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LABYRINTH, drones for safer and more efficient transport

The European Project LABYRINTH has been launched this June. The project will be executed by 13 European entities from Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy and Belgium: Carlos III University of Madrid, Expace on Board Systems, DLR, DGT, Telefonica I+D, INTA, Eurocontrol, DIN, PONS road safety, The Authority of the Port System of the Eastern Ligure Sea, Madrid City Council SAMUR, AIT and innComme. These organizations together, will investigate around the optimization of drone traffic, to facilitate its circulation in highly densified areas and promote its use on traffic and emergency management.

The use and traffic of drones is increasing. It is estimated that in 2035 in Europe there will be around 400.000 unmanned aircraft. The challenge will be to manage drones in cities and other areas sensitive to be congested. In this scenario, the current traffic management will not be enough to avoid collision and other problems derived from air congestion. For this reason, LABYRINTH will investigate a new centralized planning system that can establish communication with all the active drones on a given area and detect its direction layout to calculate alternative routes to avoid collisions.

LABYRINTH aims to focus its efforts on providing an optimal drone traffic service to improve the safety and efficiency of civil land, sea, and air transport, as well as improve the execution of emergency and rescue operations. To commit this ambitious Project, the 13 partners will be working during 3 years on the design and development of applications that will revolutionize the traffic of drones and accelerate changes in the actual European regulation. This advance will have a huge range of applicability opening the drone industry to new markets.


LABYRINTH kickoff meeting, a start point of 3 years of work to a safer civil transport

This June 15, 16 and 17 is held the launch meeting of the European project LABYRINTH, which brings together more than 30 experts form different areas such as aerospace, transport, emergency, and research. These meetings are usually celebrated in Brussels, but due to the contingency measures against COVID-19, it will be online, to avoid attendant’s mobility.

The main purpose of this first meeting, which has the presence of Vladimir Cid Bourié on behalf of the European Commission, is to present the 11 work areas that conform the project. The 13 leading academic and business entities that conform LABYRINTH will take part on the meeting: Carlos III University of Madrid, Expace on Board Systems, DLR, DGT, Telefonica I+D, INTA, Eurocontrol, DIN, PONS road safety, The Authority of the Port System of the Eastern Ligure Sea, Madrid City Council SAMUR, AIT and innComme.

The first day of the meeting will be dedicated to share the specifications of each working area, and the other two days will be focused on the technical working areas to clarify the workflows, deliveries frequency and other specific issues that are decisive for the project to progress. This is a start point of 3 years of work that will contribute to a safer, more efficient, and sustainable civil road, rail, air, and sea transport.

The LABYRINTH project will investigate the optimization of drone traffic creating a centralized planification system capable of communicating with all the drones in a certain area, processing their desired origin and destination points and compute paths to avoid collisions. They will work together with the SESAR strategy through the development of autonomous air traffic control systems towards the integration of drones into European airspace.   Learn more about LABYRINTH