AQUAFIND (Aquafind)

AQUAFIND (Aerial Quadcopter Units for Aquatic Flow Investigation and Nautical Data) builds upon recent advancements in drone technology, sensor capabilities, and machine learning algorithms to develop an autonomous aerial drone swarming system for monitoring off-shore assets and real-time wave profile prediction. By deploying swarms of aerial drones equipped with specialized sensors, this system aims to collect comprehensive environmental data around operating offshore vessels and provide the control station with real-time data for accurate predictions of wave profiles and vessel motion in real-time, allowing sufficient warning- and short-term decision-making time.

TUD will develop distributed optimization algorithms which will enable a drone swarm to to estimate their position, time, and to navigate and control autonomously into formations - which is necessary for sensing and monitoring. The drones will employ cooperative algorithms using pairwise ranging between neighbouring drones, and using onboard inertial sensors e.g., IMU along with GPS tags, for positioning and timing. In addition, on-board distributed filtering will ensure formation control of the drones using only neighbourhood information. One the of many challenges is robust inference, control, and stability of the drones in turbulent environmental conditions e.g., strong winds.