European researchers have developed a small robotic drone (UAV) capable of helping save lives in emergency situations or preventing terrorist attacks in urban areas.

In civil life, drones are mainly used in the agriculture sector — for assessing how well crops are growing in a particular part of a field — or for meteorological measurements. The main barrier to the wider use of drones is their large size and lack of manoeuvrability around obstacles. Most military drones are fixed-wing UAVs designed to operate at high altitudes and do not need a lot of maneuverability. In built up, highly populated areas, such drones would pose a danger to people if they hit a tree or a building, or crashed due to the loss of its navigational signal. Smaller, lighter and autonomous

Seeing a market opportunity, European researchers and companies that make up the EU-funded µDrone (Micro Drone Autonomous Navigation and Environment Sensing) project are developing a smaller, more maneuverable drone that is capable of sensing and avoiding objects in its flight path. The new drone would be capable of carrying out missions autonomously in places with obstacles, such as in an urban area or inside a building. Such drones could be used to patrol sensitive areas to detect intruders, find the survivors of a disaster or detect chemical spills, among other operations, says project coordinator Christophe Leroux. The project team is close to developing a prototype of a small-size UAV capable of vertical take off and landing and for autonomous inspection and survey operations in urban areas with moving obstacles.

The mini-UAV was developed by AirRobot, a Germany-based company who is a member of the project consortium. The drone is about 50cm in diameter, weighs less than one kilogram, and can carry a payload of about 200 grams. It looks like a miniature helicopter with four propellers, allowing it to take off and land vertically. A protective band surrounds the machine, preventing harm to people and the machine if an accident occurs. The team also developed the software and hardware so the drone can locate its position in the air, navigate autonomously, and respond to unexpected events, such as an obstacle. Mission planning, collision avoidance and trajectory determination have been built into the drone’s software and hardware. The software’s visual memory map allows it to return home along its previous flight path. The drone can be controlled from the ground or it can fly on a mission autonomously following a predefined path. Manual control can be switched on and off depending on the mission. The software and interface allows an operator without any technical knowledge to control it easily in urban areas or inside a building, Leroux says. The consortium is now focusing on evaluating and testing the new drone with potential users, including fire services. A small-sized UAV could be used for reconnaissance of the fire scene, helping fire fighters better assess how the fire is developing and if lives need to be saved. The drone will be tested with a fire service in Greece in November 2009 to determine how it performs. µDrone received funding from the Specific Targeted Research Projects (STREP) strand of the Sixth Framework Programme for research. (Source: ICT Results)