EULE Project Launch
The Institute for Flight System Dynamics leads research project on the airspace integration of automated flight systems
Transport medical goods fast, safe and efficient
As part of the mFUND innovation initiative, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport is funding the project “European UAV-supported transport solutions for medical goods”, or EULE for short. In the Rhenish Revier and in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine border area, highly automated unmanned aerial vehicles are to move pharmaceuticals, blood and tissue samples quickly, safely and efficiently between dealers, hospitals and laboratories. The Institute for Flight System Dynamics at RWTH Aachen University, headed by Professor Dieter Moormann, is the consortium leader of the project.
Urgent goods such as pharmaceuticals, blood and tissue samples will be able to be transported between pharmaceutical dealers, hospitals and laboratories much faster than is possible today. By air transport, greater efficiency and safety is achieved. In addition to the complete integration into the airspace, the automated integration into the infrastructure of the hospitals is ensured and a holistic networking of the participating hospitals and laboratories is achieved, thus enabling use with the least amount of effort with maximum added value. The research and development of sufficient connectivity required for this - including 5G networked data management - represent further central activities.
The EULE research project draws on work from the completed mFUND project VISION and the ongoing EU project SAFIR-med. The concepts for airspace integration developed in these projects are expanded to include regular operation. Particular attention is paid to the necessary data management, the development and integration of new data sources and data protection.
The RWTH institute works in particular on the airspace integration of the fully automated flight systems. Research is carried out to avoid collisions with manned aircraft - such as rescue helicopters. The aircraft must independently recognize conflicts and take them into account in flight path planning. Critical areas such as densely populated inner cities or nature reserves, for example, should not be overflown. The university institute is also involved in the development of the system architecture, the development of the interface between the flight system and the platform on the ground, and the construction of a control room for the central control and monitoring of the flight systems.
FlyXdrive GmbH, Docs in Clouds TeleCare GmbH, City of Aachen, Droniq GmbH, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, RWTH Aachen University Hospital and Vodafone GmbH are involved in the EULE research project. Together with the Institute for Flight System Dynamics, they want to establish the Rhenish Revier as an economic and scientific location for technologies for unmanned flight systems.
About the BMDV's mFUND funding program
As part of the mFUND funding program, the BMDV has been supporting research and development projects relating to data-based digital innovations for Mobility 4.0 since 2016. The project funding is supplemented by active professional networking between actors from politics, business, administration and research and the provision of open data on the mCLOUD portal. Further information can be found at www.mfund.de