RATEC

Aerostack2 was partially developed during RATEC project Grant ref: PDC2022-133643-C22 funded by MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR

The concept of the RATEC project lies in the combination of a mobile ground robot with a drone connected via a power cable. Tethered drones have been proposed in recent years to overcome the lack of autonomy of small aerial vehicles. However, existing systems are static and, therefore, very limited for inspection and/or maintenance missions in complex environments. This project proposes taking a further step in the industrialization of the prototype currently under development by the research team that reduces the aforementioned limitation.

The project addresses the necessary research for the development of UGV and UAV teams with constraints due to their coordination, including a marsupial-type UGV-UAV team, with robots physically connected via a power and data cable (see Figure 1). This type of system allows using the UAV as an appendage of the UGV to access otherwise inaccessible places. Likewise, the UAV’s autonomy can be notably extended by having additional power available in the UGV, as well as the possibility of performing “heavy” processing in the UGV thanks to the cable. In return, it is necessary to account for the constraints imposed by the cable in order to carry out joint movement maneuvers or operate in complex environments. The RATEC project aims to carry out the industrialization process of the different subsystems developed in the COMCISE project, and the validation of the system as a whole in a relevant operational environment, thus raising its technology readiness level to TRL 7.

The objective of the RATEC project is the creation and development of a proof of concept for a tethered UGV-UAV robotic system for long-duration inspection and maintenance applications, primarily in environments without GPS coverage such as tunnels, sewer systems or underground galleries, large logistics warehouses, and search and rescue situations in natural disaster scenarios. The prototype will be composed of a ground robot equipped with the batteries, sensors, and computation required to perform its work autonomously, and an aerial robot connected via cable to the ground system.