![\"Source:](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/28210947\/Sky-Futures.jpg\")
Drones \u2013 what are they exactly?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
To just state an obvious definition of a drone and say that it is an unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV and move along is too simplistic and uninformative.<\/p>\n
Most of us, when we think of drones, either picture a photographer taking wedding pictures with a small remote-controlled drone or maybe see an image of something meaner \u2013 like the US Air Force\u2019s Predator<\/strong> and Reaper <\/strong>drones.<\/p>\n The truth is we would all be right, inclduing the people that picture the types of drones which stand somewhere in between.<\/p>\n Before we get into types of applications, it\u2019s worth looking into types of drones out there. <\/p>\n The best way to do it is by design. The easiest distinction is between multirotor drones which fly using two or more rotors and fixed-wing drones.<\/p>\n When covering the offshore oil and gas application of drones we will focus primarily on the multirotor drones. Such drones, usually with four or six rotors, are often used for industrial work like inspections which is rather commonplace in the oil and gas industry already. They also do aerial data collection for mapping.<\/p>\n We will not discuss fixed-winged drones since they are the type that lift-off and land like aeroplanes making them unsuitable for offshore use in most cases.<\/p>\n But there is one similar model which we must mention and which we will come back to later on as it will probably be of most interest to the oil, gas, and maritime industry in the years to come.<\/p>\n That model is the fixed-wing hybrid VTOL \u2013 short for \u201cvertical take-off and landing<\/em>\u201d drone, and their use is gaining traction in the UAV delivery market. Or, they just might become air-taxis in Dubai<\/a>. <\/p>\n If you take There are drones which are designed in such a way that they fit only one purpose. Parrot\u2019s Bluegrass<\/a> is an agricultural drone, they detect problem areas in different types of crop fields with its multispectral sensor.<\/p>\n There are several models of construction, surveying, and mapping drones \u2013 some became synonymous with its field by chance while the Phantom 4 RTK<\/a> is the ruler of the drone surveying and mapping world by design.<\/p>\n IGNIS is more an attachment for drones that drops small spheres of glycol to start controlled burns in fires and the Beebop-Pro<\/a> is used for thermal imaging in firefighting.<\/p>\n The one the offshore oil and gas industry and most other similar industries care about are the ones similar to the Elios 2<\/a>, a specially designed inspection drone. Such a drone is cased in a cage allowing it to crash with obstacles while in flight without harm. An ideal tool for inspecting tight, hard-to-reach spaces.<\/p>\n It could be said that purpose-made ones are not so ingenious when you consider what others were modified to do.<\/p>\n If drones helping police in Kazakhstan patrol and monitor illegal border movement<\/a> is not impressive, how about stopping a swarm of locusts<\/a> from destroying crops? Yes, that’s a thing too!<\/p>\n Certainly, drones were useful during the hardest times of the COVID-19 pandemic. We got to see just a little glimpse of how much they could be of assistance.<\/p>\n By now, everybody has been affected \u2013 in one way or another \u2013 by the COVID-19 pandemic. Isolation, social distancing, curfews \u2013 you name it and some country probably used it as a measure to try and contain the spread.<\/p>\n Namely, many companies had issues with COVID-19 positive crew members and many other problems regarding lockdown measures. <\/p>\n Some of the cases of coronavirus appearing on remote locations include Equinor\u2019s Martin Linge field<\/a>, Hurricane\u2019s Aoka Mizu FPSO<\/a>, or the Diamond Princess cruise ship<\/a> which was one of the first offshore vessels with a major outbreak of the virus, etc.<\/p>\n Reducing human contact sounds easy from here on land but offshore, not so much. To assist with the problem F-drones late last month completed the first beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone delivery in Singapore to a ship managed by Eastern Pacific Shipping.<\/p>\n The drone\u2019s task was to deliver two kilograms of vitamins over 2.7 kilometres, a task completed in seven minutes.<\/p>\n Although the weight is small it is important to say that BVLOS flights to vessels are rare and according to F-drones, there are only a handful of operators which conduct commercial BVLOS drone deliveries. <\/p>\n Delivering anything to a vessel or a platform during, let\u2019s say, a pandemic would be problematic. A helicopter could do it but it is a small and a rather crowded place and, like an offshore supply vessel, presents a great social distancing problem.<\/p>\n But the Allseas\u2019 giant Pioneering Spirit offshore construction and decommissioning vessel, and one of the largest vessels on the planet in any category, was the test site for drone delivery last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 382-meter-long and 124-meter-wide vessel, with a capacity for 570 crewmembers, received an even smaller package to test the capability of drones as an \u201ceffective means to quickly and efficiently deliver materials to vessels<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n The test involved the delivery of small parts which can be swapped without the arrival of additional technicians.<\/p>\n Dutch Drone Delta, Allseas, and the Port of Rotterdam Authority were responsible for the test with the port attempting to become \u201cthe safest port to fly<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n Stephan van Vuren<\/strong>, one of the people behind the Dutch Drone Delta initiative, said at the test: \u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit when it comes to using drones in the port area. Incident prevention and control, for instance; or water pollution; firefighting; monitoring port operations or damage.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOther examples include everything from systems and bridge inspections, construction and maintenance of infrastructure, and deliveries to ships and oil rigs, to the rapid medical transport of blood and human organs<\/em>“.<\/p>\n Furthermore, he stated that we soon might be seeing heavy freight deliveries and passenger transport, and he is not far off. <\/p>\n Notably, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is trying to get its PrimeAir delivery service off the ground while we already discussed passenger transport with air-taxis. Meaning that van Vuren is just looking slightly ahead.<\/p>\n Before looking ahead with him, we will first take a look at the here and now. Namely, what do drones do right now in different offshore industries?<\/p>\n After that, we will come back to a key part from the statement \u2013 heavy freight and the future of drones offshore.<\/p>\n Drones are not new in the offshore The offshore oil and gas industry is one of the sectors benefiting from this kind of UAV use. Companies like Sky-Futures<\/a>, Cyberhawk<\/a>, Bluestream<\/a>, Skeye<\/a>, and classification society DNV GL<\/a> have been using them in surveys and inspections on offshore installations for a while.<\/p>\n Some oil majors have more faith in UAV than others and a shining example of that faith could be Italy\u2019s Eni which hired Sky-Futures to be its facility inspector on a global scale<\/a>.<\/p>\n To put it in perspective, Eni is one Other offshore sectors easily found uses for UAVs as well.<\/p>\n Last year, Aero Enterprise performed its first offshore wind turbine inspection<\/a> using an in-house developed helicopter drone while the ORCA Hub unveiled fully autonomous drones<\/a> that can inspect offshore wind infrastructure.<\/p>\n Earlier this year though, ESVAGT, Siemens Gamesa, and \u00d8rsted teamed up to research the potential of using drones for delivering spare parts and tools<\/a> to offshore wind turbines.<\/p>\n We have already mentioned F-drones and A similar shore-to-ship delivery trial was conducted last year by Wilhelmsen Ships Services and Airbus. During the trials, Airbus\u2019 Skyways drone carried payloads of up to 4 kilograms<\/a> and navigated autonomously along pre-determined aerial corridors to vessels as far as 3 kilometres from the coast.<\/p>\n Worth noting, drones also entered the maritime sector through the inspection of enclosed ship spaces<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, if we use them already and tests One could argue it is. But there is a step into the future. Maybe even a leap if drone development stays on course.<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s meet the drone heavyweight in the making \u2013 the Hyperlaunch Heavy.<\/p>\n Now we have come back to van Vuren\u2019s \u201cheavy freight<\/em>\u201d statement and what the final question of the drone delivery exam is: How far can this go?<\/em><\/p>\n Truth be told, no one knows. But someone has an idea of what the next step is and has a timeline for it.<\/p>\n Last month, the Gulf Agency Company (GAC) partnered with F-drones to develop large-scale drones<\/a> that can deliver up to 100 kilograms of supplies over 100 kilometres to vessels and offshore platforms.<\/p>\n Apart from GAC and F-drones, the Now, lets recap first. We mentioned a Quite a leap from what we have covered so far. However, the sole idea behind the founding of F-drones was to create a heavy payload VTOL drone which will take-off vertically, fly like a fixed-wing aircraft, and land on a moving target. To not make the task any easier, the design is fully electric.<\/p>\n As a concept, everything is possible. But, how far along is the project?<\/p>\n Currently, F-drones\u2019 is testing its The previous prototype was able to fly With Singapore\u2019s first BVLOS drone delivery permit, F-drone is now scaling up commercial deliveries with an off-the-shelf drone as well.<\/p>\n After the third prototype drone is ready, the company will be heading for the finishing line. It will be looking towards the second half of 2021 when it is expecting the development of the Hyperlaunch Heavy to be completed. <\/p>\n Advantages of such a drone, with a large range and heavy load capabilities, were not lost on Lars Bergstr\u00f6m<\/strong>, GAC Group VP for the Asia Pacific & Indian subcontinent regions, who last month said: \u201cWhen fully commercialised, drones can be an attractive alternative to launches and helicopters for delivering supplies to vessels, especially for on-demand deliveries<\/em>\u201d. <\/p>\n Being fully electric, drone solutions BP already announced its move to become net-zero by 2050<\/a>, just like Shell<\/a> and Equinor<\/a>. The latter two, along with France\u2019s Total are also moving forward with the Northern Lights project<\/a> aimed to enable the transport of carbon dioxide captured from industrial sites in Norway and its storage in a reservoir below the seabed in the North Sea.<\/p>\n Companies in other industries are even In light of these moves towards aMultiple
\ndesigns for different purposes<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n![\"Source:](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/28204834\/Cyberhawk.jpg\")
![\"Dubai's](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/28204058\/Volocopter-1024x557.jpg\")
Yes, drones fly, but what do they DO?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\na good thorough look into what drones to, the question becomes what CAN\u2019T they
\ndo?<\/p>\n![\"Elios](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/28204328\/Elios-2.jpg\")
Pandemic?
\nDrones to the rescue.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\npackage is too small. Right? A massive vessel, rig, or platform can\u2019t possibly
\nhave use of such a small parcel? Can it?<\/p>\n\u2018Pioneering
\nSpirit\u2019 \u2013 meet your new delivery guy<\/h3>\n<\/div>\nThe here and the now<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/28205722\/PrimeAir-1024x406.jpg\")
You get an inspection and you get an inspection…<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
Oil & gas<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nindustry. They have been used for quite a few years in several sectors of the
\nindustry as tools for maintenance and inspections.<\/p>\n
\nof the largest operators worldwide in the energy sector and operates in 66
\ncountries.<\/p>\nOffshore wind and maritime sectors<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nits BVLOS delivery and it can be a prime example of drones being used in the
\nmaritime industry.<\/p>\n![\"Airbus'](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/06\/02113049\/Skyways-Airbus-1024x556.jpg\")
\nare being done to increase their worth to the offshore industries, isn\u2019t the
\ntime for drones already here?<\/p>\nThe magic number is \u2018100\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\nproject is also being supported by Eastern Pacific Shipping, the Schulte Group,
\nTechstars, Port XL, Entrepreneur First, and Hafniat.<\/p>\n
\ndelivery of two kilograms of vitamins to a vessel, a small lightweight part to
\nthe \u2018Pioneering Spirit\u2019, and \u201cup to four kilograms\u201d in the Airbus drone test \u2013
\nall across relatively small distances.<\/p>\nThe \u2018heavyweight\u2019 to debut in 2021<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nthird prototype capable of handling items up to 5 kilograms over 50 kilometres.<\/p>\n![\"F-drones'](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/06\/02113600\/F-DRONES.jpg\")
\nonly five kilometres, and if tests go as planned, the next-generation drone, capable
\nof flights ten times longer, will be ready in the second half of this year.<\/p>\n![\"F-drones'](\"https:\/\/cdn.offshorewind.biz\/file\/sites\/6\/2020\/06\/02113750\/F-drones-map.jpg\")
Right on cue<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nin F-drone\u2019s pipelines are well-timed. Energy majors are always the go-to
\ncompanies to blame for the increase in carbon emissions. And certain oil and
\ngas majors are making moves to make themselves net-zero companies.<\/p>\n
\nlooking to become a carbon negative company like IT giant Microsoft. <\/p>\n
\nlower carbon footprint by not just the energy giants but the world as a whole a
\nfully-electric, long-distance, heavy load drone could be just what the doctor
\nordered.<\/p>\n