Project description
Heavy-duty drone helps fight fires
The technological growth of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)s, or drones as they are popularly known, is being used to save lives and the environment. The EU-funded WILDHOPPER project is developing a heavy-duty multirotor drone for forest firefighting. The WILD HOPPER’s 600-litre platform means it has enough lifting power to do more than fire monitoring. It can be used as an alternative to traditional firefighting solutions and to cover night operations. It is cost affordable and ideal for small and medium regional structures. Another advantage is precision of the release, derived from multirotor platform dynamic capabilities. What is more, a proprietary water jet nebulisation system can yield a higher efficiency compared to traditional aerial firefighting means like helicopters and hydroplanes.
Objective
DRONE HOPPER is a company devoted to designing and manufacturing heavy-duty multirotor drones. For that, it has
developed a number of proprietary technologies aimed at, essentially, providing a safe and reliable heavy-lifting platform.
Special care has been taken on liquid transportation and release.
WILD HOPPER is a 600-litre platform designed for forest fire firefighting. This payload capacity overcomes typical limitations
of electrically powered drones that cannot be used for anything more than fire monitoring, as they do not have sufficient
lifting power. It uses all the technologies developed by DRONE HOPPER, yielding a novel tool to counter rush fires
worldwide.
The enhanced capabilities of the WILD HOPPER allows to complement existing aerial means and overcome their main
limitations, especially the need to cover night operations. This allows reducing heavily the duration of the wild fires by
allowing continuous aerial support to the extinguishing activities once the conventional aerial means (hydroplanes and
helicopters) are set back to the base at night.
Other advantages of the WILD HOPPER are the precision of the release, derived from multirotor platform dynamic
capabilities. This, together with the proprietary water jet nebulization system, yields a very high efficiency compared to
traditional means that carry similar (helicopters) or more liters (hydroplanes) that just drop the water at a certain speed a
highest altitudes over the target fire, limited by their dynamic operational envelope.
Being an autonomous vehicle, WILD HOPPER does not put at risk human lives as platform management is done on a safe
ground base.
The WILD HOPPER is a less expensive platform than conventional aerial means, allowing small and medium regional
bodies to own their own fast-response resources. Being less complex machines, cost of ownership is heavily reduced.
Finally, WILD HOPPER allows swarm operation to implement several units in coordination to boost effiency.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering automotive engineering autonomous vehicles
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics autonomous robots drones
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aircraft rotorcraft
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28015 Madrid
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.