Security Robots for Shipyards: Quay, Dock and Hall

Shipyard sites confront security managers with a geometry found at no other industrial facility. Long quay edges, deep dry docks, high ship hulls as sight barriers, material stores with high asset value, and an open waterside perimeter. This article delivers an operational assessment for shipyard managers considering autonomous security robots in yard and marine operations.

Why Static Guard Posts Structurally Fail at Shipyards

A typical mid-sized shipyard covers between 200,000 and 800,000 square metres, distributed across the quay edge, one or more dry docks, material stores, painting and welding halls, and the administration building. This geometry cannot be covered by static Posten.

A single 24/7 guard post costs between €15,000 and €25,000 per month, depending on the applicable Manteltarifvertrag and location. The effective line of sight reaches a maximum of 150 metres under ideal conditions. Four posts for basic coverage generate personnel costs between €60,000 and €100,000 per month, before sick-leave and holiday cover. Current data on staffing shortfalls and cost trends in the Wach- und Sicherheitsgewerbe are published by BDSW.

Ship hulls, containers, and crane structures create blind sectors. A human Streife reaches those sectors after 20–40 minutes of circuit. Wind, salt spray, and night shifts reduce alertness measurably after the third hour. Securing a shipyard with Posten alone means paying the price of full coverage for coverage that is not full.

For the direct cost-model comparison: TCO comparison Wachschutz.

Threat Landscape at Shipyards 2025

The operational threat landscape intensified between 2022 and 2025. Theft of non-ferrous metals, ship equipment, and specialist tooling causes annual losses of €400,000–€1.2 million at mid-sized yards. Copper, bronze, and specialist steel are the primary targets.

Waterside access attempts by inflatable craft are seldom captured by fixed cameras. Camera angles are optimised for the landside; the water edge remains sensorially under-served at many installations. This sector warrants explicit treatment because generic perimeter-security concepts regularly omit it.

Sabotage of naval contracts falls under elevated protection requirements under the KRITIS-Dachgesetz once a yard is classified as a Bundeswehr supplier. The KRITIS-Dachgesetz draft defines sector-specific protection obligations for supply chains including shipping and defence: see Bundestag-Drucksache 20/9262.

Drone overflights for intelligence-gathering on new builds increased by a factor of 3.4 between 2022 and 2024. Yards with military or research contracts are particularly affected. Fire loads in painting halls and battery rooms require early detection within 90 seconds. Later detection results in total loss of the hall concerned.

Sensor Profile for Shipyards: QR-2 and QR-3 Compared

Sensor selection follows the yard's geometry. Exterior surfaces, the quay edge, and dry-dock circuits require different sensor packages than material stores or painting halls.

QR-2 for outdoor patrol covers exterior surfaces in all visibility and weather conditions using thermal imaging, optical person-detection, and audio anomaly detection. Operating cost: €3,500 per month under the Robotics-as-a-Service model. QR-3 with drone detection adds LiDAR and detection of airborne objects up to 400 metres altitude; operating cost: €3,800 per month.

Salt-spray resistance to IP66 and protective coating against chloride atmospheres are standard for coastal operations. Audio anomaly detection recognises broken glass, metal cutting, and boat motors at distances over 80 metres, including in wind and wave noise. Patrol routes are defined as GPS geofences with random deviations within the route to prevent pattern recognition by observers.

Safety requirements for mobile service robots are governed by EN ISO 13482. Devices deployed at shipyards fully satisfy this standard.

Deployment Zones at the Shipyard

Dry dock: patrol on the surrounding maintenance deck, thermal imaging evaluated against heat points at welding stations outside the working shift. Smouldering fires after welding work are among the most frequent causes of fire at shipyards.

Quay edge: waterside detection of approaches within 50 metres. The acoustic and thermal signature of an inflatable craft is captured and reported to the Werkschutz control room. Handover to the harbour master follows a defined escalation path.

Material store: indoor patrol with QR-1 for non-ferrous metals, specialist steel, and ship equipment, €3,200 per month. RFID reconciliation with the warehouse management system documents inventory deviations per patrol.

Painting halls and battery halls: early fire detection via thermal signatures. Detection threshold is under 90 seconds from the first heat anomaly.

Helicopter pads and heliports at offshore yards: drone detection via QR-3. Detection of rotary-wing and fixed-wing drones above authorised flight corridors.

For the general methodology: Perimeter protection for industrial facilities.

TCO Comparison: Conventional Wachschutz Against the Hybrid Model

The economics are decided on an annual basis. Pure personnel guarding with four Posten costs €80,000 per month, i.e. €960,000 per year. This configuration covers the site with gaps, with response times of 20–40 minutes in blind sectors.

A hybrid model with one remaining Posten plus three QR-2 units and one QR-3 costs €35,300 per month, i.e. €423,600 per year. The human Posten handles shift changes, visitor reception, and escalation. The robots patrol in parallel on four defined routes.

Saving: €536,400 per year, with higher area coverage and uninterrupted documentation. No capital investment, monthly OpEx, 24-month minimum term, delivery within 48 hours of contract signature.

Insurance premiums for shipyard operators typically fall by 8–15 percent with documented electronic perimeter monitoring. That saving is additional to the direct cost reduction. Comparable figures from the industrial context are shown in the hybrid TCO for industrial parks.

KRITIS Classification of Shipyards

Sector assignment determines which protection obligations apply. Yards holding Bundeswehr contracts fall under the Defence sector of the KRITIS-Dachgesetz. Civil yards above a defined tonnage threshold are treated as part of the Logistics and Shipping supply chain.

NIS-2 Article 21 requires documented risk analysis, technical and organisational protective measures, and incident reporting within 24 hours: see Directive (EU) 2022/2555. Obligations for operators of critical installations are governed by the KritisV.

Management liability attaches where adequate protective measures are demonstrably omitted. D&O insurance does not fully cover this liability once intent or gross negligence is documented.

Robot-assisted patrol produces audit-ready logfiles, GPS traces, and video recordings. Each patrol generates a timestamp per waypoint. Each anomaly generates an archived media file. In the event of an audit, this documentation is usable without post-processing. An overview of affected sectors is provided by KRITIS sectors at a glance.

Implementation: 48 Hours to Patrol Operations

The implementation path is standardised and plannable.

Day 1: site walk with the Werkschutzleiter and a Quarero engineer. Definition of patrol routes accounting for shift operations, crane travel paths, and exclusion zones. GPS survey of geofences to sub-metre accuracy.

Day 2: delivery of robots, integration with the Werkschutz control room, and radio link to the mobile Streife. Configuration of the escalation matrix with defined recipients per alarm type.

The first patrol runs within 48 hours of contract signature. No building permit, no fixed installation, no groundworks. The robots operate on existing paths and decks.

Decommissioning at contract end is completed within 72 hours with no structural trace. This protects the investment calculation, as no written-down asset value remains beyond the contract term.

Next Step for Shipyard Managers

Shipyard managers assessing deployment begin with a 60-day pilot at a reduced rate. This phase validates sensor profiles under real operating conditions: salt spray, shift changes, and weather extremes.

The initial consultation establishes sector classification under the KRITIS-Dachgesetz and NIS-2 Article 21. Based on contract structure and tonnage, the applicable obligations are defined. The sensor profile is tailored to dry dock, quay edge, material store, and halls individually. The TCO calculation sets the current Wachschutz contract against the hybrid model, calculated over 12 and 24 months.

Shipyard managers request the initial consultation via Request shipyard pilot programme. An engineer with shipyard experience responds within 24 hours.