Ricerc@Sapienza

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.