H2O Drones and Ghost Diving for a clean sea

Ghost Diving and H2O Drones have been working together for a long time. What is striking is that Ghost Diving is much different from the other partners; they have nothing to do with water infrastructure or search and rescue organizations. So what does Ghost Diving do? They clean the sea! And they do this side by side with the ROV DTG3.

The DTG3 was gifted to Ghost Diving at the time by H2O Drones’ supplier, Deep Trekker. Two years ago, Deep Trekker celebrated its tenth anniversary and they chose to donate a drone to Ghost Diving because of the noble work they perform: fishing indigestible fishing nets and gear out of the sea.

[awl-slider id=7663]

“More suggestions than facts”
According to Pascal van Erp, president of Ghost Diving, pollution from fishing gear is a major and still growing problem. At the bottom of the North Sea there are a lot of shipwrecks with polluting fishing gear. “Really unbelievably many. So around ten thousand.” There was a lot of fishing in the North Sea in the 1950s, and due to various mistakes, this has left the bottom contaminated with fishing gear. For example, it goes overboard or is left behind. And that still happens all over the world. “It’s so full of gear there, it’s almost impossible to describe. The problem with that is the material of fishing gear. There are some studies that describe the durability of fishing gear, but it takes so long for it to break down, that those studies are more suggestions than facts. From that, we were born.”

Escalation for a good cause
Van Erp explains that he has been active as a diver for a long time. Since 2007/2009 he has been retrieving fishing gear from the sea, together with his team of divers. From that, Ghost Diving was born. “At the time we did that with a group of friendly divers, but that escalated a tad as more and more people joined. Then we transformed into a foundation and we continue to grow. There are now about fifty of us divers and a core team.”

H2O Drones was involved in the donation of the drone. As they are based in the Netherlands and Ghost Diving mainly operates in the North Sea and Mediterranean Sea, H2O Drones was asked to provide maintenance and service for Ghost Diving. Since then, H2O Drones and Ghost Diving have been working together for a cleaner sea. A short time ago, H2O Drones came to the rescue because a cable had been cut by a boat propeller. This was then quickly replaced so that operations could resume in no time.

Safety first
According to Ghost Diving, the drones and service of H2O Drones are ideal for the continuity of the work. In some places in the North Sea it is sometimes too dangerous to dive or divers are not allowed to dive at all. A drone is then ideal for inspecting the underwater environment. “The divers are often in danger underwater, because water is unpredictable,” says Mr. K. K., “and they are not allowed to dive at all.” A drone can keep an eye on the divers or even do some of the diver’s work if conditions are too risky to dive. “It also saves a lot of money and a lot of time, because we don’t have to send a whole team underwater, for example. A drone can watch everything that way and ensure safety. Even in murky water, because they are equipped with sonar.”

Help and service
“We needed someone who has a lot of expertise and understanding of the aquatic world and H2O Drones has proven that twice over,” says Van Erp. He emphasizes that knowledge about drones and the underwater world is very important to their foundation. “The help is very valuable to us that we get from H2O Drones. They provide the right support and have the right knowledge. When we use it in our environment, we get a lot of positive feedback and notice the curiosity about the underwater drones.”

Partners in crime
“They’ve gone with us a few times already, along with the drone. Those were very successful days. It was super convenient that they were along, because we knew nothing about the drone. After such a day we were convinced that H2O Drones had to be our partner in crime,” says Van Erp.


Do you want to know more about our co operations and field of interest? Contact us here.

Or follow us on social media

YouTube

LinkedIn

Facebook

Spie Netherlands’ experiences with H2O Drones

One of the most common inspections for our drones, is inspecting water infrastructure. We are talking about locks, sheet piles, bridge piers, and everything that is underwater. These inspections – often commissioned by the Department of Public Works or Dutch municipalities – are done by various companies, including Spie Nederland. We went along with Arjen Geelhoed, superintendent at Spie Nederland, and Mario Bergman, drone pilot at Spie Nederland, to an inspection of the Middensluis in IJmuiden. There we talked about the cooperation between H2O Drones and Spie.

 

Spie is a global multi-technology service provider and partner of H2O Drones. They too use our drone, the DTG3 from Deep Trekker. “We use the drone mainly when inspecting locks and lock gates,” says Arjen Geelhoed, performer at Spie. Geelhoed has been using Deep Trekker’s DTG3 for inspections for a while now. “It is fully integrated into the work process. We use it weekly during inspections and often for a few days in a row. Especially if they are large inspections.”

 

H2O Drones and Spie in cooperation
Now both H2O Drones and Spie work partially in the same sector, but we were not yet well acquainted with each other. Of course we knew Spie, but not vice versa. Thanks to a common partner, we came into contact with each other. “I started looking on the Internet for underwater drones that we could deploy,” explains Geelhoed. “I saw that RPS was already using underwater drones and after a phone call I heard that they were very satisfied with the drones and service. Then I learned which company was behind the drones: H2O Drones. Soon I had contact with Karst Beens, director of H2O Drones. After some conversations we started an enthusiastic cooperation.”

Geelhoed reveals that they also worked with an underwater drone before, but that the quality of the drone, the service of the company and the communication were not what Spie was looking for. “I won’t say too much about it, but it wasn’t for us. Parts and maintenance took way too long; it was all just a hassle,” says Geelhoed. “With you guys, it’s the opposite. The service is very fast and reliable. Suppose our drone is broken and we have no time to repair it, then we can get a replacement model from you. That assurance is very nice and reassuring, especially if you have a busy schedule or an important inspection coming up. Or we can ask if you can do the inspection for us. All no problem.”

 

“With the DTG3, we can execute everything very quickly, without the additional safety checks required.”
– Executive Arjen Geelhoed of Spie Nederland

The DTG3

The DTG3 is a relatively small and maneuverable underwater drone from Deep Trekker. H2O Drones is the officially certified retailer of all Deep Trekker products in the Netherlands. Equipped with a 4K low-light camera, clear and sharp images are a guarantee. Perfect for clear and deep water, such as that near locks. The work in itself with the drone also offers a significant plus. “With the DTG3, we can do everything very quickly, without the additional safety checks required. This allows us to meet our deadlines more easily. After all, fines are quickly incurred if a project takes too long. Also, the drone can be deployed quickly, so we can act immediately in the event of a malfunction report, for example.”

As with all of Deep Trekker’s other drones and crawlers, the DTG3 is controllable from the side via a controller. “You can move up and down with the camera and move horizontally and vertically with the drone. That gives a lot of possibilities, but can be a bit confusing at first.” Geelhoed emphasizes that it’s mainly an advantage. “The precise descending and sailing back to the surface is very nice for this kind of inspection. You then have to master the controls, but there is a handout with the drone and we received training in this from H2O Drones. Once you get the hang of the controls, it really works perfectly. The small size of the drone also makes inspections easy. Simple and efficient.”

 

“Dit lost simpelweg ons probleem op met inspecties”
– Dronepiloot Mario Bergman bij Spie Nederland

 

Future

Spie has been using H2O Drones’ underwater drones for a while now, but are there any plans for the future?
“We are satisfied with this model for now. It meets everything we need. But if a client like the Department of Public Works says they want to see more of inspections with, for example, sonar or other objects that are difficult to see, then expanding to a second drone will be highly likely,” says Geelhoed.

According to Mario Bergman, drone pilot at Spie Nederland, what is missing now is moving laterally along a wall with the DTG3. “This makes inspecting an entire wall a bit less efficient. It is possible with other drones from H2O Drones, though, so who knows if we’ll purchase a second drone.”

 

Satisfied?
“Yes, we are super happy with the drone” , says Bergman. “This simply solves our problem with inspections. And should there be a problem with the drone, which by the way we haven’t had yet, we know that we will be helped quickly by a service provider in the Netherlands. This saves a lot compared to suppliers abroad.”

[awl-slider id=7513]

 

 


Do you have questions about our cooperation with Spie? Or our work with the drones in general? Contact us here.

Or follow us on Social Media, to stay updated!
Facebook

LinkedIn

YouTube

Saving lives with innovation

Search & Rescue missions always involve danger. This is because the rescuer is often in unknown territory. This can lead to loss of time, which can make the difference between life and death. In the worst case scenario for the rescuer, the mission can become life-threatening. That is why we want to help make such underwater missions less risky.

With this in mind, we gave a demonstration to the fire brigade of Rotterdam Rijnmond Safety Region. These days, they are increasingly busy searching for victims who have ended up in water, and deploy divers to assist them. But why do they need the help of a drone? The answer is hidden in the first paragraph: safety! However, the drone does not completely replace the divers. Rather, we support the divers.

The drone will go into the water before the diver. This way we can check the environment for safety risks. For example, obstacles which the diver can get stuck behind or places which he should not swim in due to cramped conditions or currents.

 

What does our underwater drone offer for Search & Rescue?
Besides safety, we can also help make the mission more efficient. Currently, for a Search & Rescue mission, the search area is divided into grids. This grid helps with orientation and is intended to ensure that no spot is left unexamined or examined twice. While this is an efficient method, it does take a lot of time to make such a grid. But with our drones, grids are no longer necessary.

This is due to our sonar software! In most Dutch waters a diver has no more than one to two metres visibility underwater. Even with light these conditions hardly improve. Sonar, on the other hand, has a range of sixty metres and is not affected by dark or turbid water. In short: with sonar, the mission becomes much easier and can be carried out faster, allowing the victim to be rescued or located sooner. No preparations are required, only a few minutes to prepare the drone for the dive.

 

The fire brigade of Rotterdam Rijnmond Safety Region
Project leader Rick Koedoot of the Rotterdam Rijnmond Safety Region was responsible for the purchase of the ROV REVOLUTION underwater drone from H2O Drones. He confirms that the drones are mainly used to support divers and to search for human victims who have fallen into the water.

“Of course we have diving teams in the fire brigade, but that is a risky task,” Koedoot explains. “We want to work as risk-free as we can, despite the dangerous work.” He emphasises that the underwater drones from H2O Drones can be of great help to their divers. “The ROVs, or underwater drones, are equipped with sonar and therefore have particularly good underwater visibility, even when the water is dark or murky. That is important for risk analysis,” he said.

As Koedoot says, the drones will make a risk analysis for our divers, so that they know what to expect underwater. “This can significantly reduce the number of potential accidents. We want to know what the drones see underwater, such as obstacles. Then we can determine if it is dangerous for a diver.” After all, divers can get stuck behind obstacles underwater, which can create a life-threatening situation.

 

“The cooperation is super. The communication is smooth and we could ask and perform whatever we wanted and were well guided in this. Of course, we had questions and wanted to do some tests and that was also possible. That was very helpful and informative.”

Rick Koedoot, fire brigade Safety region Rotterdam Rijnmond

 

Locating human victims underwater is also what the drone will be used for. This can also be done quickly and efficiently thanks to the sonar. How Security Region Rotterdam Rijnmond came up with underwater drones as a solution is another story.

For his thesis in 2014, Daniël Boender, diving coordinator at the fire brigade of Safety Region Rotterdam Rijnmond, researched the safety of diving and Search & Rescue missions. Through him, the fire brigade came up with the idea of using underwater drones with sonar. Often when they searched for a victim during a Search & Rescue mission with divers and were unsuccessful, the police came to continue the search. They did so with a boat equipped with sonar. “And I saw some possibilities in that,” said Boender. “They then find the victim very quickly. If we had that three hours earlier, we could have made a difference,” he added. “The question then came to me quickly: why don’t we have that?”

Boender emphasises that diving is not without risk. “We have lost or nearly lost people during missions. I then started studying Integral Safety to tackle this problem. And with success.”

It went with trial and error according to Boender. “We tested a lot of options, but not everything was equally effective. At the time, these were interesting options with potential, but there was no decisive model among them.” After the test phase and getting the green light to innovate within the diving team, he ended up with H2O Drones through a tender. “Soon we got into a conversation and came to the purchase of a drone. The next step is to make this national. This innovation fell so well that most were convinced to share it with other safety regions.”

Text continues below the slideshow

[awl-slider id=7389]

Future
We are delighted that the fire brigade of Rotterdam Rijnmond Safety Region also saw the advantages of our drones and made the choice to strengthen their team with our Deep Trekker ROV REVOLUTION underwater drone. They chose the standard equipped version, which is more than enough to improve the safety and efficiency of their missions.

We will support them as much as we can in making their missions safer. To share our knowledge and skills with the firefighters, we are giving ten firefighters a course on how to use our drones (most efficiently).

We would like to thank the Rotterdam Rijnmond Safety Region fire brigade again for the opportunity to show what our drones can do and what an asset they are in Search & Rescue missions. We wish them much success with further missions!


Wondering if our drones can also help you in the field?

Contact us here or check our social media!

Facebook

YouTube

LinkedIn

 

A real-life story by Leo van Houwelingen, Prevent Survey BV

Prevent Survey and H2O Drones have been good partners for a long time. But how did this cooperation come about? You can read it in this interview with Leo van Houwelingen, damage expert and co-owner of Prevent Survey BV.

To start with, the markets of Prevent Survey and H2O Drones cross. Prevent Survey’s activities include damage assessments of ship hulls, machinery and equipment of inland navigation vessels, offshore vessels, facilities such as harbour quays, locks and bridges.
That is where H2O Drones and Prevent Survey meet professionally. H2O Drones is specialised in underwater inspections by means of underwater drones of many of these objects.

“We were looking for a broadening of our work, namely underwater inspections without having to go into the water ourselves,” says Leo van Houwelingen. “After some research on the internet, we almost immediately ended up with H2O Drones.” According to Van Houwelingen, underwater inspections are almost non-existent in their world. “If we do, it is done with divers,” he explains. “If we did then, it would cost a lot of money. The problem in Dutch waters is not only the visibility, which is often poor, but also the currents.” Van Houwelingen explains that divers were moved by the current, making it difficult to determine exactly where they were and what they were inspecting. “They went underwater on the left hand side and came up again starboard side. So in our industry that didn’t always work very well.”

After some phone calls, good contact developed between H2O Drones and Prevent Survey. “We then purchased an underwater drone and designed a doppler system together with the H2O director Karst Beens”, says Van Houwelingen. With that, you can determine where the drone is underwater. “With that position, we knew which part of the ship was being inspected and could work accurately.”

Previously, Prevent Survey’s working method was a lot different, without underwater drones. Van Houwelingen: “Before, we often had to take a ship out of the water to properly inspect the bottom. That takes a lot of time and is also quite expensive. We thought we could do it better and faster, but how?”

“So we are now doing that with underwater drones with good success,” Van Houwelingen continues. “Even if a ship has damage underwater, it can be seen very quickly with the drones thanks to sonar. Then you don’t have to worry about the water quality either. It also broadens our market, which is very valuable. We would like to distinguish ourselves and thus deliver top quality work.”

Van Houwelingen explains that visibility is very important in the water. H2O Drones’ underwater drones are therefore also equipped with sonar. “Without sonar you can see just a meter with a lot of rubbish in the water. Sonar doesn’t suffer from that junk, so therefore you can see a lot.” Van Houwelingen says H2O Drones helped them a lot to master this. “The cooperation was always reliable and pleasant.”

The controls of the underwater drone were also explained by H2O Drones, says Van Houwelingen. “It is very easy to do. It is almost like a game. You shouldn’t handle it like that, of course, but it does make controlling it a lot easier.”

Van Houwelingen says he is very satisfied with the cooperation and service of H2O Drones. “H2O Drones is always there for us. It was like that right from the start. We had some problems with the batteries, but that was solved with great attention and patience. We were more than satisfied with that: It is a reliable partner of ours.”


Do you also want to become a customer of H2O Drones, or do you have questions about a possible cooperation in the future? Please contact us!

Or follow us on one of our social media channels: