Shipping companies and US Navy experimenting with drones for delivering cargo autonomously

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), which are going through a massive development phase, are finding their purpose in the shipping industry as well. In the shipping industry, drones have typically been used for security, environmental surveillance, emergency response, search and rescue missions, as well as various vessel inspections. Now Shipping companies and US Navy are experimenting with drones for delivering cargo autonomously with UAVs between shore-to-ship, ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore.

 

Ships at sea are literally islands unto themselves therefore they are generally self-sufficient well equipped with spare parts and even with raw materials and the tools needed to fabricate most of what they can’t store. However, any unexpected incident may require delivery of some critical spare part or store to avoid delay or danger to crew. The common options are dispatching another ship or helicopter if ship is close enough to shore are costly therefore shipping companies are experimenting with drone deliveries to and from ships at sea. These systems have proven their ability to speed up deliveries, cutting lead times typically seen on traditional forms of last mile delivery.

 

The drones may also be useful for large sized supertankers which are loaded and unloaded at offshore oil terminals, over dozens of nautical miles offshore. These tankers often find themselves in need of shuttling documents, mail, small supplies, and even cash back and forth to shore while waiting for cargo operations to complete, sometimes for days. Maersk shipping line recently performed an experiment with drone delivery to a tanker at sea. Originally intended to deliver a symbolic package — a box of cookies — to the Maersk Edgar while underway a kilometer off Copenhagen, bad weather meant they had to cheat a bit. The octocopter, specially built to operate safely over the tanker and not pose a fire risk in case of a crash, was piloted from a small boat 250 meters away from the tanker and dropped the payload without incident.

 

With a quicker response rate and turnaround time of up to 6 times, drones have the potential to lower shore-to-ship delivery costs by up to 90% in some ports, significantly mitigate risks of personnel accidents and have a reduced carbon footprint.

 

Marius Johansen, VP Commercial, Ships Agency at Wilhelmsen Ships Service, said that shore-to-ship deliveries via UAS bring improved safety, productivity and reactivity by replacing the manual delivery of parcels by agents via launch boat with autonomous drones.

 

SKYF drone is made by a private Russian company; it is one of the largest drones we’ve ever seen. It can carry a 400-pound (181-kg) payload and fly for up to eight hours. It has as a maximum flight speed of 70 kilometers per hour (43.5 miles per hour). The autonomous drone was designed with logistics and agribusinesses in mind. The vertical take-off and landing drone has applications in areas such as the aerial application of pesticides, seed planting and food and medicine delivery. It  uses gasoline powered engines for lift and electric motors for navigation.

 

US Navy also wants the ability to deliver cargo autonomously with UAVs between shore-to-ship, ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore. U.S. Navy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experts are inviting industry to participate in experiments  to demonstrate ways of using UAVs to deliver cargo to and from ships at sea.