BACKGROUND
Digitalisation in industry and agriculture is advancing very quickly and is enabling new, sometimes disruptive innovations. For example, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) are being used more and more frequently in industrial logistics as well as in agricultural sub-area management to meet challenges that were previously difficult to solve.
In agriculture, for example, this is the early detection and control of diseases as well as fungal and insect infestations. According to the current state of technology, UAVs can in principle be used if a number of practicality challenges can be solved.
HOW IT WORKS
Teamwork is also important among robots. For this purpose, the swarm elements measure their relative arrangement by means of radio signals and possibly other sensors and thus avoid collisions. The main purpose of a drone swarm flight is also to explore and exchange data with cameras, radar, Geiger counters, gas sensors or other analysers.
TECHNOLOGY
UAVs with special requirements for:
1. sustained flight,
2. swarm flight and
3. autonomous flight within a defined task.
The work package deals with these three topics. For sustained flight, an autonomous landing platform is being developed on which UWB (ultra-wideband) sensor technology is used for automatic landing and mechanical battery replacement. This process interrupts the mission for a maximum of a few minutes and allows the farmer to concentrate fully on farming.
Swarm flight allows the definition of complex, sequential or parallel tasks involving several UAVs at the same time.
Robust drone swarm flights with formation formation and radar and UWB based positioning.
ADVANTAGES
Competence in swarm flight of drones
Different sensors can be used (image recording, spectroscopic recordings)
Different drone systems conceivable on current platform
Automated battery change as a condition for continuous flight
APPLICATION
Agricultural industry / monitoring of large-scale facilities or forest areas
STATUS
Functionality testing
Target TRL 6
CONTACT
Matthias Nattke
Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg
Chair of Industrial Information Technology
Platz d. Deutschen Einheit 1
03046 Cottbus
Mehrzweckgebäude, Room 220
M: matthias.nattke@b-tu.de
T: +49 (0) 355 69 4498
