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HEIndividual fellowship2022–2024

Flyflic · Flying companion for floating litter collection

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2022-09-01 → 2024-10-31
EU contribution
€187,624
Participants
1
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

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Results in brief

Flying companion for floating litter collection

Plastic pollution is considered one of the most challenging environmental risks globally, and rivers have been identified as a dominant pathway for the accumulation of plastic in the oceans. The Flyflic (FLYing companion for Floating LItter Collection) project, carried out by Chiara Gabellieri and supervised by Antonio Franchi, addresses this global challenge by deploying a first-of-its-kind robotic platform composed of multiple unmanned aerial robots to effectively collect litter from rivers and canals, thus preventing such litter from reaching our oceans. The project contributes to European strategic priorities (Horizon Europe Mission on healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters) and global strategic priorities (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). Compared to state-of-the-art solutions, which are mainly boat-like robots or fixed trapping mechanisms, a flying platform can target desired spots, can easily discharge the collected litter, is low cost, and is not hindered by non-navigable spots such as dams and low bridges. Objectives The overarching objective of the project is the deployment of an integrated aerial robotic platform embedding deformable parts in contact with water for floating litter collection. Several challenged have been identified and are targeted by the project’s objectives. To do so, the project aims at (i) solving modeling and control challenges of deformable aerial robotic manipulation platforms; (ii) considering all the necessary components for autonomous functioning; (iii) handling interaction with humans. Main results beyond the state of the art

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Plastic pollution is considered one of the most challenging environmental risks globally, and rivers have been identified as a dominant pathway for the accumulation of plastic in the oceans. The Flyflic (FLYing companion for Floating LItter Collection) project addresses this global challenge by deploying a first-of-its-kind robotic platform composed of multiple unmanned aerial robots to effectively collect litter from rivers and canals, thus preventing such litter from reaching our oceans. Chiara Gabellieri will carry out the Flyflic project under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Franchi at the University of Twente (UT), The Netherlands. The project contributes to European strategic priorities (Horizon Europe Mission on healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters) and global strategic priorities (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). Compared to state-of-the-art solutions, which are boat-like robots or fixed trapping mechanisms, a flying platform can target desired spots, can easily discharge the collected litter, is low cost, and is not hindered by non-navigable spots such as dams and low bridges. The general vision of the Flyflic project will be accomplished through four specific objectives: a novel prototype composed of two physically connected aerial robots and a net to be dragged in the water to collect the litter will be assembled; the dynamic model of the complex manipulation aerial system embedding the water-related disturbances will be computed and a model-based control law designed accordingly; all the components for autonomous functioning will be integrated, especially the control law and state-of-the-art algorithms for object recognition and trajectory generation; finally, a user interface will be created to let a human monitor the task execution and possibly select actions, and the cooperative human-robot discharge of the litter will be made possible through the design of an advanced physical interaction control algorithm.

Original text from CORDIS.

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union