RATEC

Aerostack2 was partly developed during RATEC, a proof of concept project funded by the Spanish State Research Agency and co-funded by the European Union.

• Funder. MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, co-funded by the European Union
• Reference. PDC2022-133643-C22
• Dates. December 2022 to November 2024
• Coordinator. Universidad Pablo de Olavide
• Links. Project page

The project

RATEC pairs a mobile ground robot with a drone connected to it by a power cable. Tethered drones get around the short flight time of small aerial vehicles, but the systems available so far are static, which limits them in inspection and maintenance missions in complex places. RATEC takes the prototype the team is developing a step closer to industry.

The ground robot and the drone work as a marsupial team, physically joined by a cable that carries power and data. The drone becomes an extension of the ground robot that reaches places the robot can't. The robot's batteries extend the drone's flight time, and the cable lets the robot do the heavy computing. In return, every joint manoeuvre has to respect the constraints of the cable, especially in complex environments.

The project industrializes the subsystems developed in COMCISE and validates the whole system in a relevant operational environment, raising it to technology readiness level 7. The result is a proof of concept of a tethered team for long inspection and maintenance missions, mainly where there is no GPS, such as tunnels, sewers, underground galleries, large logistics warehouses, and search and rescue after natural disasters. The ground robot carries the batteries, sensors and computers to work on its own, and the drone flies from it on the cable.

Publications

• R. Perez-Segui, P. Arias-Perez, J. Melero-Deza, M. Fernandez-Cortizas, D. Perez-Saura and P. Campoy. Bridging the Gap between Simulation and Real Autonomous UAV Flights in Industrial Applications. Aerospace, 10(9), 814, 2023.