Capturing efficiency and safety rewards

Drones can be considerable assets for ports, boosting security levels and efficiency, and improving operational times; speed and accuracy make them exciting weapons in a port’s armoury.

Measurements that might traditionally have been taken manually can be done in a fraction of the time by a drone. Joost Zuidema, the Port of Amsterdam’s project manager strategy and innovation, explains that drones with 3D imaging and smart software can fly over bulk commodities stockpiled at the port and undertake detailed measurement and mapping within minutes. “The results we have seen from companies show that the accuracy is greatly enhanced by using drone technology,” he says.

When using drones to calculate stockpile volumes, Jasper Mink, manager data processing at drone company Skeye, summarises the four main benefits: safety — “people are not required to climb on steep and unstable stockpile slopes”; speed — “in contrast to traditional survey techniques, we can measure up to 100 hectares in one day of surveying”; accuracy — “typical absolute accuracies of 20 millimetres are obtained or 0.3% of the volume of a stockpile”; and finally, completion. As Mr Mink explains: “This method yields well over 350 measurement points per square metre, giving a more-complete, and thus more-accurate, result.”

Besides measuring the size of bulk cargo piles stored at a terminal, Mr Zuidema adds that the bird’s-eye view of a drone, coupled with certain sensors, can also provide additional information on, for example, temperature or gases emanating from the bulk, which in turn can give data about the state of the cargo and, crucially, prevent fires from spontaneous smouldering.

For the terminal itself, drones also offer other distinct advantages for maintenance of infrastructure and equipment. “Inspections of infrastructure, checking for heat or gas leaks, and warehouse inventory countings are all things a drone can do at the moment,” says Mr Zuidema, adding that some customers in the port are actively experimenting with drone operations.

Inventory benefits

Amsterdam is not alone in realising the benefits of employing drones to perform inventory control operations of outdoor bulk terminals and material storage areas. Eitan Rotberg, vice president of product at drone manufacturer Airobotics explains that the double attraction of increased productivity and financial savings are too good to ignore. Added to which, manual inventory management can result in miscalculations or mistakes and takes time to get right.

“Autonomous drones are able to fly over the storage areas and calculate inventory in mass quantities with great accuracy in a time-efficient method. The productivity of a port is increased and drones can help to avoid miscalculations and thus save money,” says Mr Rotberg.

Safety plays an important part in APM Terminals’ use of drones. As well as boosting operational efficiency and security levels, three drones have been introduced at inland facilities in San Antonio (two drones) and Santiago, Chile (one) to improve safety. The previously unavailable vantage points provided by drones allow safety workers at the ports to concentrate on areas with less marine traffic.

The drones can also carry out dangerous tasks that would have previously been performed by safety workers, such as crane or rooftop inspections. Any potential safety risk can be picked out by the drone, allowing operators to deal swiftly with the problem. Italy’s APMT Vado Ligure terminal also uses drones to monitor the progress of the works on the development of the terminal, and for marketing purposes.

Reaching further

The opportunities for drone usage by bulk terminals in the Port of Amsterdam are growing by the day. “As technology develops further and further, companies are rapidly starting to see the benefits of the technology and are starting to adopt it, mostly in the form of pilot projects to compare the results to the current processes,” says Mr Zuidema.

Skeye’s Mr Mink adds that drones can map large areas, visualising them with a detailed height model and aerial overview image. In addition to this, drones are capable of performing high resolution visual inspections. Mr Mink adds that ports can also benefit from drones creating 360 degree aerial panoramas or high resolution point clouds and 3D models of industrial areas.

Drones, along with Artificial Intelligence and unmanned sea vessels are being used in the SAINTS (Situational Awareness Information National Technology Service) project. These technological breakthroughs are being used as a means of tracking cargo, boosting security levels, lowering costs, helping the environment, and increasing all-round efficiency.

Five North East ports are taking part in the project: the Ports of Tyne, Berwick, Sunderland, Blyth, and Teesport. The North East was selected as a good location for a ‘test bed’ because its local economy is strongly connected with the area’s ports. SAINTS gathers together and challenges experts from universities, businesses and the public sector, who use AI to analyse data and come up with solutions for the various challenges posed. For example, the Port of Berwick will use new technology to see how it can increase the work done between the port and the hinterland in order to grow the economy. The Port of Sunderland will use technology to improve its freight business efficiencies and customer service, while Teesport will use it to improve logistics and warehousing.

Hurdles to overcome

However, ports do face challenges relating to drone use as well. For one, the elements can seriously hamper a drone’s effectiveness. “There are limitations in which weather the drone can operate in, such as heavy winds and heavy rain,” explains Mr Mink. Also, in certain situations it is possible that water evaporation from the stockpiles reduces visibility for the drone. He adds that another challenge is to maintain a grid of fixed control points on the ground which are needed for processing the drone imagery into meaningful data.

Location can also pose problems. Amsterdam’s Mr Zuidema explains that a large obstacle for his port is Schiphol Airport. This meant that flying drones in the port was not possible until March 2018, when regulations were eased. “With further changes to the rules and regulations expected soon, opportunities for companies in our port to fully make use of the benefits that drones offer will grow exponentially,” he adds.

Mr Mink sees a busy future ahead for drone capabilities. “We will see drones that will autonomously take-off, perform the survey flight, land themselves, charge their batteries and upload the imagery to a server for online processing without human intervention.”

He adds that these drones will operate from their own small charging stations, which will be an enclosed box that holds a landing pad with wireless charging capabilities. “The drones will communicate with a central server through a 4G or 5G network and will upload their captured images onto this server. Once the images are uploaded, they will be processed through automated steps in photogrammetry processing software.

“The final results will be communicated directly to the end client who will have the ability to edit the stockpile outlines and calculate new volumes on the fly”, allowing for safer, faster, and more accurate operation of a terminal which will ultimately have better data to respond to.

SHIPPERS INVESTIGATE DRONE USES

There are emerging opportunities for drones on the quayside. BHP Billiton has pioneered the use of drones to take draft readings and to inspect the holds on large bulk carrying ships during waiting times at berth. Manual inspections of holds are time-consuming, uncomfortable for the inspector, and pose serious safety issues. Each BHP inspector, for instance, uses fall protection and an oxygen metre to make sure that there is enough air in the hold.

But a drone can bypass all of these problems and do the job in a fraction of the time. BHP says that drone inspection can reduce the time required by as much as three quarters, from one hour to 15 minutes. Another gain is that a drone can pick out more detail with greater accuracy than the human eye.

“With drones, we can fly them into a hold and capture 4K images and also infra-red. Other types of cameras can show cracks or other specific parameters that cannot be seen with the naked eye,” says BHP’s vice president of marketing freight, Rashpal Bhatti.

“There are basically three or four types of ships with hold sizes about the same. Once you program a drone to go into a certain ship, it can become an autonomous process. So you have a better way to assess the condition of the hold, and you are removing a person from a potentially hazardous situation.”