The TAURUS project (Traversability analysis for AUtonomous Robot and Unmanned System) brings together EXAIL Robotics and ENSTA Paris to answer the MOBILEX challenge on navigation in unstructured environments. EXAIL Robotics brings its expertise in the design of robust and operational autonomous systems in order to design and build a proof of concept meeting all the constraints of the challenge. In addition, it brings its expertise in the remote operation of mobile platforms in unstructured terrain. ENSTA Paris brings its expertise in the field of environmental perception, machine learning and autonomous navigation using LIDAR and visual sensors to carry out the missions proposed in the challenge. The approach adopted by the project follows an incremental progression integrating in the first year existing software bricks in the state of the art or from partners that will be developed to meet the requirements of the following years' challenges. The first iteration will allow the hardware design with the integration of LIDAR, stereovision, infrared, GPS and IMU sensors and LIDAR navigation bricks using a geometric approach, visual navigation with a self-supervised approach to traversability, robust localisation integrating GPS, IMU, LIDAR and visual SLAM. These approaches will be extended by the development of new learning approaches using LIDAR, visual and infrared data to deal with the most complex situations, as well as a more efficient navigation approach using MPC (Model Predictive Control). This project will advance the state of the art in terms of knowledge of the performances achievable by the different approaches integrated and tested, as well as by making available to the community databases representative of the problems addressed using the Barracuda platform. It will also propose new methods for processing and fusing LIDAR, visual and infrared data for autonomous navigation in complex situations, as well as a new approach for fast MPC control based on a 3D semantic map and machine learning methods. Finally, it will enable the further development of robust navigation building blocks that can be rapidly integrated into new products or projects. The TAURUS project will result in the hardware/software design of a proof of concept that will be evaluated during the three challenges of the MOBILEX challenge.

The external borders of the EU have historically been under great pressure, subject to a variety of threats, which include irregular migration and trafficking of narcotics. Within this context, authorities in charge of border and maritime patrol are faced with different challenges that include the heterogeneity of the traffic that undertakes illegal activities in European waters, limitations in the ability to collect and share timely available data among institutional organizations, as well as a lack of assets by the relevant authorities to cover the wide maritime areas under their mandate. Although there has been an expressive investment done in the domain of surveillance technologies and tools, the intake by the competent authorities has been slow, due to lack of uniformity in the integration of such systems with existing surveillance infrastructures. In order to address these challenges, project COMPASS2020 aims to demonstrate the combined use and seamless coordination of manned and unmanned assets to achieve greater coverage, better quality of information and shorter response times in maritime surveillance operations. The proposed solution will be based on an innovative CONOPS that makes use of multiple aerial and underwater unmanned vehicles with improved capabilities, deployed from OPVs or from land, and will be supported by a central, multi-domain and interoperable Mission System (MS) that enables the operation of these platforms from both locations. UxVs may act as deported ship sensors, providing critical mission data to the MS that can then be exploited through dedicated services to be developed in the scope of the project (e.g. Data Fusion and Threat Risk Analysis). The major goal of COMPASS2020 is to demonstrate an operational solution to ensure long range and persistent surveillance, increasing the situational awareness of coast guards and maritime authorities, and, thus, increasing the cost-effectiveness, availability and reliability of the operations.

Nowadays, the major part of offshore operations is done by divers in dangerous missions. Since their number is limited, the dependency on their work represents a real threat to the offshore industry. The extended use of unmanned underwater vehicles (AUVs/ROVs) could solve this problem but since they are usually tailor-made for a specific task and difficult to operate their deployment is very expensive. The overall goal of the SWARMs project is to expand the use of AUVs/ROVs and facilitate the creation, planning and execution of maritime and offshore operations. This will reduce the operational cost and increase the safety of tasks assigned to divers. The SWARMs project aims to make AUVs/ROVs accessible to more users by: • Enabling AUVs/ROVs to work in a cooperative mesh thus opening up new applications and ensuring re-usability as no specialized vehicles are needed but heterogeneous standard vehicles can combine their capabilities, • Increasing the autonomy of AUVs and improving the usability of ROVs The approach is to design and develop an integrated platform (a set of Software/Hardware components), incorporated into the current generation of underwater vehicles in order to improve autonomy, cooperation, robustness, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of the offshore operations. SWARMs’ achievements will be demonstrated in two field tests in different scenarios: • Inspection, maintenance and repair of offshore infrastructure • Pollution monitoring • Offshore construction operations SWARMs is an industry-led project: big technology companies will collaborate with SMEs specialized in the subsea, robotics and communication sectors and universities and research institutions to ensure that the newest innovations in subsea robotics will arrive fast to market. As voice of the customer, two end-users are also part of the consortium.

I-SEAMORE is an Ecosystem composed of an advanced platform solution to host and manage the operation of several innovative assets, services and systems that aim to provide European Authorities with increased situational awareness and operational capabilities for Maritime surveillance operations resorting to aerial and water surface support. The core platform (infrastructure and software layers) is conceptualized to be deployed and operated at Maritime Operation Centres (MOCs) with interfaces to other systems including the UxVs Ground Control Stations (GCSs), as well as external systems. It thus provides end-users with a holistic platform capable of handling several multipurpose tasks including, e.g., wide maritime border and coastal areas monitoring, analysis of potential threats, support to search and rescue operations, detection of illegal activities, among others. Such tasks will be possible since I-SEAMORE platform provides a complete set of functionalities and capabilities to mission commanders, focusing on 4 main pillars: 1) employment and indirect tasking of multiple types of long-endurance Unmanned Assets (aerial and water surface), 2) exploitation of heterogeneous data sources e.g. payload data and open data sources including Copernicus Services, 3) provision of a common operational picture empowered by a novel and comprehensive suite of data fusion services based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analysis, for optimal decision making and successful mission execution of the desired missions, and 4) interoperability within the Ecosystem and its interface with key existing external systems. Moreover, the project will also generate additional knowledge to support the uptake of the solution at EU level, as well as multi-country, multi-authority collaboration, including novel concepts of operation, standard operating procedures for joint operations, and new methodologies for co-creation and validation of maritime security solutions by end-users.

AEROSUB will develop world-class robotic solutions for different wind energy operating scenarios – fixed and floating offshore wind farms, promoting innovations for operation and maintenance (O&M) procedures to foster the competitiveness and sustainability of renewable energy production in challenging environments. AEROSUB will demonstrate the added value of robotics deeply integrated with advanced AI and data analytics technologies and their potential of reducing the eCO2 emissions of O&M operations by up to 15M tonnes, enabling cost savings by 2,400€/MW/year and lowering the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of offshore wind energy by 2.5%. By deploying an orchestration of multiple robotic platforms, including Uncrewed Fleet Carrier (UFC), Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), long endurance aerial drones (UAS), and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and optimizing human-robot and robot-robot collaboration, AEROSUB aims to reduce the on-site humans’ exposure to dangerous and strenuous environments. Large scale pilots related to monitoring, inspection, cleaning, and maintenance of structures below and above water line will be performed autonomously by AEROSUB solutions, which requires introducing AI-based features for enhancing perception and on-platform decision-making capabilities, improving collaborative navigation, manipulation, and mission planning. AEROSUB is proposing the first fully unmanned robotic solution for both aerial and underwater inspection and intervention, demonstrated in real offshore wind farm, to show an increased O&M operational efficiency of 40%, reducing of the associated downtime by 60% as well as the risk exposure of workers by 90%. Digital twin (DT) and AI solutions for automated information analysis of operational data, collected by remote robotic platforms in >30 operations, will increase the reactivity, responsiveness and intelligibility of the O&M operations: reducing the human burden by 80% to monitor