Labyrinth trial: the use of drones in an emergency during mass events
Credit:
Labyrinth
Ensuring the safety and efficiency of the European transport system is one of the European Union's priorities. Drones can provide great support in this area in particular, for example by performing reconnaissance and management tasks in emergency situations or reaching places that are difficult to access. So far, however, security concerns in particular have limited the use of drones, and their use in public areas is often not permitted.
The aim of the Labyrinth project was to optimize drone traffic so that drones could be operated better in heavily used airspaces and thus expand their possible uses, especially for urban management and security processes. In Labyrinth, the German Aerospace Center worked on the integration of drones in urban airspace.
The use of drones continues to increase in Europe and around the world. This also increases the challenges posed by these new road users in cities and other congested areas.
Labyrinth provided a drone traffic service to improve the safety and efficiency of the civil land, air, and sea transportation systems as well as emergency and rescue operations. The partners in Labyrinth worked on a centralized planning system that was able to communicate with all drones active in a given area, process their flight routes, and calculate non-collision routes for all drones in the area.
In view of their potential, the U-space initiative is being carried out at European level in SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) to create a regulatory framework for an air traffic management system that includes drones. This new framework should enable the safe and efficient operation of drones at low altitudes of up to 120 meters. The technologies emerging in Labyrinth built on the framework created in U-space and advanced the efforts undertaken in SESAR to develop an autonomous safety system for the integration of drones into European airspace.
The project was funded under the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 861696) and was carried out by 13 European organizations. Over the 36-month project period, these organizations jointly designed and investigated use cases and procedures to expand the use of drones and accelerate necessary regulatory changes in the European Union.
Project
Labyrinth
Participants
UC3M – University Carlos III of Madrid (Koordinator) Expace on Board Systems DLR – The German Aerospace Center DGT – Directorate General for Traffic TID – Telefonica Research and Development INTA – International Institute for Aerospace Technology Eurocontrol - Organization for the Safety of Navigation DIN – German Institute for Standardization The Authority of the Port System of the Eastern Ligure Sea AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology PONS Road Safety Madrid City Council – SAMUR Civil Protection PKF Attest innCome
