Rijkswaterstaat wants to place boxes containing automatically flying drones at strategic locations along the waterways in the Netherlands. These drones can be activated at the push of a button from the Nijmegen Traffic Post if something happens on the water. They send images of the incident to the air traffic controllers. That can sometimes be of vital importance, according to a spokesperson.
The service has been practicing for two years in an area above the Waal with drones that ‘know’ where they need to go. When the air traffic controller presses a button, the box will open and the drone will take off. “It’s getting better and better and that’s why we now want to expand the test area. We get the most from real experiences with the drones: do they fly in the right direction, crash into a high building on the way, fall down due to a gust of wind, do they suffer of birds – all questions we want answers to. And if things continue to go well, such automatic drones can become a permanent part of our work,” says the spokesperson.
According to Rijkswaterstaat, an automatic drone could, for example, be equipped with a life jacket. “Of vital importance if someone gets into trouble on the water.” The drone can also quickly provide images of pollution on the water, so that emergency services can take measures such as closing a harbor. That limits the consequential damage. A drone with a sensor can determine whether hazardous substances have been released into the water after a fire or explosion. And via a drone with a speaker, recreationists on the water can be called to order.
Camera images
Just like other emergency services, Rijkswaterstaat already uses regular drones. But automatically controlled aircraft are not yet in use. Strict legal rules apply to this, partly because the privacy of people on and by the water is important. “But we don’t use images to enforce, we only care about technical information about an incident,” said the spokesperson. She points out that a lot of images are made over land by fixed cameras, which are important in the event of an accident. However, this does not yet exist above the water.
Rijkswaterstaat simulates a fire on a ship on the Waal near Nijmegen on Monday to show what the automatic drone can do. The service also wanted to show this exercise to Minister Mark Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management), because his ministry has to decide on the future deployment of the aircraft. But the minister has canceled due to a corona infection.