Delft Dynamics selected by Dutch Defence for development of flying robots

Delft Dynamics’ project ASIMOV, “Autonomous Rapid Deployable Multicopter for Overview and Security”, is selected by the Dutch Ministry of Defence as best project proposal of a total of 44 submitted proposals by Dutch SMEs under the SBIR tender “Safe ground based actions and military operations in urban areas”. This research and development project will be executed in a period of two years.

Project ASIMOV
Delft Dynamics expects to make a strong contribution to safer future operations for the defence staff with the development of a rapidly deployable autonomous multicopter system. This inexpensive, lightweight, compact, easy and safe deployable system can be used to obtain an overview and detect IEDs, and can be equipped with different, removable sensor packages.

Out of the box
Because the multicopter will automatically takeoff and land from a transport box from e.g. a defence vehicle, it will reduce the workload of the operator, without the need for the operator to leave the vehicle. In this way a quick overview of the situation in alleys and behind fences and buildings can be obtained in a safe way. The multicopter is electrically powered, making it even possible to land the multicopter temporarily on, for example, a rooftop of a building to conserve battery power, while the on-board camera can still be used. “During the preliminary, feasibility phase of this project, we received a lot of positive responses from several defence departments for this development.” says Gerwin Voorsluijs, projectleader of project ASIMOV. In addition, several first responders, such as police and fire-brigades, could benefit from this system, to protect citizens better in the event of emergencies.

Reliable systems
The project fits well with the goal of Delft Dynamics to develop and produce reliable unmanned aircraft systems for government and industry. Soon a new product of Delft Dynamics, the RH4 ‘Spyder’ multicopter, will be ready for the market. A multicopter of 2 kg (4,4 pounds), which will be used as a baseline for the development of the ASIMOV system.