Page 101: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2017)

all safety and inspection processes re- quired to accept Cyberhawk’s high

DRONES: quality inspection technique. The two inspections were part of a larger project,

TECH TALK

Cyberhawk Gets ABS Certi? cation involving a survey of all 14 COTs using a drone on a sister vessel. The project was completed in just six days by the

Cyberhawk team.

Aside from signi? cant time and ef? - ciency savings, the use of UAVs by ex- perienced operators means minimized risks to personnel, offering a safer, more economical solution for detailed struc- tural inspections. One current industry method for COT inspection on tank- ers is to use a technique called rafting.

Rafting involves ? lling the tank being inspected with water, allowing the ship surveyor to use a raft or dinghy to view critical inspection areas of the tank, in- accessible from the tank ? oor. Rafting creates a large volume of oil-contami- nated water which has to be decanted from the vessel at a port that can handle such waste. Using a UAV eliminated the generation of oil-contaminated wa-

As the maritime world increasingly American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) in and other bulk storage tanks on vessels.

ter and the safety risks associated with turns to unmanned and autonomous providing inspections for internal tanks As part of the External Specialist cer- rafting.

systems to carry out dif? cult and dan- using UAVs. ti? cation procedure, Cyberhawk com-

ABS auditors carried out a detailed re- gerous work, one drone innovator has Achieving ABS recognition means pleted two internal tank inspections on view of Cyberhawk’s UAV equipment, received certi? cation from a classi? ca- that the data captured by Cyberhawk’s an Aframax class oil tanker in the U.S. operator training, and maintenance and tion society to this end. Cyberhawk In- UAVs can now be used by ABS survey- in collaboration with an ABS Surveyor. inspection processes both at Cyberhawk novations reports that it has been cer- ors to make decisions affecting classi? - The inspection took place in Portland, headquarters in Scotland and onsite in ti? ed as an External Specialist by the cation surveys of cargo oil tanks (COT) Ore., where the Surveyor examined the U.S. www.marinelink.com 101

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