Project ICARUS comes to an end

In February, INESC TEC concluded ICARUS (Integrated Components for Assisted Rescue and Unmanned Search operations), a European project where the goal was to develop autonomous robots that could assist rescue teams in disaster situations. The project brought together 24 partners from nine countries. With a 17 million euro budget, the project lasted four years.
This work addressed two security components - land and sea - with INESC TEC leading the maritime component, as a result of its experience in aquatic robotics, of which the MARES and TriMARES submarines (winner of the Exame Informática Innovation Award), or the vessels ROAZ II or FAST, are examples.

In this project, INESC TEC was responsible for developing robotic technology for the maritime component, which consisted of implementing advanced features in ROAZ II to detect shipwrecks, as well as developing self-inflatable robotic capsules to rescue people at sea. INESC TEC also collaborated in the development of a supervision and control system, and the training and support system. The INESC TEC team was led by Aníbal Matos, coordinator of INESC TEC’s Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS). The team also featured other researchers from CRAS and from the Centre for Information Systems and Computer Graphics (CSIG).

The robots developed can be used in crisis scenarios, for example, in a natural disaster, providing assistance to search and rescue teams. Moreover, these tools can be used at times when the sea and weather conditions are adverse and visibility is low, thus allowing safer rescue operations for the rescue teams.

Coordinated by the Belgian Military Academy, project ICARUS project featured a consortium of 24 partners from nine European countries: INESC TEC, Escola Naval, ESRI Portugal – Sistemas de Informação Geográfica SA (Portugal), Space Application Services NV, Spacetec Partners SPRL, Belgian First Aid and Support Team  (Belgium), École Politechnique Féderale de lausanne, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Université de Neuchatel, Skybotix AG (Switzerland), Estudios GIS S.L., Aerospace Technology Centre (ASCAMM Foundation), Integrasys, S.A., Quobis Networks SL, ATOS Spain SA (Spain), Metalliance SA, JMDThèque SARL (France), The Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, Technische Universität Kaiserlautern  (Germany), Calzoni SRL, NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (Italy), Instytut Maszyn Matematycznych (Poland) e Technische Universität Wien (Austria).

The INESC TEC researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with UP-FEUP.