The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) in Germany and HHLA Sky have formed an agreement to use automated drones in the Port of Hamburg for better logistics, sensory and coordinative processes.
HHLA Sky has developed a control center for the operation and monitoring of drones. The center connects the various HPA applications within the scope of the partnership to streamline processes that were previously labor intensive.
“In the event of storm surges, accidents or other unforeseeable disruptions, flying, floating or self-driving robots can be on-site considerably faster and provide high-resolution videos and pictures for an exact overview of the situation,” said Jens Meier, chairman of the board at HPA. “The time saved can be decisive in an emergency. Furthermore, they make the maintenance and expansion of the port infrastructure significantly more efficient — for example, in the case of facilities that are difficult, time-consuming or dangerous to reach.”
The next phase would be to develop drones as a service to be launched as part of the partnership. The operations of this service will begin this year, HPA said.
“Our solution will display and control all associated processes in a safe and understandable manner,” said Matthias Gronstedt, managing director of HHLA Sky. “Furthermore, the HPA is able to collect very different kinds of data using mobile teleoperated sensors. Analyzing it helps us use resources optimally.”
