WATCH: World first port drone network launched

The ‘D-Hive drone-in-a-box’ network has been achieved by DroneMatrix, SkeyDrone and Proximus working with the port of Antwerp-Bruges to ‘offer a unique perspective from the air’ in allowing port operators to control the port’s functions efficiently.

The drones will help in a range of functions, including berth management, monitoring, inspecting infrastructure, oil spill and other floating waste, and to add security assistance when needed. 

There will be 18 flights a day, remotely controlled from a control centre in the centre of the port, and the network will be used to develop a digital twin of the port.

“Given the huge surface area of the port, drones provide us with leverage when it comes to carrying out our core tasks as a port authority,” said port CEO Jacques Vandermeiren. “This drone network will play a crucial role in the further roll-out of the port’s digital twin, a digital copy based on thousands of pieces of data from a network of cameras, sensors and drone, giving a real-time picture of what is happening at the port every second. This first takes us an important step further in developing a fully digital nervous system that will help us manage our port more efficiently and make traffic even safer and smoother.”

The flights are called BVLOS flights – Beyond Visual Line of Sight – and it is believed to be the first implementation of them on such a scale and in such an industrial environment anywhere in the world.

The BVLOS framework was built by SkeyDrone and approved by the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority and European Union Aviation Safety Agency.