Newsletter # December 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 ICARUS makes first-ever legal RPAS flight in Brussels On May 7 th 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 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 17 th to 25 th 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 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). EURECAT rotorcraft © De Ribaucourt/SpaceTec Partners Air and land trials © SpaceTec Partners