Maersk experiments with drones for deliveries, inspections

The Danish shipping conglomerate’s tanker division completed its first successful delivery, a tin of cookies for the bulk tanker vessel Maersk Edgar, and is looking at other potential uses of unmanned aircraft systems.    Danish shipping giant AP Moller Maersk Group is experimenting with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), more commonly known as “drone” aircraft, for deliveries and inspections across its wide ranging transportation network.
   Maersk Tankers, in collaboration with drone maker Xamen Technologies, recently completed its first successful delivery, a tin of cookies for the bulk tanker vessel Maersk Edgar, and is looking at other potential uses of UASs.
   For the test, Maersk used the LE 4-8X Dual Atex, an “octocopter” drone, meaning it has eight individual propellers, with a maximum speed of about 16 meters per second and a max payload of 2 kilograms.
   “Drones can make savings in both costs and time,” Markus Kuhn, supply chain manager at Maersk Tankers and part of Maersk Group Procurement Marine, said in a statement. “There are high costs for on-board delivery of small parcels, filled with urgent spare parts or mail, because of the need for a barge.”
   In contrast to container vessels, which are generally on a fixed schedule, with tankers it can be difficult to predict in advance when a ship will be in port or even what port it will call next, which can make deliveries complicated and expensive as they are not necessarily next to a dock, said Maersk.
   “Costs for a barge are on average USD 1,000 and can be higher,” the company added. “That means, drone use could with the current payload bring potential savings of USD 3,000-9,000 per vessel per year, Maersk Tankers estimates.”
   Because tankers are full of volatile and flammable crude oil and petroleum products, drones used in this setting must be certified as “intrinsically safe,” it said, “so they cannot create any spark even if they were to crash.”
   Maersk said it is not only testing drones for tanker deliveries, but for inspections across the Maersk Group as well, with Maersk Oil using them for installations in the North Sea and APM Terminals for cranes in its port terminal operations.
   “Other potential uses as drone technology are developing rapidly,” the company said. “They could carry out inspections or piracy look-out in high-risk transits. Inspections could include high quality photos or videos of certain areas, such as the transom stern and flare on the bow, or cargo tanks.”
   “It’s a totally new step in delivery to vessels,” Captain of the Maersk Edgar Peder Georg Kastrup Christensen said. “Today it’s cookies. Another time it might be medicine which we need to treat someone on board.”