EU funds project enabling coordination of unmanned aerial vehicles

Brussels, 07 August 2002

A 2.94 million euro EU project is developing the technology to allow the coordination and control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles at the same time.

Researchers from Germany, Spain, Portugal, France and Sweden will collaborate on the project, COMETS, which will enable coordination between several vehicles, such as helicopters and airships in operation. Sometimes an operation can only be successful if cooperation is possible. One of many uses for the system is forest fire detection and monitoring. The consortium will use this scenario to demonstrate the system.

Innovative aspects of the project include a multi unmanned aerial vehicle decentralised control system, a new hybrid control architecture, new control techniques, real-time fault tolerance communications and cooperative environment perception.

The project began on 1 May 2002, and will continue until June 2005.

For further information, please consult the following web address: http://www.comets-uavs.org

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2001