Amsterdam port launches drone detection trial

12/07/2018 – Seatrade Maritime

The port of Amsterdam will be launching trials monitoring system to explore Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) usage in its airspace as part of the port’s innovation strategy.

Marine Anti Drone Systems (M.A.D.S), the drone detective system, will conduct a four-week trial at Amsterdam port.

The port has identified the potential of drones for numerous use applications across its, and its customers’ operations. This trial will monitor their use. The port noted that many port customers are preparing to use drones for infrastructure inspection and measurement of environmental parameters. The data collected from this important pilot will have far reaching influence on the future use of UAVs across the 650-hectare port area.

A recent report by International Data Corporation stated that it expected worldwide investment in drones to be $12.3bn in 2019, with drone purchase growing nearly twice as fast as the investment in robotics over the same period.

Joost Zuidema, project manager innovation at Port of Amsterdam, said: “This trial is an important part of our innovation strategy. The M.A.D.S system gives us a first opportunity to get a feeling for the technology that will help us understand drone usage and make a first assessment on unwanted drone flights in a part of our port.”

The use of drones has other beneficial purposes. They can mitigate potential threats such as privacy intrusion, terrorism threats of explosives or gas attack, fly-by hacking to take control of autonomous or semi-autonomous systems, stealing valuable data off unprotected networks or breaking into insecure networks.

The original article was published at http://www.seatrade-maritime.com/news/europe/amsterdam-port-launches-drone-detection-trial.html