About

The purpose of this project is to create and test a technology demonstrator which consists of a mobile drone network of relatively simple agents capable of autonomously cooperate for search and rescue mission in uncontrolled environments. The drone itself is based on a direct-drive wheel concept applied on a diwheel chassis configuration, providing improved running capabilities and standby operation. The robot is built as a chassis with two symmetrical side-wheel direct-drive engines. The choice of the motor assembly allows superior mobility and smaller footprint compared to tracked propulsion or rovers with four or more wheels. The robots can be programmed to carry-on long-time missions who require a running time of days, weeks or even months. The drive train itself is powered by two direct-drive electrical motors used also as wheels, which provide high efficiency, low noise, non-polluting, and very low mechanical complexity. The use of several robots/drones in an intelligent, self-configurable network is an innovative solution to extend the application area and adapt rapidly to context changing. Each drone will have sensors and communication devices in order to sense, communicate, and reason (independently or in clusters) in order to find the most suitable solution to the new context. From an application perspective, the use of a robot network to monitor the observed environment eliminates the time and resource required by human intervention. Due to its versatile construction and design, the drone network can be used for various applications, such as environmental monitoring and law enforcement.

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