If you thought helium balloons were just for fun, you’re wrong. Well at least according to Google. In 2013, the tech-company started a project named ‘Project Loon’, simply translated as ‘a crazy project’. Helium balloons, equipped with Wi-Fi-technology, should provide internet access to distant and often rural areas that momentarily don’t have access to the world wide web.

These enormous balloons, which have a diameter of approximately 15 meter, operate in the stratosphere at altitudes between 18 km and 25 km. These altitudes are especially suitable because there are relatively low wind speeds and there is little turbulence. The height of the balloons can be adjusted by using advanced software algorithms. By adjusting and optimizing the altitude, Google believes it can roughly keep the balloons at the same location in the air. This allows a fleet of balloons to be coordinated in such a way to guarantee there is always one balloon flying over a specific region. The balloons are equipped with batteries – that run on solar energy – which provides the necessary equipment in the balloons with electricity.

Applications
The balloons can be used to deliver access to parts of the world that are currently badly connected to the internet. In some remote areas it isn’t cost effective to provide internet access by traditional underground fiber cables. Another application is the use of these balloons in the case of an emergency, like natural disasters. Balloons can be send to affected regions to improve communication between e.g. survivors and emergency services.

Challenges
There are however still some challenges to face. The sturdiness of the balloons is yet not optimal, which means that they have a limited time to fly. Naturally, the longer the balloons stay up, the lower the operating costs. Nowadays, the maximum ‘up-time’ is just about 130 days. The safety part have to be addressed as well. Since 2014, around 10 balloons have crashed or landed at buildings. Moreover, when it comes to full implementation in the future, coordination and communication with other flying objects have to be improved too.

Altogether, Project Loon has some great opportunities that can lead to improved internet access for the world’s poorest regions and people. Do you believe in this project?

Sources:
– Simonite, T. (2015) ’10 Breakthrough Technologies 2015: Project Loon’ MIT Technology Review, 2015

Historically, the maritime industry has played a pivotal role in the economic development of regions and even countries. However, after the trends of globalization and containerization profit margins diminished and that simultaneously increased the focus on costs. Nowadays, ports have become ‘pawns in the game’ and shipping lines have to provide value-added activities to regain a bit of these lost margins.

However, the general assumption still remains that shippers have to minimize generalized shipping costs to earn a profit. Shipping costs consist of three components: capital costs, voyage costs & operational costs. The latter can be reduced by up to 50% by travelling under ‘flags of convenience’, which simply entails registering your vessel in a country where the rules regarding personnel are the least strict.

Drone ships
A new option is a strong or complete elimination of the required personnel on a ship. IT plays an important role in this development. Rolls-Royce rolled out the first initiative with crewless ships – often called drone ships –  in 2014 and according to the Head of Innovation, Oskar Levander, the results are promising: ‘We will see a remote controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade (2020).’ He even spoke of a similar disruptive effect in the maritime industry that Uber, Spotify and Airbnb achieved in their respective industries.

Benefits
Cost reduction of crew expenses (up to 40%) is not the only potential benefit of drone ships.  By eliminating crew-related infrastructure ships could reduce their fuel consumption by 20%, which ultimately also benefits the environment. Furthermore, additional cargo can be stored on a ship when the crew size shrinks. Drone ships could also potentially enhance safety, because the majority of accidents are the result of human mistakes, mostly due to tiredness of personnel.

Challenges
The potential safety benefit is also closely related to the biggest challenge of drone ships. At the moment, it is very unlikely that autonomous vessels can fully handle issues that can’t be very well predicted. The weather, obstacles and repairs are examples of these variables. Accidents with large container vessels have dramatic implications and a lot of testing is still required before this dream of Rolls-Royce can become reality. Moreover, regulatory issues have to be addressed, because nowadays there are strict rules regarding personnel and crew sizes in international maritime conventions.

Personally, I believe that the objective of Rolls-Royce to deliver a commercially viable drone ship by 2020 is far too optimistic. However, I do see some advantages in the long term. What is your opinion?

Sources

• Slack, B. (1993) ‘Pawns in the Game: Ports in a Global Transportation System’ Growth and Change, Vol. 24, 4, 579-588.
• Stopford, M. (2009) Maritime Economics 3^rd New York: Routledge
• The Economist Intelligence Unit (2015) ‘A turning point: The potential role of ICT innovations in ports and logistics, a report for DP World’, November 2015
• Tovey, A. (2016) ‘Crewless ‘drone ships’ will be sailing the seas by 2020’ The Telegraph, 11 April 2016