Flying 8,428 km to help
We received an unexpected request for immediate assistance. On the island of Réunion, the on-site installation of port camera systems has stalled. We had 4 days to get ready for deployment in the southern hemisphere.
In this project, we are involved in the development, testing, and commissioning of systems for harbour and other container-handling cranes. We participated in the installation of the smart camera systems for positioning straddle carriers (imagine giant rubber-wheeled container carriers), the cranes were equipped with.
We talk about camera systems using artificial intelligence to make cranes operate more efficiently and support port tasks such as container tool recognition or vehicle positioning.
Our colleague had a lot of headaches because of the engineering tasks on site, but this mission was not only memorable due to the professional challenges. :) It's not every day you get to Réunion, but once you're there, it takes your breath away...
Réunion is an overseas department and region of France, practically a 'European Union' island, but just east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Mauritius. The island is an active volcano: it last erupted just a few months ago. The landscape is lush with rainforests, giant turtle reserves, and gigantic waves crashing on the coast. However, Réunion is not only a paradise for tourists but for sharks. You can swim only in one designated section of the ocean: where an outer coral reef protects the coastal section from predators. A great place, no doubt...
We got some pictures from our colleague, so that we don't just imagine a gigantic ocean port or a volcanic island.
The evosoft helmet decided to stay on the island of Réunion. (We understand that...) For a while, it swung gaily in the water of the loading bay, and then it disappeared forever. The helmet was blown off our colleague's head by a major gust of wind from a height of about 50 metres. (Fortunately, only the helmet! 😉)
This was one of my favourite pictures from the report. The waves on the west coast of the island break through the coastal caves like geysers.
I had no idea, but it is strictly forbidden to swim in the ocean on the island of Réunion! The island is a haven for sharks (including the great white shark). There is one exception: you can take a dip in the water on a beach protected by a reef. The picture shows a shark warning sign on the southern tip of the island.
Ocean view from the southernmost point of the island.
Bathing is forbidden, but fishing is not! 😉
A natural curiosity: moss mats have settled on volcanic rock.
If the lava flow reaches the ocean during a volcanic eruption, the coastal road has to be rebuilt. Fortunately, molten rock rarely gets this far.
Our colleague told us the active volcano on the island, Piton de la Fournaise, last erupted in September 2022. Traces of this eruption can be seen in the picture: a solidified lava flow and some charred tree trunks.
The west coast of the island is covered in black sand. It's volcanic rock that has been eroded by the ocean into black grains of sand. Our colleague has some knowledge of meteorology, so I learned from him that the picture has a spectacular background of a rare type of cloud, the undulatus (a kind of wave clouds). 😉
A real specialty visible only from the Southern Hemisphere is the Large Magellanic Cloud. The picture was taken on the last night on Réunion. Our colleague drove to a place where he could take a pic under a sufficiently dark sky from a deserted riverbed. I think many of us would like to see this dwarf galaxy live.
