705

1 INTRODUCTION

The number of incidents of maritime piracy is

decreasing recently through various efforts under

international cooperation. In Japan, Ministry of

Defense requested 3,200 million JPY in FY2017

nationalbudgetforpreventiveactivitiesoff thecoast

of Somalia pirates. A very important sea lane from

JapantoEuropethroughSuezCa

nalmustpassalong

this area. Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force

dispatches a fleet to protect Japanese ships. This

works effective, however, it’s much better if the

commercialshipcanprotect themselvesto minimize

thenavalescort.

In this research, we firstly surveyed the piracy

trend mainly from the viewpoint of Japanese, ba

sed

on IMB reports from 2003 to 2016. Secondly, we

surveyed the existing anti‐piracy measures and

checkedifthemeasurehassomedemerits.

Basedonthesurveys above,wefound thatmore

effectivewayshouldbedevelopedandanapplication

of a UAV drone seems an effective way which is

handyandlowcostbeca

useitneedsnoextrafacilities

on the ship. Pirates attack often occurs in the night

withasmallfishingboat,sothedroneshouldhavea

thermo camera to detect human beings or an

outboard engine in the dark. To check whether the

thermocameracanworkwella

ttachedtoadrone,we

assembledatestsystemwhichconsistsofRaspberry

Piandacheapthermocamera.WeusedDJIS1000as

our test drone. Its payload is around 10kgf and the

flightdurationtimeisaround20minutes.

Using this system, we did some experiments to

develop our new concept of ant

i‐piracy measure

usingthedronesystem.

Experimental Study on the Application of UAV Drone to

Prevent Maritime Pirates Attacks

K.Watanabe,K.Takashima,K.Mitsumura,K.Utsunomiya&S.Takasaki

TokaiUniversitySchoolofMarineScienceandTechnology,Shizuoka,Japan

ABSTRACT:Inthispaper,wepresentaconceptofanapplicationofUAVdronesasapossiblelow‐costdevice

toavoidpirateattacks.RecentUAVdronecanbeoperatedintherangeofmorethan2kmandtransmitvery

clearimages.Pirateswillbea

pproachingusingasmallboatandtheywillbeclimbingupalongthesidewallof

theship.Wetriedseveralexperimentsinourlaboratorytocheckhowthedronecanbeappliedtointerferethe

pirate approaching and climbing. We present a conceptual structure of an anti‐pira

cy drone system and

fabricatedapartofdeviceincludingathermocamerasensorandanetlaunchertostalltheboat.Theresults

showedthismethodseemseffectiveconsideringthecost,althoughtheoperatormustbetrainedtocontrolthe

droneproperly.

http://www.transnav.eu

the International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 11

Number 4

December 2017

DOI:10.12716/1001.11.04.18

706



Figure1.ImportantsealanesforJapaneseshipping.



Figure2. Locations of actual and attempted attacks in the

majorareaoftheworld.

2 SURVEYOFPIRACYTREND

2.1 ImportanceofpiracypreventioninJapan

Around 99.6% of trade amount in terms of weight

dependson marinetransport inJapan. Forexample,

in2010,around1800Japanesemerchantshipspassed

through Gulf of Aden beca use Suez Canal connects

Europe and Asia. Among these 1800

 ships, 35% is

container ships, 32% PCC, 12% chemical tanker and

11%LNGvessels.Also, around20% ofJapanese car

exports goes through this area. So the safety  of this

areaisveryimportant.

MalaccaStraitsoroffthecoastofIndonesiaisalso

a very important sea lane for

Japanese shipping

companies.However,thenumberofreportedattacks

increases recently in this area. Figure 1 shows two

majorareaswhere pirates’attacks were reportedfor

last15years.

2.2 IMBannualpiracyreportsurvey

AccordingtotheICCInternationalMaritimeBureau’s

report on Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships

from

2003to2016,wecanseeseveraltrendinpiracy

incidentsintheworld.Figure2showsthenumbersof

actualandattemptedattackswithrespecttoregions.

Africa and South East Asia are dominant. Figure 3

shows the total number of the attacks. The total

attacksaredecreasing,however

itshowsthereoccurs

around 200 incidents in spite of international

cooperationandefforttopreventpiracy.From2008to

2012,wecanseeamountainlikecurveinthegraph.

Inthisperiod,overhalfoftheincidentsareinAfrica

especiallyinfamousSomalia.

Therearemorethan88

countrieswherevictimships 

are controlled or managed for those 10 years from

2007to2016.Thesumofthetotalvictimshipsis3089.

Figure4showsthetop10countries.Japanrankedat

fiveandthetotalis153,whichmeansalmost15ships

were attacked a year

in average. Also, as for Japan,

thenumberofattacksdecreasedalmosthalfin2013,

2014. However in 2015, 2016, the attacks were

recovered. Figure 5 shows Japanese national budget

foranti‐piracymeasuresfrom2011to2016.Asshown

inthefigure,thebudgetamountisalmostdoubledin

fiscal

 year 2012‐2014 and halved in 2015‐2016. We

cannot say with certainty that there are apparent

causalrelationbetweenthenumberofattacksandthe

budget, however, it is interesting to note that the

incidents were reduced to half after the budget was

doubled and the incidents were doubled

after the

budget was reduced to half. This implies that if

Japanese government wants to keep some effective

anti‐piracymeasuresthenweneedtospend enough

money every year unless we cannot develop less

expensivebuteffectivemeasures.



Figure3.Totalnumberofactualandattemptedattacksfrom

2003to2016.



Figure4.Top10countrieswherevictimshipsaremanaged.

707



Figure5.Nationalbudgetforanti‐piracymeasuresinJapan.

Table1showscomparisonoftypesofattacksfrom

2003 to 2016. It is surprising that although the total

numberofattacksseems decreasing,more than 75%

oftheattackswastheboardedattackssince2013.This

impliesthatpreventingpiratesfromboardingisvery

important.Inmanycases,theycome

byasmallboat,

sostoppingtheboatwillbethefirststep.

2.3 Non‐lethalanti‐piracymeasures

There are several anti‐piracy measures. Here we’d

liketosurveythoseexistingmeasuresbriefly.

1 Watercannon

Water Cannon is extensively used on merchant

ships. This delivers powerful stream of

water to

prevent pirates from climbing up the side wall.

Thiscanbecontrolledremotelyfromasafeplace

in the ship. However, it needs extra pumps and

hoses as well as a control system if the nozzle

directionisremotelyoperated.

2 Electricfence

Electric fence surrounds the ship and

 prevents

pirates from climbing. The system can be folded

when not in use. However, the extension or

foldingthefenceseemsamessywork.

3 Longrangeacousticdevice

LARD is a sonic weapon and produces high

pitchednoisethat is intolerablelevel of a human

being. However, if the

pirates wear earplugs we

arenotsureitworksproperly.

4 Laserdevice

The laser device uses strong laser beam to be

temporarilyblindingthepiratewhoisclimbingup

thewall.However,thecontrolofrectilinearbeam

issometimesnotaneasytask.

5 Slipperyfoam

Slipperyfoamisused

tomakethedeckorsidesof

ashipslipperytokeeppiratesfromclimbing.This

chemical foam should be selected not to affect

marineenvironment.

6 Anti‐piracycurtain

Anti‐piracy curtain consists of a series of hoses

which are dangled on the side wall of the ship

hull.

Highpressuredseawaterispassedthrough

the nozzles, which makes the hoses dance in

unpredictable motion. However, dangling many

hosesfromthehullwallisamessywork.

7 Razorwirecanister

This device uses big canisters with sharp razor

wires.Thisbecomesabarrierbetweenthepirates

and the

 ship to prevent them from climbing.

However, some pirates  may be able to climb up

throughthevoidspacebetweentwocanisters.

8 Liquiddeterrentsystem

Thismethodusesliquidwhichstinksandburnsto

prevent pirates from climbing up the hull wall.

This method seems effective but how to

shower

theliquidoverthepiratesisaproblemtoconsider.

Table1.Comparisonoftypesofattacksandboardedrate.

_______________________________________________

ActualAttacks Attempted Attacks  Boarded

Boarded Hijacked FireduponAttemptedTotalRate

_______________________________________________

2003 311 192093  443 70

2004 228 111377  329 69

2005 182 231952  276 66

2006 162 14756  239 68

2007 169 181462  263 64

2008 151 494647  293 52

2009 155 49121  85  410 38

2010 196

 53107  89  445 44

2011 176 45113  105 439 40

2012 174 282867  297 59

2013 202 122228  264 77

2014 183 211328  245 75

2015 203 15127  246 83

2016 150 71222  191 79

_______________________________________________



Figure6.ConceptualsketchofSomalianti‐piracyactivityby

JapaneseMaritimeDefenseForce.

Thesemethodsareeffectiveandstillimportantbut

theproblemhereisthatallthesemethodsaretodeal

withthesituationafterthepiratesreachtheship.We

believe we need to develop an anti‐piracy measure

whichnotonlypreventpiratestoclimbthewallbut

alsokeeppirates

awayfromapproachingtheship.

3 PROPOSALOFANEWANTI‐PIRACY

MEASURE

3.1 Japaneseself‐defenseforceanti‐piracyactivity

In2009,Japanannouncedsendingnavaltaskforceto

stoppiracyoff thecoastofSomalia forinternational

cooperation.Thisactivitystartedin2010.

This anti‐piracy measure consists

of some

maritimepatrolaircraftslikeP3C,helicoptersandthe

destroyers.Figure6showsaconceptualschematicsof

an example of Somali anti‐piracy activities by

JapaneseDefenseForce.

708

Here, several merchant ships are escorted by the

fleet along about 900km on the sea lane of Gulf of

Aden.Needlesstosay,thismeasureisveryeffective

and as shown in Figure 4, the number of incidents

dramatically decreased. However, there are some

disputesandworriesinthismeasure

duetoJapanese

socialbackground.

Japanese non‐aggressive constitution contains the

article 9 which means Japanese military forces can

onlybeusedfordefensivepurposes.ItsaysJapanese

military forces never use their force to solve any

internationalissues.It isobvious thatthisactivity is

based on an international

cooperation without any

vicious intention, however dispatching a military

force outside of Japanese regional area includes

legally vague problems. So this activity has been

controversialinJapanandhasrisksthattheJapanese

governmentwillfacesomelegalproblemsifJapanese

maritimedefenseforcehappenstohurtsomeone.

Thissensitiveissue

isbeyondourprofession,but

challenging to develop a new effective measure to

replace dispatching the military force is our

responsibilityasengineers.Webelieveeachmerchant

ship should have a measure to protect herself with

minimizeddamagetohumanbeings.

3.2 AnewconceptusingUAVdrones

Our concept

is using UAV drones. Just bringing in

drones does not need any extra facilities like water

pumps,electricfencesetc.Weneednoextraspaceto

keepthem.When we wanttochange a  shipwe just

bring the system into the ship. Portability and

flexibilityareoneadvantageofthis

concept.

Therearebasicallythreephasesinourconceptas

explainedbelow.

 Phase1–Finding&Warning

When a ship is in the area of frequent pirate

attacks,it’simportanttomonitortheradartofind

any boat approaching to the ship. If the

unidentifiedboat comesinto

a certain range (e.g.

10km),we send a drone  to theboat to find what

kind of people are on the boat. If they are not

apparentlyfishermenandsuspiciouslooking,we

warnthemusingaspeakerattachedtothedrone

thatwefoundyouandnotcomenearerany

more

otherwiseyouwillbeharmed.Wecallthisphase

asfinding&warningphaseasshowninFigure7.

 Phase2–Stalling

If the boat ignores the warning and still

approachingtheship,thephasemovestothenext

stage. In this phase, we can launch nets

or ropes

fromthedronetothebowoftheboat.Thescrew

propelleroftheboatwillinhalethenetsorropes,

which stalls the engine of the boat. We call this

phaseasstallingphaseasshowninFigure8.

 Phase3–Obstruction

Ifthestallingphase

failstostoptheboatandthe

piratesreachtothesidewalloftheship,thephase

movestothefinalstage.Inthisphase,wehaveto

obstruct their climbing up the side wall. It is

possible to load some fire arms on the drone.

However, to find

a non‐lethal way is one of the

important purposes of this research. There are

severalnon‐lethalwayslikeLARDorstronglaser

device but they need strong power, which is not

suitableforadronebecausepayloadofthedrone

is limited. So we decided to select a liquid

 or

powderdeterrentsystemtoattachtothedrone.



Figure7.Finding&Warningphase.



Figure8.Stallingphase.



Figure9.Obstructionphase.

The maximum speed of a drone is around 40kt,

whichisfasterthanaboat.Apossibleconcernisthe

maximumflighttimewhichisaround20minutes.We

needtodevelopadronewhichcanflylonger.

4 ACONCEPTUALDESIGNOFTHESYSTEM

4.1 SystemComponents

Figure 10 shows

 the drone DJI S1000 for our

experiments. Its payload is 10kgf. The video

transmission range is less than 3km. This range is

shortbecauseRadioactlimitsthetransmissionpower

709

inJapan.Asthislimitisnotappliedtothesea outside

of Japanese area, we can amplify the power to

broadenthetransmissionrangewhenitisusedinthe

realsituation.



Figure10.DJIS1000forourexperiments

Figure11 shows the structure of our design. The

minimumsystemconsistsofacamera unit,aspeaker

unit, a wireless communication unit and an anti‐

piracy unit. The camera unit includes a normal

camera and a thermo camera. The wireless

communication unit has a video transmitter and a

remotecontrol

module.Theanti‐piracyunithasanet

launcherandaliquidorpowdersprayunit.



Figure11.Systemcomponents

4.2 Thermocamerasystem

A thermo camera system is very important for our

system. Attacks of pirates often occur during the

night and normal cameras cannot be used unless a

lightingdevice isnot equipped.From the viewpoint

ofavoidingapirateshootingdownthedronebyfire

arms,it’sbetter

forusnottoequipalightingdevice

because it also helps his shooting it. On the other

hand, a thermo camera can detect the engine of the

boataswellasabodyofahumanbeingwithoutany

lightingdevices.

There is a drone which has a thermo

camera

whose price is around 2 million JPY. It is too

expensive for us. So we made a cheaper system for

our experiments using a small computer “raspberry

pi” and a FLIR thermo camera. The raspberry pi’s

HDMI connects to LIGHTBRIDGE data

communicationdevice andwe can monitor both the

console

ofraspberrypiandthethermocameraimage

aswellasthestatusofthedronelikeGPSorheightas

showninFigure12.Weareplanningtheprogramof

the anti‐piracy unit is to set on this raspberry pi

computermodule.Sowecheckedinthisexperiment

thatwecanmonitortheraspberrypiconsolethrough

LIGHTBRIDGEmodule.

Figure13and14showtheexperimentalresultof

takingthermoimageinthedark.Asshowninthese

pictures we can take a clear thermo image through

this system. In this experiment, our thermo camera

rangeisaroundonly

15m,becausethethermocamera

including raspberry pi in this experiment is very

cheap as less than 50,000 JPY. In the real operation,

we need to use more high spec camera to make the

capture range longer. This is one of our important

futureworks.



Figure12.Monitorsystemofcamerasanddronestatus.

710



Figure13.Experimentsofathermocamera.



Figure14.Thermocameraimagetransmittedbythedrone.

4.3 Netlauncherandliquid/powderspraysystem

Ouranti‐piracyunitconsistsofa netlauncheranda

liquid/powder spray system. A net launcher has a

servo motor controlled hook which holds a net. We

used the controller’s extra switch to open the hook

remotely. We confirmed that a net falls

 down from

the drone remotely. However,  it seemed difficult to

control the position of the net on the sea when the

drone flies high. The driver of the drone must be

trained to put the net properly in front of the

approachingboat.

Asfortheliquidorpowderspray

system,wetried

abasic test using asmall box whichhas a lid on its

bottom.The lidcan be openedusing a servo motor.

Whenweopenthelid,pepperpowderfalldownfrom

thebox.Thedronemustbepositionedabovethehead

ofaclimbingpirateto

puttheliquidorpowderonto

him.Weareinvestigatingthismatterfurtherthepla ce

where is the best to deter a pirate from climbing as

wellasthetimingwhenisthebest.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, we surveyed recent trend in piracy

incidents from IMB reports, especially

from the

viewpoint of a Japanese. The total number of

incidents are decreasing reflecting the various

activities on anti‐piracy international cooperation,

especially in Africa including Somalia. However, in

East Asia, especially in Indonesia, the number of

pirate attacks are increasing. Considering national

budget for anti‐piracy measure in Japan, there

 were

an interesting relation between the budget and the

numberofincidents.In2015and2016,thebudgethas

been cut and the attacked piracy incidents for

Japanese managed ships increased. Japanese anti‐

piracymeasureissendingafeetofJapaneseMaritime

Self Defense Force including destroyers, P3Cs and

helicopters.

This is effective but more low‐cost

measuresshouldbeinvestigated.

We proposed a concept using a drone as a non‐

lethal measure. This method doesn’t need any

constructive fabrication to the ship and the total

systemisveryportableandflexible.Wesuccessfully

testedathermocamerasystemasan

importantsensor

tofindapirateboat.Alsowetestedanetlaunchand

liquid/powder spray system. As the operator must

practice to manipulate a drone system, we found it

veryeffectiveasanewanti‐piracymeasure.

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