HADRON: Human-friendly Control and Artificial Intelligence for Military Drone Operations

As drones are getting more and more entangled in our society, more untrained users require the capability to operate them. This scenario is to be achieved through the development of artificial intelligence capabilities assisting the human operator in controlling the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and processing the sensor data, thereby alleviating the need for extensive operator training. This paper presents the HADRON project that seeks to develop and test multiple novel technologies to enable human-friendly control of drone swarms. This project is divided into three main parts. The first part consists of the integration of different technologies for the intuitive control of drones, focusing on novice or inexperienced pilots and operators. The second part focuses on the development of a multi-drone system that will be controlled from a command and control station, in which an expert pilot can supervise the operations of the multiple drones. The third part of the project will focus on reducing the cognitive load on human operators, whether they are novice or expert pilots. For this, we will develop AI tools that will assist drone operators with semi-automated real-time data processing.

A multi-robot system for the detection of explosive devices

In order to clear the world of the threat posed by landmines and other explosive devices, robotic systems can play an important role. However, the development of such field robots that need to operate in hazardous conditions requires the careful consideration of multiple aspects related to the perception, mobility, and collaboration capabilities of the system. In the framework of a European challenge, the Artificial Intelligence for Detection of Explosive Devices - eXtended (AIDEDeX) project proposes to design a heterogeneous multi-robot system with advanced sensor fusion algorithms. This system is specifically designed to detect and classify improvised explosive devices, explosive ordnances, and landmines. This project integrates specialised sensors, including electromagnetic induction, ground penetrating radar, X-Ray backscatter imaging, Raman spectrometers, and multimodal cameras, to achieve comprehensive threat identification and localisation. The proposed system comprises a fleet of unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles. This article details the operational phases of the AIDEDeX system, from rapid terrain exploration using unmanned aerial vehicles to specialised detection and classification by unmanned ground vehicles equipped with a robotic manipulator. Initially focusing on a centralised approach, the project will also explore the potential of a decentralised control architecture, taking inspiration from swarm robotics to provide a robust, adaptable, and scalable solution for explosive detection.