1
Surveillance of campus grounds to assist security personnel (security support).
High Tech Campus Eindhoven
Demonstrator 6 and 7
About High Tech Campus Eindhoven
High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTCE) in the Netherlands is the smartest km² in Europe, with more than 220 companies and institutes, as well as 12.000 researchers, developers and entrepreneurs working on developing future technologies and products. The campus helps you accelerate your innovation by offering easy access to high-tech facilities and international networks. Campus companies (e.g. Philips, NXP, TomTom, Shimano, Signify, IBM, Intel) strategically decide what knowledge, skills and R&D facilities they share in order to achieve faster, improved and expanded customer-oriented innovation in the health, energy and smart environments application fields. Located at the heart of Brainport, Campus companies are responsible for nearly 40% of all Dutch patent applications. HTCE is responsible for FF2020's demonstrators 6 and 7.
Demonstrator 6: Autonomous Monitoring and Predictive Interventions of Critical Infrastructures on High Tech Campus in Eindhoven
The main goal of this demonstrator is to use Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to strengthen the operational management of High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTCE). We do this with two use cases involving surveillance and building inspection. Currently, security checks are triggered by fixed assets (such as cameras) and required actions are executed by humans. In addition, regular surveillance of the campus terrain is done by humans. HTCE's hypothesis is that drones can partly replace human intervention or at least add value to the work of security guards. Besides the security function, the aim was to validate if the use of autonomous drones can help with performing predictive maintenance on the inspection of buildings. Based on HTCE's research in the early phase of the project, there's a potential for a business case for these two functionalities. The demonstrations were carried out from March to September 2022 on High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
USE CASES
2
Building monitoring to inspect campus buildings and assess their condition.
RESULTS
The results of this demonstrator are available in Deliverable 6.3: Systems Under Test Requirements and Certification (Part II).
The results of demonstrator 6 are described from page 48 to 51 (chapter 3.2.3.8).
Building Monitoring USE CASE Video
Using the OpenDDS triggering system, a maintenance trigger was successfully transferred via API (Application Programming Interface) to KOSM – the operating system developed by our consortium partner VERSES, which employs artificial intelligence and digital twins to govern the behaviour of autonomous drones. There a maintenance mission was then created.
This resulted in KOSM correctly generating the flight path from the Mapture drone-in-a-box system (drone operator) on top of the HTCE building to the trigger site, taking into consideration the no-fly zone in between. Subsequently, the flight path was sent to the drone, permitting it to lift off and follow the correct route to its destination.
Demonstrator 7: The Future Last-Mile and Emergency Delivery on Campuses
The main goals of this demonstrator are to decrease the carbon footprint of the High Tech Campus and to increase the well-being of its residents. Three drones (one per service) will deliver several services to the residents of the High Tech Campus. These autonomous drones support daily campus life with last-mile delivery and express shipping services where residents can order food or send out mail by drones via a connection to existing digital infrastructure. One drone was made operational for emergency support services to keep the campus safety level at a high standard. To simulate an emergency situation (e.g. a heart attack on campus), the drone delivered an automated external defibrillator AED to support the emergency scene. The demonstrations were carried out from March to September 2022 on High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
USE CASES
1
Food delivery.
2
Express shipping service.
3
Delivery of emergency equipment to remote campus areas.
RESULTS
The results of this demonstrator are available in Deliverable 6.3: Systems Under Test Requirements and Certification (Part II).
The results of demonstrator 7 are described from page 66 to 72 (chapter 3.3.1.9).
AED Delivery USE CASE Video
A general delivery flight was performed that showcased the integration with Valqari and the ability of KOSM to land a drone with a payload. This included an autonomous flight where a drone with a transport box took off from the tower and successfully perform a precision landing on top of a QR code at the event site.
Lessons Learned
UAM Infographic Illustrating the Lessons Learned by HTCE
At the conclusion of High Tech Campus Eindhoven's demonstration phase, HTCE documented their findings, including shortcomings and obstacles in several aspects of drone operations that were identified during the preparation and conduction of the use cases. HTCE sectioned the findings into several areas of UAS operational testing in which significant lessons were learned. From this living lab’s perspective, some of these findings have emerged as challenges or valuable recommendations. Armed with this knowledge, Flying Forward 2020 has created an infographic that illustrates the lessons learned about Urban Air Mobility by the HTCE living lab. The visual highlights potential bottlenecks and provides practical advice for the living labs that will soon hold demonstrations and stakeholders looking to improve their preparation and deployment processes as part of their daily UAM operations.
News and Media
Gallery
Demonstration Event on High Tech Campus Eindhoven
On 30 May 2022, High Tech Campus Eindhoven hosted a final demonstration event to show several use cases of autonomous drones operating Beyond the Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights as part of the Flying Forward F2020 (FF2020) project. The test flights were witnessed by campus residents, part of the FF2020 consortium and members of the Dutch press.
Service Partners
Several service partners were recruited by HTCE to help validate the technology that our project's technical partners are developing. The implementation of the use cases was made possible in part due to their collaboration.
