Threat Management Methodology for Unmanned Aerial Systems operating in the U-space

This paper presents a threat management methodology for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operating in the civil airspace. The work is framed within an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system based on the U-space initiative. We propose a new method that focuses on providing the required automated decision-making during real-time threat management and conflict resolution, which is one of the main gaps in the current U-space ecosystem. Our method is capable of handling all commonplace UTM threats, as well as selecting optimal mitigation actions, trading off efficiency and safety. Our implementation is open-source and fully integrated in a UTM software architecture, implementing U-space services related to emergency management and tactical deconfliction. We demonstrate our methodology through a set of realistic use cases with actual UAS operating in civil airspace. For that, we performed field experiments in an aerodrome with segregated airspace, and we showcased that the methodology is capable of autonomously managing heterogeneous threats in real time.Unión Europea - Horizonte 2020 77629

Decentralized 3D Collision Avoidance for Multiple UAVs in Outdoor Environments

The use of multiple aerial vehicles for autonomous missions is turning into commonplace. In many of these applications, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have to cooperate and navigate in a shared airspace, becoming 3D collision avoidance a relevant issue. Outdoor scenarios impose additional challenges: (i) accurate positioning systems are costly; (ii) communication can be unreliable or delayed; and (iii) external conditions like wind gusts affect UAVs’ maneuverability. In this paper, we present 3D-SWAP, a decentralized algorithm for 3D collision avoidance with multiple UAVs. 3D-SWAP operates reactively without high computational requirements and allows UAVs to integrate measurements from their local sensors with positions of other teammates within communication range. We tested 3D-SWAP with our team of custom-designed UAVs. First, we used a Software-In-The-Loop simulator for system integration and evaluation. Second, we run field experiments with up to three UAVs in an outdoor scenario with uncontrolled conditions (i.e., noisy positioning systems, wind gusts, etc). We report our results and our procedures for this field experimentation.European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme No 731667 (MULTIDRONE

From Perception to Navigation in Environments with Persons: An Indoor Evaluation of the State of the Art

Research in the field of social robotics is allowing service robots to operate in environments with people. In the aim of realizing the vision of humans and robots coexisting in the same environment, several solutions have been proposed to (1) perceive persons and objects in the immediate environment; (2) predict the movements of humans; as well as (3) plan the navigation in agreement with socially accepted rules. In this work, we discuss the different aspects related to social navigation in the context of our experience in an indoor environment. We describe state-of-the-art approaches and experiment with existing methods to analyze their performance in practice. From this study, we gather first-hand insights into the limitations of current solutions and identify possible research directions to address the open challenges. In particular, this paper focuses on topics related to perception at the hardware and application levels, including 2D and 3D sensors, geometric and mainly semantic mapping, the prediction of people trajectories (physics-, pattern- and planning-based), and social navigation (reactive and predictive) in indoor environments

Entorno de simulación de vehículos no tripulados y sensores marinos

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 lnternational (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)Existe un creciente interés en el empleo de embarcaciones no tripuladas, comúnmente denominadas USVs (Unmanned Surface Vessel/Vehicles). Dado el coste económico y complejidad de experimentar con embarcaciones reales, en este artículo se propone un entorno de simulación que permita validar diversos tipos de algoritmos en una fase temprana y en diferentes condiciones de navegación. Este entorno de simulación permite definir escenarios con varios USVs y diversos modelos realistas de barcos, así como combinar diferentes sensores de ámbito marino en cada USV, como son receptores AIS (Automatic Identificacion System), radar, LIDAR 3D y cámaras. Con este simulador se puede abordar la validación de algoritmos de fusión de sensores para detectar otras embarcaciones y objetos flotantes, así como algoritmos de evitación de colisiones compatibles con la normativa náutica, de forma que los USVs puedan coexistir con las embarcaciones pilotadas manualmente.There is a growing interest in the use of unmanned vessels, commonly referred to as USVs (Unmanned Surface Vessels). Given the economic cost and complexity of experimenting with real vessels, this paper proposes a simulation environment that allows the validation of various types of algorithms at an early stage and under different navigation conditions. This simulation environment allows defining scenarios with several USVs and several realistic ship models, as well as combining several marine sensors in each USV, such as AIS (Automatic Identification System) receivers, radar, 3D LIDAR, and cameras. With this simulator it is possible to address the validation of sensor fusion algorithms to detect other vessels and floating objects, as well as collision avoidance algorithms compatible with nautical regulations, so that USVs can coexist with manually piloted vessels.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2020-119027RB-I00Junta de Andalucía (PAIDI 2020) P20 0059

Experimental Evaluation of a Team of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Cooperative Construction

Nº Artículo 9314142This article presents a team of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to perform cooperative missions for autonomous construction. In particular, the UAVs have to build a wall made of bricks that need to be picked and transported from different locations. First, we propose a novel architecture for multi-robot systems operating in outdoor and unstructured environments, where robustness and reliability play a key role. Then, we describe the design of our aerial platforms and grasping mechanisms to pick, transport and place bricks. The system was particularly developed for the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC), where Challenge 2 consisted of building a wall cooperatively with multiple UAVs. However, our approach is more general and extensible to other multi-UAV applications involving physical interaction, like package delivery. We present not only our results in the final stage of MBZIRC, but also our simulations and field experiments throughout the previous months to the competition, where we tuned our system and assessed its performance

Ten years of cooperation between mobile robots and sensor networks

This paper presents an overview of the work carried out by the Group of Robotics, Vision and Control (GRVC) at the University of Seville on the cooperation between mobile robots and sensor networks. The GRVC, led by Professor Anibal Ollero, has been working over the last ten years on techniques where robots and sensor networks exploit synergies and collaborate tightly, developing numerous research projects on the topic. In this paper, based on our research, we introduce what we consider some relevant challenges when combining sensor networks with mobile robots. Then, we describe our developed techniques and main results for these challenges. In particular, the paper focuses on autonomous self-deployment of sensor networks; cooperative localization and tracking; self-localization and mapping; and large-scale scenarios. Extensive experimental results and lessons learnt are also discussed in the paper

Director Tools for Autonomous Media Production with a Team of Drones

Featured Application: This work can be applied for media production with aerial cameras. The system supports media crew to film outdoor events with an autonomous fleet of drones.This paper proposes a set of director tools for autonomous media production with a team of drones. There is a clear trend toward using drones for media production, and the director is the person in charge of the whole system from a production perspective. Many applications, mainly outdoors, can benefit from the use of multiple drones to achieve multi-view or concurrent shots. However, there is a burden associated with managing all aspects in the system, such as ensuring safety, accounting for drone battery levels, navigating drones, etc. Even though there exist methods for autonomous mission planning with teams of drones, a media director is not necessarily familiar with them and their language. We contribute to close this gap between media crew and autonomous multi-drone systems, allowing the director to focus on the artistic part. In particular, we propose a novel language for cinematography mission description and a procedure to translate those missions into plans that can be executed by autonomous drones. We also present our director’s Dashboard, a graphical tool allowing the director to describe missions for media production easily. Our tools have been integrated into a real team of drones for media production and we show results of example missions.Unión Europea Sub.No 73166

Healthcare workers hospitalized due to COVID-19 have no higher risk of death than general population. Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry

Aim To determine whether healthcare workers (HCW) hospitalized in Spain due to COVID-19 have a worse prognosis than non-healthcare workers (NHCW). Methods Observational cohort study based on the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a nationwide registry that collects sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain. Patients aged 20-65 years were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify factors associated with mortality. Results As of 22 May 2020, 4393 patients were included, of whom 419 (9.5%) were HCW. Median (interquartile range) age of HCW was 52 (15) years and 62.4% were women. Prevalence of comorbidities and severe radiological findings upon admission were less frequent in HCW. There were no difference in need of respiratory support and admission to intensive care unit, but occurrence of sepsis and in-hospital mortality was lower in HCW (1.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.024 and 0.7% vs. 4.8%; p<0.001 respectively). Age, male sex and comorbidity, were independently associated with higher in-hospital mortality and healthcare working with lower mortality (OR 0.211, 95%CI 0.067-0.667, p = 0.008). 30-days survival was higher in HCW (0.968 vs. 0.851 p<0.001). Conclusions Hospitalized COVID-19 HCW had fewer comorbidities and a better prognosis than NHCW. Our results suggest that professional exposure to COVID-19 in HCW does not carry more clinical severity nor mortality

Association Between Preexisting Versus Newly Identified Atrial Fibrillation and Outcomes of Patients With Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) may exist before or occur early in the course of pulmonary embolism (PE). We determined the PE outcomes based on the presence and timing of AF. Methods and Results Using the data from a multicenter PE registry, we identified 3 groups: (1) those with preexisting AF, (2) patients with new AF within 2 days from acute PE (incident AF), and (3) patients without AF. We assessed the 90-day and 1-year risk of mortality and stroke in patients with AF, compared with those without AF (reference group). Among 16 497 patients with PE, 792 had preexisting AF. These patients had increased odds of 90-day all-cause (odds ratio [OR], 2.81; 95% CI, 2.33-3.38) and PE-related mortality (OR, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.37-4.14) and increased 1-year hazard for ischemic stroke (hazard ratio, 5.48; 95% CI, 3.10-9.69) compared with those without AF. After multivariable adjustment, preexisting AF was associated with significantly increased odds of all-cause mortality (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.57-2.32) but not PE-related mortality (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 0.85-2.66). Among 16 497 patients with PE, 445 developed new incident AF within 2 days of acute PE. Incident AF was associated with increased odds of 90-day all-cause (OR, 2.28; 95% CI, 1.75-2.97) and PE-related (OR, 3.64; 95% CI, 2.01-6.59) mortality but not stroke. Findings were similar in multivariable analyses. Conclusions In patients with acute symptomatic PE, both preexisting AF and incident AF predict adverse clinical outcomes. The type of adverse outcomes may differ depending on the timing of AF onset.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Decentralized cooperation for active perception with multiple robots

Texto completo descargado en PFDLa Tesis se centra en el estudio de técnicas de percepción cooperativa para equipos de múltiples robots. En nuestros días, existen muchas aplicaciones tanto exteriores como interiores en las que equipos formados por distintos robots pueden ser de gran utilidad. En estos casos, la complejidad de las tareas a realizar o la variabilidad de los lugares a los que hay que acceder, hacen que la cooperaci ón entre robots heterogéneos sea imprescindible. En concreto, la Tesis trata situaciones de cooperación activa, en las que los robots no sólo se limitan a compartir información para estimar el estado del entorno, sino que toman decisiones conjuntas para mejorar dicha percepción.La cooperación de múltiples sistemas también permite obtener un mayor grado de robustez, lo cual es relevante para operar en escenarios reales. En estos escenarios, existen importantes restricciones en las comunicaciones, por lo que la Tesis propone diferentes técnicas para lidiar con dichos problemas. Además, todas las soluciones propuestas son descentralizadas, ya que ´estas son más fiables y escalables a medida que se aumenta el número de robots.Adicionalmente, esta Tesis considera representaciones de estado y modelos probabilísticos. Una vez planteado el problema de percepción activa con múltiples robots de manera genérica, debido a su complejidad, se investigan soluciones aproximadas. De este modo, se intenta llegar a un compromiso entre optimalidad y aplicabilidad, ya que la Tesis está enfocada al funcionamiento en plataformas robóticas con fuertes restricciones de tiempo real.La Tesis está distribuida en varios capítulos cuyos contenidos se resumen a continuación:• El Capítulo 1 introduce los objetivos de la Tesis y describe brevemente los proyectos de investigación a los cuales ha estado ligada directamente. También incluye un amplio estudio de trabajos similares pertenecientes al estado del arte.• El Capítulo 2 presenta un método probabilístico para fusión descentralizada de datos. Se usan estados pasados de la estimación para converger hacia los mismos resultados que se obtendrían con una versión centralizada. A su vez, se desarrollan técnicas para reducir los efectos negativos de los fallos en las comunicaciones.• El Capítulo 3 incluye experimentos del método desarrollado en el capítulo anterior en dos aplicaciones reales, robótica urbana y robótica para rescate. Los algoritmos se integran en plataformas con robots reales que realizan seguimiento cooperativo de objetivos móviles. En concreto, se muestran la robustez y fiabilidad del sistema.• El Capítulo 4 introduce los fundamentos matemáticos y el estado del arte de las técnicas POMDP, ya que en la Tesis se utilizan de forma asidua.• El Capítulo 5 propone una aproximación coordinada para el problema de control de equipos de robots de forma descentralizada. Se combina la fusión descentralizada de datos con las técnicas POMDP para obtener comportamientos coordinados de manera implícita.• El Capítulo 6 presenta una solución cooperativa para controlar múltiples robots. En este caso, además de la fusión descentralizada de datos, se realiza una distribución de tareas entre los robots que les permite cooperar de manera explícita.• El Capítulo 7 resume las conclusiones de la Tesis y lanza ciertas líneas de trabajo futuro