HHLA Sky, a subsidiary of Hamburger Hafen und Logisik AG , received a German Innovation Award for outstanding innovation performance in the category “#W2 Excellence in Business to Business – Aviation & Maritime Technologies”

The award was presented for HHLA Sky’s process integrated control centre. This is a process management software that can actively manage and monitor more than 100 automated drones or mobile robots simultaneously out of sight. This solution convinced the jurors in terms of innovation, user benefits and economic efficiency.

The jury justified their vote as follows: “The Drone Control Centre from HHLA Sky was outstanding in several respects: not only does the software platform, which can be integrated into the given infrastructure and process landscape, enable the simultaneous control of up to 100 drones at different locations. Apart from flight management, the system can also clearly and simply map the entire process via planning, dispatching and the provision of data. Additionally, it functions with a minimum of human resources. It is a modern and well-designed comprehensive solution.”

Matthias Gronstedt and Lothar Müller, Managing Directors of HHLA Sky, had the honour of accepting this special award on May 24th in Futurium, the museum of the future, in Berlin.

“The focus is on Mobile Robots Management: our integrated control centre manages and monitors airborne robots and autonomous vehicles in a fundamentally efficient way. That’s what makes it so special,” Matthias Gronstedt is pleased to say and explains: “Our software maps the entire process chain automatically. This unleashes gigantic optimisation potential. For instance, think of regular inspection flights for huge industrial plants or bridge inspections with drones without holding up traffic. This will now be possible to implement on a broad scale.”

The German Innovation Award is presented by the German Design Council. It is the second award for HHLA Sky after winning the German Innovation Award last year.