Newsletter # December

ICARUS makes first-ever legal RPAS flight in Brussels

On May 7th 2015, a rotorcraft developed within the ICARUS FP7 research
project performed the first-ever legally approved Remotely Piloted Aircraft
System (RPAS) flight in Brussels, less than one kilometre away from the
Berlaymont building, the iconic headquarters of the European Commission,
as confirmed by the Belgian Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA).

The EURECAT (previously known as ASCAMM) rotorcraft equipped with

thermal imaging sensors demonstrated its operational capabilities in
detecting victims and dropping rescue kits following a disaster.

In order to ensure a safe demonstration for people on the ground and

aircraft in the air, the flight took place in an airspace reserved by the
Belgian CAA for the exclusive use of RPAS (so-called “closed airspace”). At
the same time, the Mayor of Brussels had authorised the use of public land
for the take-off and landing of the aircraft.

Finally, VIP’s including Mr Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner

for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, followed the demonstration EURECAT rotorcraft © De Ribaucourt/SpaceTec Partners
as part of the European Union Civil Protection Forum 2015.

ICARUS partners won multiple prizes and awards at euRathlon 2015

Several ICARUS consortium partners successfully participated in the euRathlon
2015 Challenge which took place in Piombino (Italy) from September 17th to 25th
2015. This year, the ICARUS team which ranked second of the overall competition
was composed of Eurecat (Spain), IMM (Poland), INESC (Portugal), Integrasys
(Spain), RMA (Belgium), SPACE Applications (Belgium) and UKL (Germany).
Additional ICARUS partners were also present in Italy to support and help the
team, including CINAV (Portugal), CMRE (Italy) and SpaceTec Partners (Belgium).

Inspired by the 2011 Fukushima accident, the euRahtlon 2015 edition was the
first outdoor robotics competition dedicated to land, sea and air Search and
Rescue (SAR) operations with the particularity for maritime activities of focussing
on underwater robotics. Furthermore, the euRathlon concept of operation was Air and land trials © SpaceTec Partners
exclusively based on operations without line of sight, the participants being required
to remain in a tent during the entire duration of each of the various exercises.

Having these specifities in mind, the Consortium partners couldn’t miss the opportunity to prove their technical abilities and to validate the
different ICARUS Search and Rescue tools in a wide variety of (new) operational scenarios, including among other:
• Grand Challenge (overall winner) – the ICARUS team came second out of 18 competing teams;
• UAV aerial detection and mapping (Air trial) – the ICARUS team won;
• Survey of a building and search for a missing worker (Land + Air trials) – the ICARUS team came second;
• Mobile manipulation / valve closing (Land trial) – the ICARUS team came second;
• Stem the leak (Land + Sea trials) – the ICARUS team came second.

As an evidence of its performances, the ICARUS team was further honoured with several prizes, including two important awards in the area of
Research & Development:
• The “Best Autonomy award” from the IEEE Robotic & Automation Society (RAS) Technical Committee (TC) on Safety, Security and
Rescue Robotics (SSRR);
• The “Best Multi-Robot Cooperation award” from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA);
• The “Innovation in the UAV domain” special prize.

The euRathlon Challenge marked the end of a productive summer which started in July with the Sea Scenario Demo (Lisbon, Portugal), later
followed by the Land Scenario Demo in September (Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium).

www.fp7-icarus.eu The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh
Framework Programme ([FP7/2007-2013]) under grant agreement n˚285417
 Successful final demonstrations in Alfeite, Portugal (sea scenario) and Marche-en-Famenne,
Belgium (land scenario)
On July 9th and 10th 2015, ICARUS project partners simulated a maritime crisis management scenario at the Navy Base of Alfeite (Almada) in
Portugal. The demonstration showcased how unmanned surface vehicles (USV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) - linked together in shared
robotic network - can assist “human” search and rescue teams in maritime incidents, such as the sinking of a large ferry boat or a cruise ship.
The capabilities of the different ICARUS tools were tested in various operational search and rescue (SAR) missions, including among other
area scanning, victim detection and approach, raft inflation and rescuing of victims in the water.

On September 4th 2015, the final field trials of the robotic tools developed within the FP7 ICARUS project took place on the training grounds of
the Belgian First Aid and Support Team (ICARUS member B-FAST) in Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium. The purpose of the demonstration was to
validate the different tools developed by the project partners in a real-life land use case scenario. This year, an earthquake similar to the
one in Haiti was simulated to showcase how the robotic tools (multiple unmanned ground and aerial vehicles equipped with powerful sensors)
can assist Search and Rescue (SAR) teams. The final demo encompassed four operational scenarios:
Newsletter # October
1) The first part of the demonstration consisted in the deployment of the B-FAST Team accompanied with two ICARUS unmanned SAR tools:
a fixed-wing endurance solar aeroplane (AtlantikSolar) and a quadrotor rotary wing RPAS (Eurecat).
2) Outdoor victim search mission in the proximity of a collasped building: an unmanned rotary wing RPAS was used to support the B-FAST
Team in assessing the situation, identifying the victims and delivering rescue kits. The ICARUS heavy ground vehicle (Metalliance) was then
tested for debris clearance to relieve a victim trapped in a collapsed building.
3) Indoor SAR operations in an unstable building: as the structure of the building was extremly unstable, the rescue team decided to send
a small reconnaissance aerial system with 3D reconstruction capabilities (Skybotix Hexacopter RPAS) together with a small unmanned
ground vehicle (UKL) to search for potential victims inside the building and without endangering their own lives. The indoor SAR mission was
succesfully performed thanks to the collaborative work of the two ICARUS platforms.
4) The last scenario confronted the SAR Team against a potential chemical, biological and radio-nuclear (CBRN) threat.

Both events were effectively concluded by a feedback session with both the users and stakeholders present to discuss the future exploitation
of the different ICARUS tools.

ICARUS land and sea final demonstrations Land demo: © De Ribaucourt/SpaceTec Partners. Sea demo: © Alfredo Martins/ INESC
Edited and produced by SpaceTec Partners for the ICARUS consortium.

CONTACT US
End-User Contact Person (RMA) Project Coordinator (RMA) USAR End User (BFAST)
René Wagemans
Daniela Doroftei Geert De Cubber
Belgian First Aid and Support Team
Royal Military Academy of Belgium - Unmanned Ground Vehicle Royal Military Academy of Belgium - Unmanned Ground Vehicle
(B-FAST)
Centre Centre
Rue Jean d’Outremeuse 29
30, Av. De La Renaissance, 1000 Brussels, Belgium 30, Av. De La Renaissance, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
B-4020 Liège, Belgium
Tel: : +32 2 44 14106 Tel: : +32 2 44 14106
Tel: +32 4 3420587
daniela.doroftei@rma.ac.be geert.de.cubber@rma.ac.be
rene.wagemans@skynet.be

www.fp7-icarus.eu