Drone manufacturing in Europe is entering a new era one defined not just by innovation, but by sovereignty, security, and strategic autonomy. Yet aside from their origins as defense hardware, drones are quietly replacing slower, riskier, and more resource-intensive ways of doing things across a wide range of civil industries.  Much of this comes down to automation a drone’s ability to fly, navigate, or dive on its own, gather data, and flag problems without a person physically present to do the same job.

Inspection and mapping are the strongest of these civil uses. Checking large or complex infrastructure that would otherwise require a person, a boat, or a helicopter to reach is where drones are proving their value fastest, largely because the gains in efficiency and safety are so immediate and measurable. What follows are a few of the clearest examples already up and running in the Netherlands, from offshore wind farms to ports, waterways, and beyond.

^{Photo: Innovation quarter}

Above and below the waves

Vattenfall uses several different types of unmanned technology at its wind farms, each handling a different part of the maintenance work that used to require boats, divers, or helicopters. Below the waterline, at the Hollandse Kust Zuid wind farm, Vattenfall deploys the 12-meter Blue Essence vessel (developed with geo-data company Fugro) fitted with an electric remotely operated vehicle to inspect subsea cables and foundations. Equipped with sonar and high-definition cameras, it operates around the clock, remotely piloted and cutting CO2 emissions by roughly 95% compared to sending out a traditional crewed survey vessel.  Above the waterline, aerial drones inspect the turbine blades themselves, using AI to scan for cracks and erosion, while Vattenfall’s AIRTuB-ROMI project pushes this further still: sensors built into the blades detect anomalies on their own, automatically triggering a drone to launch from an offshore docking station and, in some cases, land directly on the blade to run an ultrasonic scan.

Rotterdam-based Dutch Drone Company (DDC) shows just how far this extends: its drones inspect on- and offshore installations, wind turbine blades, roads, railways and bridges, dykes and waterways, power grids, telecom towers, port cranes, and even confined spaces too toxic or narrow for a person to enter, often building 3D models along the way to support long-term maintenance planning. A few examples show what this looks like in practice, at scale.

^{Photo: Fugro}

Watching over a city-sized port

Ports face the same inspection challenge on a much larger scale. The Port of Rotterdam alone roughly spans 105 square kilometres and moves more than 400 million tonnes of cargo a year, but much of it can’t be reached by the port’s existing static cameras or boats, and getting around by water to inspect assets takes time. Amsterdam-based Avy solves this with the Aera, a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) drone taking off from a docking station, then transitions to fixed-wing flight, giving it 5 to 10 times the range of a typical drone  enough to cover an entire port from a single strategically placed dock. Installed at the Port of Rotterdam in 2021, Avy now flies weekly missions there as well as at the Port of Amsterdam and soon Antwerp, measuring stockpile volumes, inspecting infrastructure, and monitoring for hazards, all authorised to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and in winds over 30 knots, conditions that would ground most conventional drones. 

None of this is possible without regulatory clearance.  Flying a drone beyond what the operator can physically see is still a relatively new and evolving area of aviation law, and companies like Avy and DDC have had to secure specific certifications just to fly these routes at all. As drone capabilities keep expanding, the rules governing where and how far they can fly are still being written alongside them.

^{Photo: Luuk Barth}

Keeping waterways clear

Not every piece of infrastructure needs an aircraft the size of Avy’s Aera. Rotterdam-based AquaSmartXL applies the same inspection logic on a smaller scale dikes, bridges, quay walls and harbor structures, including dark or GPS-challenged spots where traditional inspection is dangerous or simply impossible. Its unmanned surface vessels and underwater vehicles have let the city of Rotterdam inspect canals and underground pipes without draining them, and the company has since expanded to ports in the US, Singapore, Croatia, Bahrain and Denmark.

Where there is inspection for water infrastructure, Rotterdam-born RanMarine takes the next step by physically removing what’s polluting it. Its WasteShark is an electric aquadrone that skims plastics and floating debris from harbors and urban waterways, collecting up to 500kg of waste a day with zero emissions, deployed in over 110 locations across 34 countries. Designed to be wildlife-safe, it moves at a maximum of 6km/h so fish and other aquatic life have time to move away. RanMarine has since expanded this into a small fleet of purpose-built vessels: the MegaShark, a larger and more powerful version built for industrial-scale cleanup in ports and rivers, capable of holding up to 440kg of waste per run, and the CyanoShark, designed specifically to detect and clear harmful blue-green algae blooms from lakes and reservoirs before they can damage ecosystems or water supplies.

^{Photo: WasteShark}

Building the ecosystem behind the machines

Civil drone use in the Netherlands is expanding well beyond individual company applications, and increasingly depends on ecosystems that can test, regulate and scale that use safely. That’s where DronePort Rotterdam comes in! An innovation initiative backed by the Port of Rotterdam Authority and the Gemeente Rotterdam that brings together government bodies, companies and knowledge institutions to trial new autonomous systems in the port, shape the regulations they’ll need to operate at scale, and turn successful pilots into standard practice. It’s this kind of coordination that encourages cities toward becoming a genuine hub for civil drone use. Seen also in efforts to monitor water quality and pollution, collect agricultural data on crop health, and support fire departments with wildfire detection and search-and-rescue.

Taken together, these examples point to a broader shift in how drone technology is being used. As these cases mature and scale, drones look more like everyday infrastructure, one with real potential to improve productivity, safety, and environmental outcomes across the industries that keep a country like the Netherlands efficient. 

References

AquaSmartXL. (n.d.). Homepage. https://aquasmartxl.com/

Dutch Drone Company. (n.d.). Homepage. https://ddc.works/

Fugro. (2023). Fugro expands horizon with first UAE-flagged uncrewed surface vessel. https://www.fugro.com/news/business-news/2023/fugro-expands-horizon-with-first-uae-flagged-uncrewed-surface-vessel

Heliguy. (n.d.). Shell refinery inspections: Drone-in-a-box. https://www.heliguy.com/blogs/posts/shell-refinery-inspections-drone-in-a-box/

IamExpat. (n.d.). Rotterdam using Dutch-developed trash-eating water drones. https://www.iamexpat.nl/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/rotterdam-using-dutch-developed-trash-eating-water-drones

RanMarine. (n.d.). WasteShark+. https://www.ranmarine.io/wasteshark/

Ultim. (n.d.). Dutch Drone Company enables safe greenhouse chalking with drones. https://www.ultim.nl/en/news/dutch-drone-company-enables-safe-greenhouse-chalking-with-drones

Vattenfall. (2025, February 23). Intelligent drones increase offshore wind efficiency. https://group.vattenfall.com/press-and-media/newsroom/2025/intelligent-drones-increase-offshore-wind-efficiency/

Windtech International. (2025). Vattenfall utilises intelligent drones to increase offshore wind efficiency. https://www.windtech-international.com/projects-and-contracts/vattenfall-utilises-intelligent-drones-to-increase-offshore-wind-efficiency

World Class Maintenance. (n.d.). AIRTuB-ROMI. https://www.worldclassmaintenance.com/sub-project/airtub-romi/

Want to know more about Platform Zero? Contact us at [email protected] and we can tell you more about it!