Marco Polo Marine, F-Drones to Build Autonomous Cargo Drones for Offshore Wind Farms

Singapore's marine logistics firm Marco Polo Marine has signed an agreement with F-drones, a company developing large scale autonomous delivery drones, to co-develop the world’s first large-scale, electric aerial delivery drones for offshore wind farms. 

The use of these drones is expected to result in more than 90% cost savings, and is four times faster than traditional means, which rely mostly on boats and occasionally, helicopters, as the key modes of transport, the companies said.

 The partnership will see both companies co-develop drones customized for deployment in Asia-Pacific, to send supplies and critical items to offshore wind installations.

F-drones, which has been developing drones to deliver cargoes of up to 100kg over 100km, will offer its advanced drone technology expertise, while Marco Polo Marine will provide technical operating and commercial capabilities in the offshore wind sector. 

"As the offshore maritime industry transitions to a lower carbon footprint, using drones has an added environmental benefit – a significant reduction in fuel consumption can be achieved when conducting remote delivery of packages of up to 100kg and emergency deliveries to vessels. Utilizing drones will result in sharply lower Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) emissions – which includes CO2 and other greenhouse gases – of up to 99%, as compared 2 | P a g e to sending a supply boat or Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV) for 100kg loads over 100km to offshore wind farms," Marco Polo Marine said in a statement.