Fraunhofer IFAM Offshore Drone Campus Cuxhaven

The Offshore Drone Campus in Cuxhaven is a location of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM. It focuses on the application-oriented development and testing of offshore unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their deployment concepts. The campus at Steubenhöft in Cuxhaven was launched in 2022 as a close cooperation between the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, scientific partners and industry. Its theme is the maintenance, inspection and repair of maritime structures, such as offshore wind turbines, with the help of drones.

The institute explains that the offshore sector plays a crucial role in renewable energy, but that work at sea is hard on people, materials and technology. Maintenance and repair of wind turbines is difficult and risky, which is why autonomous systems are expected to take part in the future.

Research priorities

• Mission-dependent configuration of UAS to meet individual needs
• Energy supply, comparing battery systems, fuel hybrid drives with combustion engines, and hydrogen hybrid drives with fuel cells
• Fault-tolerant propulsion systems for safe drone manoeuvres
• Material protection concepts that shield electrical and structural parts from salt, high humidity and UV radiation
• Compatibility of end-effectors and sensor systems with offshore UAS
• Flight operations and air traffic control, including collision avoidance systems, redundant communication and control units, and navigation for changing conditions

Testing and projects

Real missions and components are tested on the North Sea in close cooperation with the Test Center for Maritime Technologies, using the research vessel Joseph von Fraunhofer, and flights beyond visual line of sight are part of the work. Projects and fields listed on the site include the AIDA research project on autonomous inspection and maintenance of offshore wind turbines, the Interreg North Sea project DIOL, the Advanced Air Mobility Initiative Northwest Germany with the Drone Control Center Bremen, which deals with shared use of airspace by manned and unmanned aviation, mobile robotics for quality assurance, and a case where a drone recorded meteorological data for offshore wind energy.

Shows

Fraunhofer IFAM Offshore Drone Campus Cuxhaven appears in the exhibitor lists of AERO Friedrichshafen 2027.

Contact

Listed under Drone Services.
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