Towards a European Network of Enabling Technologies for Drones

Abstract

Drone-based service and product innovation is curtailed by the growing dependence on poorly inter-operable proprietary technologies as well as by the risks posed to people on the ground, to other vehicles and to property (e.g. critical infrastructure). Regarding the innovation aspect, the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management (SESAR) Joint Research Undertaking is developing U-space, a set of services and procedures to help drones access airspace safely and efficiently. The aim of COMP4DRONES is to complements SESAR JU efforts by providing a framework of key enabling technologies for safe and autonomous drones with a specific focus on U2 and U3. The COMP4DRONES project has contributed to support (1) efficient customization and incremental assurance of drone-embedded platforms, (2) safe autonomous decision making concerning individual or cooperative missions, (3) trustworthy drone-to-drone and drone-to-ground communications even in presence of malicious attackers and under the intrinsic platform constraints, and (4) agile and cost-effective design and assurance of drone modules and systems. In this paper, we discuss the results of COMP4DRONES project to complement SESAR JU efforts with a particular focus on safe software and hardware drone architectures.