In 2012 the German Aerospace Center has established a Research Cluster for Maritime Safety and Security. As part of this cluster the Research Center for Maritime Safety and Security at DLR branch Neustrelitz has been officially opened on 27th of March 2014. Within the dedicated R&D project „R&D for Maritime Safety and Security and dedicated real time services“ the actual research activities of different DLR Institutes and Departments are bundled to open up new research areas in cooperation and consultation with industrial and scientific partners.
The superior goal of the R&D activities has to be seen within an accompanying and consecutively technology and system development for safety and security related maritime issues jointly processed between Science and Industry. The following four main goals are particularely of importance:
Related to application oriented aspects the cooperation with the cross-sector network MARISSA shall be used to support the German maritime industry within the scope of R&D resources for a joint development of services, products and procedures with maximize safety and security benefits and a high technology readiness level.
The DLR-Research Center Maritime Safety and Security Neustrelitz have been established as a virtual cluster of different research Institutes of DLR. In time two DLR Institutes, the Institute of Communications und Navigation as well as the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of DLR are involved. Our department is leading the sub-project „Maritime Traffic guidance and Safety” with the aims to ensure data and system integrity within the maritime traffic system, to provide nautical information individually and in automatic manner and to support the mariner and /or VTS operator within the decision making.
At EOC site the sub-project „Satellite based real time services“ is performed by the working group „Maritime Security“. One aim of this project is the development and implementation of processor chains working in near real time to detect ice, oil and vessels based on remote sensing data. A second aim is focused on the collection of user needs related to the delivery format and way taking into account safety and security rules. A third aim deals with the development and utilization of web-based delivery components (WebGIS).