Project description
Bring in the drones to help fight fires
The efforts of firefighters and public safety teams to emergencies such as blazing buildings and rescue missions require aerial support for awareness information. Drones are essential but they have limitations due to their reduced flight time, potential user errors and limited safety when flying in urban areas. The EU-funded Fotokite project proposes a new instrument that increases aerial situational awareness via information services. Fotokite’s tethered UAV systems can be launched from the fire vehicles autonomously and provide live thermal and visuals to the forces operating in the ground. The system consists of hardware sold to customers with an annual service contract subscription.
Objective
Fotokite aims to provide firefighting and public safety teams with a new tool to safely and easily access aerial situational awareness information to help in their mission to save lives and preserve property. Fotokite has developed a vehicle-integrated and tethered UAV technology to deliver mission-critical information to firefighters during emergency response situations. Use of drones at the exploration of emergency zones is limited due to safety, regulatory, and technical capabilities. Drones that are piloted manually are prone to user error, unsafe in cities and around crowds of people, and do not scale operationally. Flight time is also a fundamental limitation, as free flying systems are generally limited to 20-30 minutes of flight time. Despite these disadvantages, traditional drones are increasingly used to improve Public Safety team operations.
Fotokite’s tethered UAV systems can be launched from the fire trucks autonomously, with the single push of a button. Fotokite systems fly themselves and stream live thermal + visual video to firefighters on the ground, providing mission-critical situational awareness to help lifesaving operations.
Fotokite has immediately created a substantial demand, proven by strong customer feedback and significant market uptake. Fotokite systems have successfully been implemented in live fire responses, search & rescue missions, and training exercises to help firefighting teams.
Revenue is generated by selling hardware systems for an upfront cost plus an annual service contract subscription, which includes dedicated support, remote data accessibility for teams, and secure data management services. The requested grant is needed to develop scaled-up manufacturing processes and significantly accelerate market introduction with this game-changing technology. Successful and wide-scale implementation will help improve the safety of firefighting and public safety teams and increase effectiveness on public lifesaving operations.
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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering manufacturing engineering
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics autonomous robots drones
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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.
8005 ZURICH
Switzerland
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.