Page 31 - Port of Hamburg Magazine 1.2020

DRONE PILOT SVEN HOWAR AT HIS WORKPLACE
ings. HHLA also uses them for maintenance checks of con- tainer gantry cranes and fuel depots, and to monitor AGV surfaces at Container Terminal Altenwerder that are off-limits
to staff.
“We can attach all kinds of sensors or other tools to our drones,” explains Howar. “For the most part, we collect data on behalf of customers, but we can also build a complete drone control centre for them.” HHLA Sky analyses the problems faced by customers and col- laborates with them to find the ideal individualised – and often very
specific – solution.
A towering figure, Sven Howar leaves no doubt of his expertise with drones. As a small boy he built remote-control models, which kept getting bigger. The rotor of his current helicopter, which he sends zooming across model airplane fields, has a diameter of 1.20 metres. “A model like this is much more complicated to operate than a mod- ern drone, which stabilises itself automatically,” explains Howar.
He easily passed his drone licence test. Since then, he has been au- thorised to remotely operate HHLA’s drones with the assistance of a control centre developed for HHLA. “Pilots would only ever need this if the automated control were to fail. This has not happened yet in practice, though it has been sufficiently tested in safety checks,” re- ports Sven Howar.
Sven Howar and the HHLA Sky team simulated this and all other im- aginable scenarios last year. All drones and control software were ex- tensively tested in hundreds of flights; emergency landing points were defined, and various practical applications tested. The drone service is finally ready for take-off! ■
DIGITAL DECADE ■
Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2020 | 31
© HHLA / Rolf Otzipka
© HHLA / Thies Rätzke