The project aims at unleashing the full potential of autonomous drone networks in providing a real-time Drone as a Service (DaaS) framework. The framework provides the supporting algorithms and protocols for the emerging applications of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) swarms. Through the use of the proposed framework, we enable the creation of a quickly deployable network of flying devices, capable of self-coordination, self-configuration, and adaptation to the surrounding environment. The services being provided by the network include autonomous monitoring, target chasing, intrusion detection and mapping, and the delivery of small parcels or items. Applications span from disaster scenarios, where drones may be deployed to locate survivors or to deliver water, medicinal supplies, or defibrillators. Other applications are precision agriculture, monitoring of large crowd events, or crime scene inspection.
We foresee a widespread use of our framework, which will ensure the benefit of fast real-time services, and of relieving ground traffic.
While the use of flying devices is clearly motivated by their capability to quickly access otherwise impervious, if not hostile environments, the use of a coordinated fleet offers many additional key advantages.
Instead of exploiting individually controlled UAVs, several coordinated drones making up a fleet achieve broader monitoring capabilities, and superior performance in terms of target inspection delay, data delivery rate, and fast item delivery, while also increasing network robustness.
The necessity to manage large fleets guaranteeing fast responsiveness to upcoming events and local findings, brings about the need to design a framework of algorithms and protocols for autonomous operations, which allows the interoperability of heterogeneous devices, as well as their autonomous coordination in pursuing common goals, and adaptation to unknown, dynamic environment.
With this project, we aim at unleashing the full potential of autonomous drones to provide high-performance services, including mapping, area monitoring, target chasing, or parcel delivery. The use of such networks allows accessibility in contexts which are typically impervious or hostile. These networks are also beneficial in urban contexts, where they can be used for services traditionally operated by ground vehicles, thus relieving congested roads from urban traffic.
While many national and international initiatives provide the use of drones for rescue operations [7] or for agriculture monitoring [8], it is worth mentioning the initial attempts to use drones for parcel delivery in the last five years, by actors including Amazon, DHL, or UPS, just to name a few.
These encountered the skepticism of those who do not see our city skies as roads of tiny robotic aircraft. These initiatives were also slowed down by the lack of laws regulating the aviation administration of unmanned aerial devices. However, lawmakers are gradually paying more attention to the growing industry of aerial drones, and have finally embraced the idea that drones are here to stay. In this direction, the new FAA notice of proposed rulemaking for remote ID on drones, witnesses a strong interest in opening the urban skies to drone traffic [6]. In all the mentioned scenarios drones have been used extensively, but their activities were always remotely controlled by human personnel, guiding drones individually, or guided by a centralized control.
In all the mentioned cases it is clear that the use of drone networks is just at a preliminary tentative stage, and there is much that research can contribute.
Our project aims at taking the human out of the control loop, and making drone squads autonomous and self-configuring, within the limits posed by the national regulations concerning safety and privacy.
The aim of the project is to propose a visionary framework based on the use of a federated fleet of autonomous heterogeneous drones.
In fact, the project addresses the important challenge of ensuring a reliable and dependable monitoring and delivery service with unparalleled performance. The federated system proposed by the project constitutes an inexpensive and quickly deployable solution for inaccessible environments as well as urban contexts. The proposed solution is also sustainable, both from an ecological and an economic perspective.
Urban traffic congestion in fact has a deep impact on people's daily lives as it causes unpredictable delays and enormous economic costs due to high fuel consumption, wasted time, and unavailability of people, services, and goods. In densely populated cities we observe an increased need and lack of reliable services with guaranteed availability, security, and delay. This is especially important for life-saving deliveries, including medical supplies to health centers or to quarantined people, or perishable goods for chemical analysis, for which delivery must be performed and guaranteed with utmost urgency.
We recognize that the current legislation of several countries [9] is not ready to immediately accept the implementation of the service model provided by this project. There are currently several limitations to the widespread use of drones in the urban environment. Few countries have banned drones altogether. European countries currently pose some limitations which may preclude the widespread use of a service such as the one proposed in this project. These limitations include overnight flights, or flights above crowds or within a range of proximity to airports, or government buildings. We are also aware of the privacy and security issues deriving from the implementation of our project.
Nevertheless, we are all witnessing an incredibly fast evolution of the drone industry and a growing diffusion of drone systems. Policy and lawmakers are responding to this life-changing phenomenon, and to the need for more appropriate regulations to allow a safe and legal presence of UAV networks in our everyday lives.
As witnessed by the initiatives of Amazon, DHL, UPS, or Zipline [7] which aim at developing centralized networks of drones for parcel delivery, we strongly believe that, as we have already seen for artificial intelligence and robotic systems in many fields, drone networks will gain the trust of common people and lawmakers.
With the algorithms and protocols proposed in our project, practical implementations of swarms of aerial drones may be pursued to make such networks a reality.