Schiebel and its partner Nordic Unmanned have successfully completed a two-day test of the sniffer capability onboard the Camcopter S-100 UAS in the shipping lane outside Gniben, Denmark.

The entities note that ships operating in Europe’s busiest sea routes are allowed to emit exhaust fumes with a Sulphur oxide content limited to no more than 0.1 percent. One potential option to enforce this International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulation is using UAS such as the Camcopter S-100 equipped with a Sulphur sniffer. The UAS measures the Sulphur emissions by flying through the ship’s exhaust plume, and identifies the ships using its Automatic Identification System (AIS).

During the trial, the Camcopter S-100 performed two successful flights of about four hours, providing compliant measurements of Sulphur emissions. The certified sniffer provides live readings of the Sulphur level in the ship’s exhaust plume.

The Camcopter S-100 was also equipped with an L3 Harris Wescam MX-10 real-time Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) camera.

“Due to the extensive operational experience in the maritime area as well as its endurance and ease of deployment, the Camcopter S-100 is the ideal aircraft to sniff out the polluters. The measurement test scored 10 out of 10 points and we demonstrated our capability as an operator and ability to quickly get the required authorizations to deploy and fly the service,” explains Knut Roar Wiig, CEO at Nordic Unmanned.

“We really look forward to helping maritime authorities in Europe and other parts of the world to enforce the IMO 2020 regulation by deploying our crew and the Camcopter S-100 to conduct Sulphur emission monitoring. If a ship is not following the regulations, we will definitely sniff it out.”