AUDROS - Autonomous Drone Services for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear threats (CBRNe).

Customer: European Space Agency & European Defence Agency

Sector & Application: Monitoring, Security, Public Defense 

Project summary 

For the first time, two important EU institutions have created a shared budget and decided to work on a drone-involving project with a private company. 

The challenges

The malicious use of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear materials or weapons with the intention to cause significant harm or disruption are one of the most painful problems related to security. Emergency responders need reliable and interoperable chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) detectors to protect life and property.

 

Value for specific industries or roles

  • UAVs detect radiological, biological, and chemical threats to ensure the safety of countless people. 
  • UAVs can quickly take to the air and investigate the possible threat keeping first responders at a safe distance.
  • Dronehub offers authorities significant defensive capabilities. 
  • Drones offer unique opportunities to identify, defend against, and manage the consequences of CBRN attacks.

Business implications

This case will open access to gov & public safety-related contracts supported by the EU – potential contracts will be fulfilled by Dronehub partners in each country. Dronehub will not be involved directly in those contracts but will supply the technology to selected System Integrators. 

Fully autonomous BVLOS solution for two scenarios:

  1. ANTI DRONE SOLUTION TO BE INSTALLED AS A PART OF AN INTRUDER
  2. MOBILE UAV SURVEILLANCE AND MONITORING SOLUTION

The mission of the drone is to capture the enemy drone by shooting a trap net and delivering the captured drone to a secured area. In case of failure of the net, to complete this task, the enemy drone will be disabled by collision.

The Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) docking-station system is part of a complex solution including radar monitoring of the air space, drone recognition system, and the RPAS navigation system which navigates the drone towards the enemy drone and disables it.

In this solution, the hangar ensures the continuous standby mode of the RPAS and enables the immediate start of the mission after receiving a command. The hangar also monitors the battery status and status of the whole system. Important is the fast response on start command to the mission.

MOBILE UAV SURVEILLANCE AND MONITORING SOLUTION

Security, military, and civil protection systems (users) do request a solution that enables autonomous supervision provided during large scale events (fires, floods, other):

– Thermal imagery

– Radioactivity monitoring

– Monitoring of CWA and/or TIC

– Day and Night vision – video or imagery transmission

Autonomous operation is crucial for the users as it optimizes the use of human resources and improves the data quality and allows repeated monitoring of large areas in a relatively short time. The frequency of repetition is adjustable to user preferences.

The measured data and imagery are requested to be processed and displayed in real or nearly real-time and stored for future evaluation or training purposes.

Partners: 

 

A drone detection system needs to be complemented by an elimination effector – small arms, electronic jammers, trained animals, etc. The DronHub effector consists of a UAV installed in a hangar working in a 24/7 standby mode. The drone is equipped either with a net gun or an electronic jammer. The Hangar and the UAV react automatically on the command issued by the drone detection system and immediately an elimination mission. Elimination mission consists of approaching enemy UAVs using online data from the detection system, taking over control by the onboard visual 3D system, approaching an effective distance, and eliminating the drone using a net to capture the enemy UAV or electronic jamming device. The Hangar will be installed in a prison to defend the facility and capture invading UAVs transporting contraband to the prison. 

 

This scenario was defined by Military Technical Institute with potential use for protection of prison areas where drone delivery of contraband of different types is becoming an issue – mobile communication devices, drugs, weaponry, and similar.

Private enterprise 601 s.r.o. with potential private client base protecting their facilities against monitoring or filming of private properties by unauthorized persons and protection against terrorist attacks by using MOTS carrying dangerous payload as explosives.

This scenario also attracted potential military customers. The risk of potential terrorist attacks using MOTS.

The proposed innovation – integration of the hangar in the service provision chain, is changing the role of UAV services in the stakeholders/customers’ processes. Autonomous or automatic functions increase the importance of these systems and open new potential fields of use. The most important characteristics are:

  • a higher number of flights,
  • frequency and quality of data provided to monitoring and control systems
  • lower maintenance and operational efforts
  • expected reliability

There is a long list of services which have to be:

        EXECUTED REPEATEDLY ON THE SAME LOCATION

        EXECUTED FREQUENTLY ON SPECIAL DEMAND OR IN A UNPREDICTABLE REPETITION

        EXECUTED ON DEMAND WHERE THE REACTION TIME IS OF IMPORTANCE (10 SECS TO START) 

A drone detection system needs to be complemented by an elimination effector – small arms, electronic jammers, trained animals, etc. The DronHub effector consists of a UAV installed in a hangar working in a 24/7 standby mode. The drone is equipped either with a net gun or an electronic jammer. The Hangar and the UAV react automatically on the command issued by the drone detection system and starts immediately an elimination mission. Elimination mission consists of approaching enemy UAVs using online data from the detection system, taking over control by the onboard visual 3D system, approaching an effective distance, and eliminating the drone using a net to capture the enemy UAV or electronic jamming device. The Hangar will be installed in a prison to defend the facility and capture invading UAVs transporting contraband to the prison. 

MOBILE SURVEILLANCE AND MONITORING SYSTEM for FIRST RESPONDERS

During large-scale events such as fires, chemical contamination (TIC), floods, search and rescue events, and similar, the first responders need to keep an overview of the situation in the field to deliver fast and effective intervention and to minimize threats to own units and possibly other affected persons. Repeated delivery of situation maps containing visualized data collected using cameras and sensors for heat, radiation, gas detection, and day and night visual data enables the commanders to keep an overview, inform the units about the situation develops and make qualified decisions. These data also are needed for reporting and eventually training purposes. The data will be integrated into the GINA Assistant. Mobile hangar and UAV installed on a trailer will be used in an automatic/autonomous mode during real large-scale events with fire brigades. 

User needs 

The most important characteristics are:

  •                  a higher number of flights,
  •                 frequency and quality of data provided to monitoring and control systems
  •                 lower maintenance and operational efforts
  •                 expected reliability

 

Official project website: https://business.esa.int/projects/audros