water.
HHLA Sky
Northern Germany is characterised by shipping, ports and natural barriers. Numerous islands, estuaries and canals are just as much a part of this as port facilities with large cranes, bridges, offshore wind turbines and, of course, ships. Drones are conquering more and more areas of application here. Applications include visual checks and inspection flights, surveying, but also transport and aerial support for security tasks. In addition, research is being carried out into how the unmanned systems can be used in the future. Especially in coastal regions, not only flying drones but also underwater drones are exciting technology trends - they offer a wide range of possible uses in and around port facilities. The web erfa "Drones in the maritime environment" puts the focus on these applications
HHLA Sky operates with drones in the Port of Hamburg, among other places. The aircraft are used for transport tasks and inspection flights, among other things. The company has developed a globally scalable platform for controlling drone fleets. The system maps the entire process: from planning, scheduling and flights to the provision of data to resource management programs or digital asset management systems. Matthias Gronstedt, Managing Director of HHLA Sky GmbH, explains in Web-Erfa exactly how this works.
The activities of Hamburg Aviation e.V. also show that Hamburg is a "hot spot" for unmanned aviation. One of the networks anchored there is Windrove, which promotes the economic use of drones in the Hamburg metropolitan region and brings together providers and users for drone-based services. Daniela Richter, project manager of Windrove and Urban Air Mobility, will present the network and its ongoing activities.
The Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services (CML) is also active in this network. The Fraunhofer CML is researching the use of drones underwater, above water and in the air in the maritime environment. For example, the project "RoboVaaS (Robotic Vessels as-a-Service) is investigating the development of on-demand shipping and nearshore operation services based on unmanned vehicles. . This includes, among other things, the use of underwater drones to perform tasks such as hull inspections, asset monitoring and data collection. In addition to the Fraunhofer CML, the Port of Hamburg, Kraken Robotic from Bremen, the University of Padua, Italy as well as the University of Limerick, Ireland and SonarSim Ltd from Ireland are working on the project.
