The future is unmanned – part 3

Maritime by Holland Magazine has been following the 3i Project, which stands for Integrated Coastal Zone Management via Increased Situational Awareness through Innovations on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, closely since mid 2012. The project is a cooperation between the Netherlands, France, Belgium and the UK which researches the possibilities of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) in a maritime environment. The first UAV prototype is about to be delivered and tested by the Dutch Technical University (TU) Delft.

”Frankly, there are many important steps that need to be put”, explains Stefan van Seters, coordinator of the project at REWIN. The University of Southampton tested the UAV’s hardware, afterwards the TU Delft will test towards air-skills regarding the onboard computer and the software, which makes the vehicle remote controlled. Important is how the automatic pilot reacts in emergency situations. Different scenarios require different reactions, but the UAV has to land safely in any case of an emergency. Also, it will be evaluated which camera can be used and how it should be used. The video data will be streamed to the mobile ground station, taking data limits into account. Furthermore, tests will be done to see if the UAV is resistant to the environment at sea, if it is able to fly up to three hours and to test its geometry. Those tests have and will be done with a small UAV, with a wingspan of 2.2 metres. This is a research model and its experiences will be used for developing another 2.5 metre UAV. ”This project is a challenge for us, because UAVs will become big business. With this project, we want to help the Netherlands by sharing our information”, says Bart Remes, MavLab coordinator of the TU Delft, responsible for all UAV projects at this university.

Mobile ground station

The UAV will be controlled by two persons, manning the mobile ground station, which is a modified minivan. One person controls the UAV and the other operates the sensor, a camera for example. Both have access to a desk and incoming information can be forwarded and adjusted by added text for instance. The development of this mobile ground station will be done by Digital & Media Solutions (D&MS) in cooperation with the TU Delft. Their research will focus on human-machine-interaction: how users handle the devices and software optimally. The tests with the mobile ground station will take place much later in the process, as the mobile ground station has yet to be built. ”Right now we are looking at what will be the best lay-out, together with the TU Delft”, explains ICT engineer of D&MS Marcel Mattheijer. ”We invest in this project because our company became well-known by our outside broadcasting vans. We would like to broaden our horizon. A unique aspect of this mobile ground station is that it has to operate while it is on the move. Heretofore, D&MS developed wired vans only.”

Official certification

As there is no official legislation concerning UAVs yet, it is difficult to arrange official certifications for the 3i Project. The Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems aims at drafting harmonised regulation to cover all aspects of UAVs. Their regulations will be applied by the 3i Project. The certification issue gives input to the knowledge for end-users and contributes to the certification experiences. Maritime by Holland Magazine expects more interesting developments from the 3i Project in the future and will keep you updated.

Timo Meester