Multi-sensor integration for robust autonomous drone navigation – Participation in a technological challenge

Closed

Programme Category

EU Competitive Programmes

Programme Name

European Defence Fund (EDF)

Programme Description

The European Defence Fund (EDF) is the Commission’s initiative to support collaborative defence research and development, and to foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base.

Programme Details

Identifier Code

EDF-2024-LS-RA-CHALLENGE-SENS-RADNP

Call

Multi-sensor integration for robust autonomous drone navigation – Participation in a technological challenge

Summary

To fulfil their missions, the next generation of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are expected to offer an increased level of autonomy. Their effective deployment necessitates key features of swarming and navigation to target positions when GNSS availability is contested or lost and more generally in non-permissive environments.
The use of various types of sensors (e.g. inertial, optical, infrared, hyperspectral, radar, LIDAR, acoustic, etc.) and intelligent information fusion are needed to provide the necessary capabilities to tackle these technical and operational challenges. Such intelligent navigation payloads should be usable on a wide range of unmanned assets, including in swarm formations, while having a low SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power and Costs). Their performances should be measured in a quantitative, objective and comparable way.

Detailed Call Description

The proposals must address technological solutions for autonomous aerial drone navigation in non-permissive environments. These solutions must be evaluated through the testing environment set up in the framework of the technological challenge.

The proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of mandatory activities:
Generating knowledge:

  • Research on new approaches for robust autonomous navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles and systems in non permissive environments.

Participation to the evaluation campaigns organised in the framework of the technological challenge, including:

  • contribution to the exchanges with the other stakeholders for elaborating the evaluation plans;
  • participation of the unmanned aerial systems and software modules in experimental field and data-based test campaigns managed by the challenge organisers, whereby performance measurements are conducted to assess navigation capabilities;
  • collection and sharing of sensor data;
  • participation to debriefing workshops.

The proposals should substantiate synergies and complementarities with foreseen, ongoing or completed activities in the field of autonomous drone navigation.

Functional requirements
The proposed technologies should meet the following functional requirements:

  • The unmanned aerial vehicles and systems should be able to accurately estimate their positions and to go to a designated target area with high reliability in non-permissive environments, where GNSS signals and communications may be degraded or lost.
  • The performances for these abilities should be measured through the test campaigns conducted in the framework of the technological challenge, using protocols and metrics based on those described in the preliminary evaluation plan provided as part of the call documents. Details about how the proposed approaches and systems will address the tasks outlined in the preliminary evaluation plan should be described in the proposals. Any relevant system performances measured in the context of previous technological challenges should be mentioned in the proposals.
  • Systems should be able to record the data acquired through their sensors to enable full replay of flights and reproduction of experiments in a software environment. The types of data that can be shared with other teams should be described in the proposals.
  • The proposed approaches should be relevant for future integration and operational missions, especially in terms of SWaP-C. The user interfaces should help users and in particular pilots to understand and anticipate the system behaviours.

Call Total Budget

€20.000.000

Thematic Categories

  • Research, Technological Development and Innovation

Eligibility for Participation

  • Businesses
  • Legal Entities
  • Other Beneficiaries
  • Private Bodies
  • Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
  • State-owned Enterprises

Eligibility For Participation Notes

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
    • non-EU countries:
  • have their executive management structure established in eligible countries
  • must not be subject to control by a non-associated third country or non-associated third-country entity (unless they can provide guarantees – see Annex 2 – approved by the Member State or EDF associated country where they are established).

Consortium composition
Proposals must be submitted by minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

Call Opening Date

20/06/2024

Call Closing Date

05/11/2024

National Contact Point(s)

Ministry of Defense
Address:
 172-174 Strovolos Avenue, 2048 Strovolos, Nicosia
Telephone: 22 807500
Email: defence@mod.gov.cy
Website: https://mod.gov.cy/

Department of Research and Innovation
Telephones: 22 807755, 22 807754
Email: research.innovation@mod.gov.cy

EU Contact Point

For help related to this call, please contact: DEFIS-EDF-PROPOSALS@ec.europa.eu