DroneResponseNet: Situation reconnaissance through automated drone deployment from the centralized control center

01.06.2024

Motivation

The assessment of operational situations is crucial for public authorities and organizations with security tasks (BOS) in terms of time and across organizations in order to deploy emergency personnel in a quantitative and qualitative manner appropriate to the situation. As drones can cover an extensive area in a short space of time, they have great potential for this.

Currently, drone missions are carried out independently by each authority by specially trained emergency personnel, who are also required on site to operate the drone manually. Their use therefore depends on whether the respective specialist is available and how quickly they arrive at the incident scene. If several units use drones at the same time, there is a risk of coordination problems. The communication of the drone systems used is currently also locally limited and insufficiently protected against unauthorized access. Furthermore, there are no interfaces to relevant third-party systems (e.g. air traffic control).

Goals and approach

The aim of the DroneResponseNet project is to develop a control centre-supported drone system that, by incorporating the broadband BOS digital radio of the future, removes technical and organizational obstacles that currently severely limit cross-organizational use. DroneResponseNet wants to investigate the solution to these problems using distributed hangar systems with full control centre integration (end-to-end solution) for automated and cross-organizational drone reconnaissance. The starting point is the project partners’ existing solutions - the LifeX control center communication solution from Frequentis with a module for risk-minimized long-range flight planning and the AutoDok drone system from the Center for Telematics for autonomous on-site reconnaissance and creation of a 3D situation picture. These components are to be integrated into an overall system and further developed with the involvement of BOS users.

Innovations and prospects

The further development focuses in particular on flexible, confidential and robust data coding and transmission between the control center, hangar, drone and local forces, whereby pre-processing, 5G communication and WiFi communication are to be meaningfully linked. This will be realized on the one hand via a commercially available drone, which will be expanded via additional hardware such as a board computer, additional sensors and communication interfaces, and on the other hand via integration for control centers on the ground. The drone hangar is virtually simulated as a communication node in the project, but not yet built in reality.

Program

KoPa_45-Programm of Bundesanstalt für den Digitalfunk der Behörden und Organisationen mit Sicherheitsaufgaben

Project duration

Juni 2024 – Nov. 2025

Consortium

• Zentrum für Telematik e. V. Würzburg
• Frequentis Deutschland GmbH
• Polizeidirektion Lüneburg

Coordinator

Peter Janotta (Zentrum für Telematik e. V)

Contact

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