A demand and process-driven approach

UNMANNED VEHICLES FOR SUBSEA AND SURFACE USE HAVE BEEN IN USE FOR ABOUT THREE DECADES IN THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY, AND TODAY AIRBORNE UNMANNED VEHICLES ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY COMMON, TOO. ONE OF THE FRONTRUNNERS, BOTH SUBSEA AND IN THE AIR, IS DRONEQ ROBOTICS. A YOUNG COMPANY, THOUGH ONE WITH A HISTORY IN THIS FIELD DATING BACK OVER TWENTY YEARS.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF DRONEQ ROBOTICS.

The co-founder of DroneQ is John Troch, a 57 year old Dutchman who started as a professional diver for Smit Tak in the Ninetes. Throughout the years, he also gained ample experience in the feld of remotely and autonomously operatng vehicles. Today, his experience comes together in his company DroneQ Robotcs. Before focusing on this company, we will begin our interview with a short fashback to the beginning of Mr Troch’s career.

“I was working as a professional diver for Smit Tak when I decided to study Electrical Engineering at the Delf University of Technology”, Mr Troch says. “Afer this, I took a ROV course in the US. With this knowledge, I was deployed by Smit Tak on many subsea projects. As a diver, a ROV pilot, and later also as a supervisor. For more than twenty years I was involved in salvage and ofshore projects ranging from inspectons to small repairs of cables, pipelines, platorms, and so on. I was away from home nine months a year, and that was quite challenging for me as well as for my wife, which was why I decided to make a career move.” Mr Troch started a company involved in security. “At my security company we develop and build safe networks and take care of data security, cyber security monitoring, and security incident response issues. We have implemented some large and complex projects in this work, and have thus also become real experts in the feld of ISO and COBIT certfcatons.” With his new security frm, Mr Troch atracted many well-known organisatons, ranging from a telecom company to a central bank.

“Three and a half years ago”, Mr Troch states, “a telecom company asked us to take care of not only safeguarding their data, but of surveilling and inspectng their infrastructure as well. It was clear to me that drones would be the best soluton to do so.” The assignment resulted in the establishment of DroneQ, for which Mr Troch gathered several top-class experts. “Today, the number of new companies ofering drone services is huge and growing. In fact, anyone can buy a drone and make aerial pictures. However, we operate in another kind of league. What distnguishes us from other companies is our demanddriven and process-oriented approach. We do not simply send out a drone, in fact we take maters a step further. First of all, we ask what exactly a customer wants. Based on my expertse from Smit Tak and our security frm, we operate in a process-driven manner, so our work can be fully integrated in our customers’ daily operatonal processes. We are true frontrunners in this. We already comply with the new ISO standard 21384 for Unmanned Aerial Systems Part 3: Operatonal Procedures, which will become efectve by the end of this year!”

Mr Troch contnues, “Being embedded in our customers’ operatons, we can add value to their services. Today, we are considered as a leading frm by many companies, not because of our size, as we are stll a relatvely small company, but due to the way we work.” The focus for DroneQ lies in the ofshore industry. “Our approach requires us to make choices. For many markets we are not the right supplier, which is why we decided to aim for niche markets such as the ofshore industry. Many ofshore-related companies use our expertse and services. including our unmanned aerial systems (drones), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and remotely operated subsea vehicles (ROVs).”

“Ofshore,” Mr Troch elaborates, “drones are used to inspect the turbine towers, nacelles, and turbine blades. By inspectng, we collect data, and we store, process, and of course share this data safely and securely with our customers. Alongside this, we assist with small repairs and maintenance. Our drone services are also used in the logistc chain. We think that drones are a valuable part of the ofshore operator’s supply chain. Stll, it is not our intenton to become a logistcs service provider, and are therefore collaboratng with companies such as DHSS, Peterson, and EMS.” Apart from operatng at sea and in the air, DroneQ also operates in ports and inland waterways increasingly ofen. “This so-called inshore >>

market is relatvely new. Divers here are, for example, used for inspecton of quays and sheet pilings, and our ROVs are highly appropriate in this market, too. A big diference with subsea operatons is that the visibility inshore is very limited inshore, so this is one of the challenges we are working on.”

According to Mr Troch, for operators there are four main reasons for using unmanned vehicles: reducing the CO2 footprint, reducing costs, enhancing efciency, and enhancing safety. Today, comparing the use of drones with helicopters stll shows an advantage for helicopters, as they can transport more weight over longer distances, though Mr Troch is convinced this will change. “We constantly work on improving our drones, looking at current and future developments. I think the price of an ofshore drone fight can drop to around EUR 50 per fight hour, making it more compettve. When looking at the logistc use of drones, small high priority/ high value cargo with a maximum of 10kg can be transported at relatvely short distances, with a maximum of 120km. However, with our German partner PhoenixWings we are currently testng a drone with a capacity of 50kg and a maximum range of 200km. And with Doosan, through a NH-METIP1 programme made possible by the Regiodeal Den Helder, we are investgatng the use of hydrogen as fuel for drones. This will enable us to extend the use of drones enormously, as it will enable them to stay in the air for almost six hours. This will not only improve the use of drones in the supply chain, but also for surveillance and security purposes at ofshore windfarms as a much cheaper and more environmentally-friendly alternatve for standby vessels.”

1 NH-METIP: See frame ‘Sharing knowledge with a cross-sectoral approach’.

For the reducton of costs, Mr Troch also sees an important role of autonomy. “Today, the human factor is stll dominant when looking at the total costs. Using a ROV or a drone at present requires two to three persons. With autonomous operatng vehicles, a small team will be able to take care of at least ten drones. As we expect this autonomy to increase in the next few years, we are already training our pilots for their new role of process operators. This development also means that our teams will increasingly work onshore in our command centres. From there, they will work together with mult-purpose vessels carrying various types of unmanned vehicles.”

Concentratng on the ofshore market has an additonal beneft for DroneQ. “The use of drones onshore is restricted to many rules and regulatons, which makes it complicated to test and try new ideas. Ofshore, the use of drones is much easier from this point of view. We have made ample arrangements with operators of onshore and ofshore windfarms, giving us the opportunity to test and use our drones in real situatons, instead of experimentng in test facilites. This obviously gives us a head start when compared with our competton and what’s more, it helps us to build a good reputaton, which helps to get a good positon onshore as well.”

Mr Troch believes in sharing knowledge. “Sharing knowledge and helping each other will be benefcial to everyone. This is also one of the reasons why we are helping many Dutch lifeguard organisatons with their work alongside the coastline and beaches. With our drones, we assist in searches for missing persons, swimmers in danger, but also in investgatng rip currents. By collectng data on the behaviour of rip currents with our drones, lifeguards will be

Energy Reinvented Community (ERC), Ontwikkelingsbedrijf Noord-Holland Noord/ Maritme Emerging Technologies Innovaton Park Noord-Holland (METIP), and DroneQ Robotcs recently launched their collaboraton in order to strengthen innovatons in digitsaton and robotsaton for the ofshore energy sector. Through knowledge sharing and a cross-sectoral approach, the three partes want to stmulate innovatons in the feld of sensor technology, modeling tools, and optmisaton strategies that can improve and renew the logistcs chains for the North Sea oil & gas and wind sector. The ultmate goal is to reduce the CO2 footprint of the ofshore energy sector and to work more efciently. The deployment of drones is one of many elements that can optmise logistcal support to ofshore oil & gas and wind actvites. However, the conditons in maritme environments with strong winds, salt fog, and rapidly changing weather conditons put diferent demands on the deployment of equipment, operator, and operatonal processes and procedures. In the cooperaton with DroneQ Robotcs, this could, for example, lead to the development of a special drone. Mr Troch, Managing Director of DroneQ Robotcs, states, “As an operator of next-generaton unmanned technology systems, in additon to innovatve ROV underwater robot projects, we have set up within METIP an extensive development and testng programme for long-range cargo drones that can transport cargo to and from ofshore installatons such as producton platorms, wind turbines, and installaton and maintenance vessels. This is just one of the many actvites we intend to further test and develop with this approach, as are deployment in constructon, services, maintenance, safety, and inspectons.”

able to predict which rip currents will pose a danger to beach tourists. They will then be able to warn swimmers in tme.” The rip current project is another NH-METIP project that will last two to three years, making it an intensive collaboraton between METIP, the lifeguards, and DroneQ. “We use autonomous drones for this project, which gives us an excellent opportunity to test and learn about their behaviour over a longer period. This will help us to improve our products and will meanwhile help make the Dutch coastal waters a lot safer for swimmers. A true winwin example of sharing knowledge, I would say.”