Drone Fleets in the control of natural disasters - EU and South Korea invest EUR 8.3 million
12th June 2019
This solution is being developed by 20 international institutions from 12 countries and it will enable to provide critical information and communication services to the emergency teams.
“When the integrated solution that we are developing is ready, it will allow the emergency teams to easily enhance their situation assessment ability and their own protection. This solution will include the integration of a fleet of drones that can be operated by a single pilot, instead of having a pilot operating a single drone”, explains Rui Campos, Coordinator of the Wireless Networks area of INESC TEC’s Centre for Telecommunications and Multimedia.
Besides simplifying and accelerating the assessment of the disaster situation, information sharing, decision-making and operations management, the solution will deliver high quality information to any involved control centre through an intelligent and accessible web-based system that can be remotely operated. The solution will also include an airborne communications network in order to allow the emergency teams on the ground to communicate with the command centre in case of failure or need for mobile coverage at the site of the disaster.
In order to develop this solution, the international consortium received EUR 8 million from the EU and 300 000 from the South Korean Government.
When this project is completed, the implementation of the ResponDrone system will be quite simple. “In order to ensure the continued adoption of this solution by the first responder organisations, ResponDrone will be fully integrated and embedded within the current processes and procedures of the emergency teams”, explains the researcher of INESC TEC.
INESC TEC is responsible for the development of a wireless communications solution that is supported by drones, which will ensure communications between the emergency teams on the ground and the command centre, in case of failure in mobile coverage or need to reinforce the capacity at the site of the disaster.
The following institutions are part of ResponDrone: German Aerospace Center (Germany), Israel Aerospace Industries (Israel), Alpha Unmanned Systems (Spain), Thales Group (France), Korea Aviation Technologies (South Korea), Haut Comité Français pour la Défense Civile (France), National Emergency Management Authority (Israel), Fire Fighter Department of Corsica (France), Safety Region Haaglanden (the Netherlands), State Fire and Rescue Service of Latvia (Latvia), Ministry of Emergency Situations (Armenia), Region of Western Macedonia (Greece), Region of Central Macedonia (Greece), Regional Administration of Varna (Bulgaria), INESC TEC (Portugal), Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (France), INHA University (South Korea), American University of Armenia (Armenia), Time.lex (Belgium), Agora Partners (Israel).
This project is funded by the European Union’s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme and the Korean Government under Grant Agreement No. 833717.
More information on this project may be found here: https://respondroneproject.com/
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For more information:
Joana Coelho
Communication Service
INESC TEC
FEUP’s Campus
Rua Dr Roberto Frias
4200-465 Porto
Portugal
Tel.: +351 22 209 4297
Mob.: +351 924 444 321