MATIM

Main Goals of the Project

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones, is growing rapidly and constantly, with applications in in various fields: environmental monitoring, surveillance, rescue operations, precision agriculture, inspection and measuring in the construction industry, intelligent logistics, Information technology services and military applications.

In particular, the market for small and medium-sized drones has seen a significant expansion especially in the civil commercial sector, due to the relatively low cost of this class of aircrafts. The characteristics of weight and dimensions, as well as the ability to carry a payload (think of the classic camera), allows them to be used in many of the fields mentioned above, favoring the development of applications that can have a positive impact on the community.

The MATIM project fits into this context. Its objective is the development of new technologies for applications relating to mini and micro drones (i.e., aircrafts with a weight less than 25 kg and 2 kg respectively) to support the Italian drone industry in responding to regulatory and technological challenges for a such kind of aircrafts.

CIRA Activities in the Project

The activities of the project address technological developments and advances in the following areas:

• cooperative planning for the coordination of teams of drones,
• improvement/extension of sensing and autonomy capabilities provided by drones,
• communication systems suitable for networks of drones in high mobility scenarios,
• self-protection and cyber-defense for drones with proactive and reactive protection against attacks by hostile entities,
• drone simulations in complex operational scenarios and model identification,
• assessment of aerodynamics performance and acoustic impact for drones.

Some technologies will be used to carry out functions relating to a use case in the context of "Defense Systems", comprised of a system based on a team of defensive drones and assigned to the defense of a specific area with respect to the intrusions of one or more malicious drones.

Finally, the construction of a plant, named Drone Testing Arena, is planned to prove the technologies developed for mini and micro with dedicated flight tests. The plant will also be useful as a flywheel for participation in other research projects and to collaborate with the drone industry.

General Project Information

Funding Programme: Programma Nazionale Di Ricerca Aerospaziale (PRO.R.A.), DM 662/20

Start Date: 01/07/2021; End Date: 31/12/2028

Coordinating Organization: CIRA

CIRA Contact: Vittorio Ugo Castrillo, v.castrillo@cira.it