Ship&Offshore | Issue SmartShip/2023
First ‘Offshore Drone Campus’ to be developed in Germany
Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM is to establish a centre for the testing and development of unmanned aircraft systems for offshore functions. The research organisation is to set up the Offshore Drone Campus Cuxhaven (ODCC) to develop offshore drones with scientific and industrial partners with the aim of building a regulatory framework for their operation. A Fraunhofer IFAM statement revealed that researchers expect drones to be capable of undertaking operations including the inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) of installations, as well as more general offshore surveying functions....