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measurements under strong, gusty wind location, where an operator on the ship conditions in a harsh marine environ- can take over control to maneuver it ment their applicability and reliability is alongside the ship and pick it up using a limited. Moreover, commercial deploy- grappling hook. The C-DRONE is small ment of ? ying drones requires expensive enough to be carried as hold luggage in certi? cation and training. This led us to normal commercial airplanes, so that it develop the C-DRONE: an autonomous/ can be used and deployed at short no- remote operated vehicle which can be tice. deployed and retrieved using a rope and In 2016 MARIN tested the Hexapod to hook to measure the undisturbed wave evaluate the accuracy of the motion sen- ? eld away from a ship. sors under different combined irregular

The C-DRONE is a small AOV motions, amplitudes and periods. The equipped with a 6-DOF motion sensor accuracy of the extracted global heave

The Author and GPS. It can navigate autonomously motion was comparable to regular wave

Thijs Hasselaar is Project Manager in waves (top speed 3 m/s) at an undis- buoys. In 2017 trials will be performed at the Business Unit Trials & Monitor- turbed location ahead of the ship, and in the North Sea to evaluate practical ing at MARIN, the Maritime Research act as a wave buoy by drifting while issues and performance in seas. After

Institute Netherlands. measuring the wave spectrum. After a successful trials it will become standard e. [email protected] preset time it returns to the deployment equipment for speed and power trials.

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