Global drone industry meets in Hamburg

"In certain circumstances, every minute counts,' says Michael Scheib, a police drone pilot. 'The situation can be confusing, especially when we're facing a disastrous scenario." Alerting the emergency services after the fact wastes time, and time is money. As part of the DroneResponseNet project, we aim to get ahead of the situation and provide a risk assessment simultaneously. The Lüneburg Police Directorate in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, the Würzburg Centre for Telematics, and Frequentis, a Viennese provider of safety-critical information and communication systems, are all involved in the project, focusing on the digitalisation of operational communication. The aim is to direct the right emergency services to the scene as fast and as safely as possible, and to coordinate the work on site.

Drones can also be extremely helpful after an operation. As soon as the police have finished their work, for instance, at the scene of a road accident with casualties, forensic investigations must be carried out. The State Criminal Police Office Hamburg (LKA) has used drones for crime scene documentation, 3D visualisation, and securing evidence since 2019. "The aim is to create real-time, true-to-scale drawings of the crime scene and accident to help reconstruct events, and these are particularly useful in court," said a Hamburg-based forensic scientist.

Not all deployment scenarios at Droneport Connect 2025 involved life-or-death situations. The State Roads, Bridges and Waterways Authority (LSBG), for instance, uses drones to protect urban infrastructure. "We document construction sites, observe traffic and examine the condition of e.g., bridges," says Jannis von Lüde, the Unmanned Traffic Management Project Manager. Eight LSBG drones provide high-resolution, positionally accurate data, analysed using artificial intelligence.

Mitja Wittersheim, joint founder of the Hamburg-based Beagle Systems, demonstrates a live flight of one of the company's eleven autonomous long-range drones on Droneport's large video screen. The multicopter is searching for methane leaks. "We use a laser-based instrument to do this," says Wittersheim. Beagle Systems owes this business segment to the EU Methane Regulation, which has stipulated regular and thorough inspection of pipelines since 2024. In this case, regulation means money, despite the fact that stringent EU and national regulations are otherwise a headache for the industry.

The skies are now dotted with drones, whether for private purposes, inspections, or official (emergency) missions. However, this increased air traffic poses an ever-growing risk of collisions. "We need an overview of the aerial situation," said Captain Gernot Schlosser from the German Armed Forces. A platform for creating drone flight plans has been set up in Manching, Bavaria. Drone pilots can register on the platform and log their flight times and altitudes in a simple and practical manner. This approach is to be further developed with HPA and the senate in Hamburg. An app will incorporate "dynamic data" and weather information. "Registering a flight over a fallow field sounds unproblematic; there is no danger to people there. The situation is entirely different when a farmer rents out his field and a rock concert suddenly takes place there."  Safety is the top priority for every drone flight.
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