Maritime Drone Services Ecosystem-Potentials and Challenges

The applications of unmanned aerial systems sup-ported by advanced data analytics, unmanned traffic manage-ment system, and 5G mobile networks provide the impetus for novel business models, value-added services, and products in various sectors. Maritime, among the sectors, started to exploit the potential of drone technology for the automation of critical functions and processes, contributing to human safety, digitization, port advancement, and economic growth. The use of drones in maritime, albeit in infancy, provides the poten-tial for developing an ecosystem of maritime drone services to enable the wide-scale adoption of drones by ports and maritime service providers supported by maritime regulatory and standardization bodies. This paper presents an ecosystem perspective of maritime drone services by identifying the key stakeholders and their potential roles, which play a central part in the formation and subsequent functioning of the ecosystem to unlock the true potential of drone technology for maritime at a broader scale. The paper also presents a literature review of the existing and potential applications of drones in various subdomains of maritime, such as ports, terminals, port limits, and at sea. Finally, the paper identifies several challenges and potentials which demand further investigations for developing the ecosystem of maritime drone services.