Drone technology in North Sea SAR

The collaboration involved qualification testing of Delft Dynamics RH3 drone, the RH-3 Swift, along with a fast rescue boat launched from a Damen Sea Axe Fast Crew Supply (FCS) Vessel equipped with Next Ocean’s wave and vessel motion predictor.

“Performing this test was a tremendous success and demonstrated clearly the feasibility of taking off and landing the drone in rough seas, especially with the excellent sea-keeping behaviour of the Damen Sea Axe bow, paving the way for its use in a wide variety of offshore operations, including search and rescue, fishery inspection, border patrol and humanitarian aid missions,” said Delft Dynamics’ chief operating officer and co-founder, Boris Langendoen.

Delft Dynamics is currently working on a drone with the capability to carry out observation for durations of up to four hours. Damen came on board the project with the suggestion of adding a fast rescue boat to the process. The partners foresaw that the most challenging part of the project would be launching and landing the drone and boat in rough seas, and enlisted the support of Next Ocean.

The wave prediction system uses the ship’s radar to map the sea approximately one nautical mile around the vessel, enabling the prediction of wave activity accurately for the coming three minutes. The test also provided additional data for the further development of the Next Ocean wave prediction system.