Drones, 5G help detect floating debris in the Port of Antwerp
Debris field in the Port of Antwerp
Source: Port of Antwerp (video)
The Port of Antwerp, one of the largest ports in Europe with global connectivity that handles massive maritime cargo, has devised a drone-based solution to detect floating debris in the 120 square kilometers of the port area. The use of drones to keep the port clear is expected to make shipping in the area safer, which is an important consideration as the Port is major contributor to the Belgian economy.
Recently, there have been significant improvements in the estimation and control algorithms for these quadcopter applications to serve real-time data sensing and processing for object detection. The Port of Antwerp has shown one of the impactful use cases of these quadcopter drones that can make a significant contribution in detecting floating debris.
“The use of drones for floating debris detection is a fine example of how innovation and digitization can contribute to this,” says Piet Opstaele, Port of Antwerp’s Innovation Enablement Manager, We were able to show the minister today how innovative solutions will make the port future-proof.”
Detection and clean-up of the water pollution faced several challenges as they demanded large human resources to be present on the massive Port of Antwerp. Automating and processing the incoming actuator data is directly transferred to the Harbour Safety & Security unit via 5G wireless connectivity. Exploiting the bandwidth and security of 5G networks has made the inspection of the water pollution in real-time possible, officials said.
Examining a live stream of remote locations has helped the fire department in dealing with fires in the port area. The combination of color and infrared images helps the fire department gain a better idea of the situation. Now, the same ability to provide real-time imaging is leveraging machine vision to indicate the location of the floating debris.
“The use of drones will allow us to locate floating debris in the vastly expanded port area systematically, intelligently and efficiently from 2023,” Annick De Ridder, Port Alderman notes. “As such, thanks to innovation and digitization, we can reduce water pollution, impact on biodiversity and damage to ships to a minimum.”
Future uses for the system include inspecting infrastructure, surveillance and monitoring, incident management, berth management and the detection of oil spills or floating debris.
Article Topics
5G | drone | inspection | IoT | Port of Antwerp | shipping
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