Autonomous Drones to Ensure Safety in Transport: Concept and Implementations

Transport infrastructures require continuous and efficient inspection techniques to ensure their safety. Drones are one of the latest technologies that can be used to get a deep picture of the infrastructure. However, inspecting large infrastructures such as railways and bridges demand smart drone solutions that operate cooperatively and recharge autonomously while flying in a controlled framework. In this paper, we present the concept of the Horizon 2020 project Drones4Safety and its drone ecosystem for intelligent and autonomous inspection of linear infrastructures such as railways and bridges and discuss its integration with the U-Space.