Samenvatting

Critical materials are economically important raw materials with high supply risk. They are widely used in electronic components, batteries, sensors and drone-related systems. For Europe, access to these materials is a strategic issue because many of them are not sufficiently available within the European subsurface, and processing capacity for several key materials is also limited. This creates dependency on external supply chains and may affect industrial development, energy transition and technological independence. Therefore, the European Raw Materials Act provides an important policy background for this project. (European Commision, 2023)

Within HZ University of Applied Sciences, the Critical Materials research group focuses on the role of critical materials in sustainable energy systems. One related project is the development of a marine monitoring system for the Veerse Meer, in which sensor drones and supporting harbors are used to collect visual and environmental data. The intended monitoring tasks include observation of embankments and collection of water-quality However, previous drone designs did not systematically consider the role of critical materials. Since the drone contains various components, the use and lifetime of critical materials have become important aspects in redesign.

Besides the material issue, the current drone also has serious waterproofing problems. During previous operations, lots of water entered the drone through the seam between the hull and the cover. Because the internal electronic components were not completely sealed, short circuits occurred and the components failed. Also, the behavior of drone shaken or rolled by waves has not been fully tested. These problems show that the current prototype requires improvement in both material use and operational reliability.

After clarifying the client requirements, design boundaries and main technical problems of the previous prototype, the project focuses on two main issues: critical material dependency and waterproof performance. The current components and their functions will first be identified to understand the existing system structure. Then, the engineering estimation method will be used to calculate the estimated critical material content of the components. This provides a quantitative basis for identifying which components contribute most to the total critical material content.

The waterproofing issue is addressed by reviewing the limitations of the previous hull and cover arrangement. The earlier design relied on a cover-based solution, which created a leakage path during operation. Therefore, the redesign will consider a closed hull with fewer openings and improved protection for internal electronic components. In this way, the project background shows that the redesign is required not only for sustainability reasons, but also for improving the reliability of the sensor drone in water-surface operation.