DRON Multipropósito

The project consists of conducting a feasibility study on the technical possibilities offered by flying drones to undertake tasks in different areas of application, and to conduct a study of the current market to act as a decision-making framework for future projects. There is currently an enormous range of drone models on the market, with their different strengths and technical capabilities. The purpose of the study is to provide a decision-making tree of models depending on the requirements of the project.

Drones are currently used in tasks of surveillance, monitoring, reconnaissance and detection as they can be deployed quickly. On the other hand, as they are unmanned, there is no risk to the physical integrity of whoever is flying them, unlike other aircraft like helicopters or airplanes. These tasks are generally carried out using high resolution, infra-red or heat-sensitive cameras, but recently, other kind of instruments have been fitted to acquire data from sensors, such as temperature sensors, or to detect different gases. The large supply of unmanned vehicles on the market poses problems when buying one for a given use. The objectives of the project are as follows:

• To conduct a broad market study of the models of drones currently on the market, bearing in mind their different technical specifications. – Establish a decision-making framework to allow the potential buyer to select the drone model that is the best fit with any set of needs. The technical challenges are: – To compile information on existing models of drones. – Study the instrumentation fitted, or which can be fitted to drones.
• Formalisation of the decision-making framework for drone models.
• Conduct a pilot test based on the decision-making framework. The study is part of strategy strand 3: Promotion and Implementation of R+D+I projects, in the thematic area of: Sub-aquatics and Robotics.

The project is aligned with the European Commission’s Blue Growth Communication of Support for sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors of the EU that acknowledges the importance of seas and oceans as driving forces of the European economy because of their great potential for innovation and growth, throughout the territory, with the Canary Island Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3), which envisages the blue economy as one of the region’s priorities for the period 2014- 2020 due to the strengths of this sector of activity and the socio-economic and environmental conditions of the Canary Islands to promote the associated activities in the territory and in other EU Atlantic regions.

This project has received funding from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) within the program to support Innovative Business Associations (AEI) to contribute to improve the competitiveness of Spanish industry.