Air drone as an alternative to supply boats in sea ports

Abstract

The maritime mode of cargo transfer is an age-old practice of trade between different countries. The efficient turnaround of ships’ arrivals to departure depends upon various parameters, including the availability of berths and weather conditions. The vessels stay in the port area at anchorage locations because of non-supportive weather or lack of berths. Due to the nature of cargo loaded on the vessel, the designated anchorage areas are located away from each other for different types of ships. On the seaport requirements, almost in all locations, large vessels’ supply needs are fulfilled by conventional supply boats. These supply boats transit between the shore and ships. As we know, the boats use conventional IC engines for their propulsion, and it is not a variable that depends upon the cargo capacity. The efficiency of this mode of transport is poor. Added to the above, the emissions due to diesel fuel used for this purpose affect the environment in the sea ports. On the other hand, with today’s technological advancements and widespread acceptance in the industry, cargo transfer for short distances is done with drones on land. Applying this new invention in the maritime industry, in few ports, air drone transfer is used for small consignment sizes. The main advantage of using drones for supply is that it eliminates the need for humans to travel on water. When we do the close-up view of this technology, the benefit of the energy saving has not been a huge difference from conventional supply boat methods. The path and the distance travelled by drone in the air and supply boat in the water are different, and this is the main contributor to the efficient operation of these vehicles. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a hybrid method of drone and supply boat use in small distances and for small-sized consignment transfers between shore and ship.