News & Announcements

In this section INACHUS news & announcements can be found.

The project partners together with e	2nd end user workshop & 2nd plenary	3rd plenary meeting	5th plenary meeting & 1st field test	INACHUS kick-off meeting	4th plenary meeting

INACHUS 4rth pilot 12-15 November 2018, Roquebillière, France

The fourth and final field test of INACHUS project took place on November 11th in Roquebilliere, France. Victims localization tools, secure communication system and Common Operational Picture and Emergency Support System were demonstrated and evaluated by 14 end users from all over Europe. #INACHUS #INSARAG #USAR

Eighteen urban search and rescue (USaR) professionals, Red Cross and coal mine rescuers from Sweden, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Poland, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany gathered at Roquebillière, France, on November 14-15 to attend the final INACHUS field test. Using a scenario involving a major earthquake with international help requested, INACHUS partners demonstrated how the various solutions developed in the project could assist in all phases of a USaR response, through all levels of coordination. Roquebillière, France, offered a realistic environment to demonstrate several of the INACHUS tools over two locations: a Base of Operation and a worksite. INACHUS, now in its fourth and final year, has continuously sought feedback from end users to ensure that the developed tools are as useful and relevant as possible. The final pilot was a chance to demonstrate the whole INACHUS solution in close to real operational conditions.

10th plenary meeting was held in Roquebillière, France, on 13 November 2018 on behalf of the Final Pilot of the project

The 10th plenary meeting of INACHUS project was successfully heldin Roquebillière, France, on 13 November 2018. The partners had a chance to present their work and define the future steps towards the finalization of the INACHUS project and the successful implementation of the final pilot the next days.

Final event of INACHUS project, VALABRE France 16 October 2018

The European research project INACHUS presented its outcomes through a dedicated conference organised in Valabre, France, on the 16th of October 2018. The conference was co-located with the INSARAG Africa Europe Middle East regional meeting, which started the next day. Key representants from USAR teams in Europe (Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, France, Greece) were present and participated actively to the conference and the round table on the subject of “New technologies in the USAR world”. Fruitful exchanges and contacts are the main outcome of this conference.

Find relevant pictures here

INSARAG AEME (Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa) annual meeting on 17-18 October in Valabre, France

INACHUS was present during the INSARAG Regional (Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa) meeting on 17-18 October, it was an opportunity for EPLFM to present INACHUS project to deciders of INSARAG with a stand. EPLFM had very good contacts with many INSARAG representants from different countries: Germany, France, Estonia, Czech Republic, Israel, Hungary, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy, Poland, England, Belgium, Jordania and OCHA, as well as a representant from the EC. All of them were willing to learn more about the project and communicated their mail to stay in touch with the project

Find relevant pictures here

Forum Innovation Defense 2018, 22-24 November 2018 - ONERA

This event is a technical forum and exhibition showcasing the latest innovative concepts and data collection tools.

This event gives access to geospatial solutions and networking. It connects teams with thousands of professionals seeking 3D LiDAR and other innovative concepts to collect data and support wide area surveillance. It is a great opportunity to illustrate the use of laser imaging systems for real operational situations.

URL: https://www.defense.gouv.fr/english/portail-defense/dossiers/forum-innovation-defense

ONERA presented the INACHUS project activities related to 3D laser imaging techniques on UAVs, detection and, localization of collapsed buildings and trapped victims. ONERA shared the last pilot results with national and European end-users. They also discovered the INACHUS tools (3D LiDAR embedded on drones).

Find relevant pictures here

Security Coutererror Expo, Secure Design and Build, Olympia, London UK March 7, 2018

The topic of modeling tools to predict urban vulnerability, risk and response is presented to at the prominent Security and Counterterror Expo SCTX at London Olympia. This series of events attracts regularly large numbers of relevant end users, urban planning practitioners and consultants. The presentation on (parts of the functionality) of the INACHUS urban planning tool is introduced, further disseminated and discussed.

Demonstration for stakeholders at a field trial, MSB facilities at Revinge, Sweden, 2018-06-26

On June 25-26, 2018, FOI carried out a small field trial in Revinge, Sweden, at the premises of MSB (Swe. Civil Contingencies Agency). The purpose was to test the latest version of the INACHUS seismic system for victim detection in realistic conditions, with sensors from an operational seismic system connected to the INACHUS system. The site of Revinge was chosen because it contains an area with debris and building structures with tunnels underneath, suitable for realistic testing of search and rescue tools and methods. A demonstration to external guests was performed on June 26. The audience consisted of eight persons, both national and international, representing different areas of interest, such as civil contingencies preparedness, search and rescue, and industry.

INACHUS 3rd pilot, Weeze, Germany

The third field test of INACHUS project took place on April 20th in Weeze, Germany. Victims localization tools, secure communication system and Common Operational Picture and Emergency Support System were demonstrated and evaluated by 14 end users from all over Europe. #INACHUS #INSARAG #USAR

9th plenary meeting of INACHUS, Weeze, Germany

The 9th plenary meeting of INACHUS project was successfully held in Weeze, Germany on April 16-17, 2018. The partners had a chance to present their work and to participate to workshops for WP11 activities about ethics on Tuesday 17 April. Those two fruitful days with a lot of exchanges between partners and end users were followed by the Exploitation and Dissemination Workshop one Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19. The pilot 3 ended the week on Friday 20 April (see above for more Information).

INACHUS 3rd official Review

The third EC Review of the INACHUS project took take place in Athens, Greece (March 23rd, 2018), in the presence of our project Officer and three reviewers.

INACHUS Exploitation Workshop, April 2018, Weeze, Germany

INACHUS Exploitation Clustering Workshop with 7 relevant RnD projects, took place in Weeze, Germany on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th April 2018. The purpose of the workshop was to identify potential synergies between these projects and moreover, to find integration opportunities of INACHUS components to other projects and vice versa.

The participants of the workshop were the above projects:

Driver+, beAware, CAMELOT, ANYWHERE, TOXI-Triage, IN-PREP, INACHUS.

More similar activities are foreseen in the near future.

CEN/CENELEC Workshop, 09/05/2018, Brussels, Belgium

INACHUS cordially invites interested stakeholders to participate in the CEN/CENELEC Workshop “Interoperability framework for functional components of a modular search and rescue robotic platform”. The CWS is a working platform open to the participation of any interested parties for elaboration of CEN and CENELEC Workshop Agreements (CWA) on the abovementioned field.

This initiative has been initiated by the INACHUS project consortium aiming at the publication of a CEN/CENELEC Workshop Agreement publication, providing guidance for a generic search and rescue robotic platform. This platform can perform activities in all possible operational environments (i.e. aerial, ground, marine or submarine) and can require a range of sensors and communication interfaces dependent on the search and rescue scenario. In this way a generic platform can be adapted, designed, and built for any possible search and rescue scenario.

This CWS has been established in order to ensure that the developed CWA will be discussed and critically evaluated among a wide range of European and international stakeholders. For this reason, your participation would be very much appreciated.

The launch of this CWS will take place on 9 May 2018 through a 1-day meeting at the CEN-CENELEC Meeting Centre, Rue de la Science, 23 – 1040 Brussels, Belgium. (Time 10am-4pm CET, with arrivals 9.30am CET. Room details tbc). Those who would like to continue their participation in the CWS may register at this meeting to attend a 1-day second workshop also at the CEN-CENELEC Meeting Centre in Brussels, Belgium, to be held in July 2018.

To register (required to attendance) and more information (suggested draft Project Plan) you can check the following link: https://www.cencenelec.eu/news/workshops/Pages/WS-2018-003.aspx

European Robotics Forum, Workshop on ERF on sharing data and other resources for emergency response robotics, 15 March 2018.

The workshop mainly aimed to search and rescue operations and relevant end users, research partners and technology providers attended.

SINTEF presentation "Snake Robots for emergency response" included requirements to snake robots and possibilities on how snake robots can meet these requirements. Tracked locomotion makes it easier to operate a snake robot.

Security Coutererror Expo, Secure Design and Build, Olympia, London UK March 7, 2018

Find more info here

International Lidar Mapping Forum (ILMF) and ASPRS Annual Conference Denver, Colorado, USA 05-07 February 2018

ONERA presented the INACHUS project activities related to 3D laser imaging techniques on UAVs, detection and, localization of collapsed buildings and trapped victims to the International Lidar Mapping Forum (ILMF) and ASPRS Annual Conference which took place in Denver, Colorado, USA 05-07 February 2018.

Find more info here

TAMSEC 2017, Stockholm Sweden, 28-29 November 2017

FOI presented the Ground-Based Seismic Sensor System for Detecting and Locating Victims Trapped in Debris Heaps in the TAMSEC 2017 which took place in Kista, Stockholm, Sweden on 28-29 November 2017.

Find more info and the poster on the presentation section.

USAR.NL Terugkomdag 2017, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Nov 23rd 2017

The INACHUS ground-based seismic system (GBSS) was presented to a large group of members of the Dutch heavy USaR team in Rotterdam Nov 23rd 2017. The purpose of the GBSS is to improve the chances of finding victims buried in rubble. The system uses a network of vibration sensors and applies signal processing to reduce background noise and detect knocking signals and visualizes detections on a map. The audience confirmed the relevance of the development as it targets concrete drawbacks of current operational systems and could be of significant value for next-generation systems.

World Demolition Summit, London UK

The theme of the World Demolition Summit this year was focussed on safety of demolition workers and dealing with accidental failures. ASI presented about the successes achieved in Pilot 2 in modelling debris shape. Cardem demolition company who provided the facility in Pilot 2 was co-presenter. Cardem praised the accuracy of the collapse simulation and explained all the difficulties in choosing Pilot 2 site. Attendees were enthusiastic about Inachus grant and it is hoped more demolition companies will be partners and end users in future pilots.

8th plenary meeting of INACHUS, Eibar, Spain

The 8th plenary meeting of INACHUS project was successfully held in Eibar, Spain on November 8-10, 2017. The partners had a chance to present their work and to participate to workshops for each WP. Those two fruitful days with a lot of exchanges between partners and end users were followed by an Business Plan Development Workshop by an Expert from the EC.

European's Research Night, Athens, September 2017

INACHUS was presented through the ICCS booth at the European Researchers’ Night, in Athens, on the 29th of September, 2017. A general presentation of the project was given and INACHUS leaflets were distributed to the participants. The European Researcher’s Night is a Europe-wide public event dedicated to popular science and fun learning. It attracts mostly the general public and especially the young people and the student communities. The event takes place simultaneously in over 300 European cities, on the last Friday of September.

Find relevant pictures here, and here

International Conference, Bonn, Germany, September 2017

ITC participated in September 2017 in the UAV-g 2017 hosted in Bonn, Germany. This international conference focusing on UAV for geomatics, had around 170 participants. ITC contributed with a paper and presentation regarding a time efficient façade damage detection using UAV oblique imagery.

More info here

Workshop, entitled “Pervasive Intelligence in Engineering” organised

An organisation of a workshop during the 10th International Conference on Pervasive Technologies related to assistive environments - PETRA 2017, entitled “Pervasive Intelligence in Engineering”

More info here

Samverkansseminarium, Revinge, Sweden, May 23-24 2017

At a Swedish cooperation seminar (“Samverkansseminarium”) in Revinge, Sweden, May 23-24 2017, FOI and SBFF presented and demonstrated results from INACHUS, focusing on showing the possibilities with 3D laser and seismic systems in USaR operations. The seismic sensor system was set up and successfully demonstrated live in a simplified setting in a conference room. The audience attending the INACHUS session consisted of approximately 40 people representing various Swedish authorities, of which several from Swedish fire and rescue services. The end user perspective of SBFF resulted in a presentation and demonstration session that got a lot of positive feedback.

Find relative photos here and here

Integration Workshop, Trondheim Norway 19-21\06\2017

The T8.3 Integration workshop will be held in Trondheim, Norway on June 19-21 2017. The main focus for this workshop is the physical integration of the sensors in the robot. More information to follow.

7th Plenary meeting, Lyon, France

The 7th plenary meeting of INACHUS project was successfully held in Lyon (France) on June 1st and 2d. the partners had a chance to present their work and to participate to workshops for each WP. Two fruitful days with a lot of exchanges between partners and end users.

2nd Pilot

The second field test of INACHUS project was carried out on May 31st in Lyon. Modelling tools and Digital surface models were demonstrated and evaluated by 14 end users from all over Europe.

#INACHUS #INSARAG #USAR #COLLAPSEMODELLING

7th Plenary Meeting

The 7th plenary meeting of INACHUS project will be held in Lyon, France on June 1st and 2d.

European Space Agency (ESA) Workshop in Trondheim

SINTEF was invited to give a talk on a workshop in Trondheim co-hosted by the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) on request by the European Space Agency (ESA). The workshop was held at 16 March 2017.

SINTEF was in particular asked to tell about our activities on snake robots as the NSC and ESA have both shown great interest in such robots. Aksel Transeth, Kristoffer N. Gregertsen gave a presentation. The presentation included an overview of the INACHUS project. The title of the presentation was: Snake robots, other robotic technology and autonomy and you can find it here.

Enclosed is the workshop program, and the list of attendees.

Paper Presentation "Deep Learning for Urban Remote Sensing" JURSE 2017, March 6-7/2017, Abu Dhabi(UAE)

The ONERA team presented deep learning techniques and tools for the analysis of remote sensing data. These approaches allow a precise semantic mapping of the data and analysis of the local 3D structure. This will be applied to the 3D data acquired and processed in WP4 for Wide area surveillance tools for monitoring of collapsed buildings "

Workshop at ERF 2017

Presentation at ERF 2017 during the Workshop: The Minimum Viable Product Approach Robotics - A way to bridge the valley of death in Inspection & Maintenance Robotics

European Robotic Forum, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. 22-24 March 2017

SINTEF showed the INACHUS robot video here as an example of prototype development where the end-user is involved in the process since the first phases. Therefore, the prototype developer is able to adapt the developments to the end-user inputs in a fast and efficient manner.

More Information on the Workshop: http://www.sprintrobotics.org/erf2017/

Find additional pictures here

Workshop at ISCRAM 2017

INACHUS Consortium is organizing a Workshop on Post-Crisis Damage and Needs Assessment of Buildings for Response, Reconstruction and Recovery Planning at ISCRAM 2017, Albi, France, on May 21st 2017. More information on: https://iscram2017-dev.mines-albi.fr/pdna-b3rp/.

INACHUS Project Presentation at San Sebastian, 2016

Tekniker attended a general presentation of the objectives of INACHUS project and a detailed preliminary presentation of all the individual technologies to be developed, highlighting that all technologies are going to be integrated in order to create a unified functional platform deployable as a complete and coherent system to support USaR activities.

Find here the presentation about the Technological and Methodological Solutions for Integrated Wide Area Situation Awareness and Survivor Localisation to Support Search and Rescue (USaR) Teams

Presentation of a research paper at the XXIII ISPRS Congress (July 2016) in Prague

Presentation of a research paper, Potential of multi-temporal oblique airborne imagery for structural damage assessment, at the XXIII ISPRS Congress (July 2016) in Prague. The scope of the paper is to assess the potential of using multi-temporal and multi-view airborne images for a thorough building damage assessment. Surveying not only the building roofs but also the facades. Moreover, the uncertainties related with damage detection are reduced, due to the knowledge of the pre-disaster situation of a given area.

FInd the presentation here

Presentation at 2016 IEEE International Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques (IST)

This paper evaluates powerful commercial and open-source software for the creation of 3D models of disaster scenes using UAV imagery for rapid response situations and conducts a thorough analysis on the parameters of the various modelling steps that may lead to the desired results for USaR operations. The main result of the analysis is the establishment of optimized photogrammetric procedures with the scope of fast 3D modelling of disaster scenes, to assist USaR teams and increase survival rates.

Find more Information and the Presentation here

2nd EC Review

The second EC Review of the INACHUS project will take place in Athens, Greece (February 24th, 2017).

Updates on the Bullet Constraints Builder by LUAS

LUAS has continued the development of the Bullet Constraints Builder (accessible on Github) and the interaction with the Bullet community (link). At the same time LUAS is using the Pyne Gould collapse video to disseminate their work which has been recognized by Erwin Coumans, the author of the Bullet Physics Library.

LUAS will continue working on the Bullet Constraints Builder to debunk the noticed inconsistencies and improve its accuracy. The team is also working to achieve a remarkable acceleration of the simulation speed.

Presentation at Simulation Conference

Kai Fischer from EMI, has presented EMI's work in INACHUS with the title "Verwundbarkeitsanalyse urbaner Gebiete – 3D Bewertung für Nachhaltigkeit und Resilienz (Vulnerability analysis of urban areas – 3D assessment for sustainability and resilience)" in the 5th Forum of Digital Cities at the 34th CADFEM ANSYS Simulation Conference, Nuremberg, Germany (October 7, 2016).

Publication at IST 2016

A paper with the title "UAV-Based 3D Modelling of Disaster Scenes for Urban Search and Rescue" has been presented in the 2016 IEEE International Conference Imaging Systems and Techniques (October 4-6 2016, Chania, Greece). [summary]

Presentation/Video at Industri 2016

"INACHUS snake robot for search and rescue missions" by Aksel Transeth (as part of a SINTEF presentation) .The INACHUS Snake Robot has been presented through a short video at Industri 2016 (http://industri.norskindustri.no/) that was held in Bodø, Norway (September 28-29, 2016). To view the video click on the following link. (video link)

6th Plenary meeting

The INACHUS 6th Plenary meeting is going to be organised in Freiburg, Germany on November 7-8, 2016.

Publication at PETRA 2016

A paper with the title "Real Time Earthquake’s Survivor Detection using a Miniaturized LWIR Camera" has been presented in the 9th ACM PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (June 29 – July 1 2016, Corfu, Greece). (paper pdf file)

Publication at ITBMS 2016

A paper with the title "Trapped Victim Detection using a Miniaturized LWIR Camera" has been presented in the 11th International IR Target and Background Modeling & Simulation Workshop (June 27 – June 30 2016, Carcassonne, France). (presentation pdf file)

Publication in Swedish Microwaves Days 2016

A paper with the title "Compact Aperture Coupled Patch Antenna Design" has been presented in in Swedish Microwave Days 2016 Linköping, Sweden. 15-16 March 2016. [abstract] [poster]

Publication in European Robotics Forum 2016

A paper with the title "INACHUS snake robot for search and rescue operations" by G. Marafioti, G. Athanasiou, A. Gustafsson, D. Axelsson, A. Anyfantis, A. Amditis, has been presented in in European Robotics Forum Ljubljana, Slovenia. 21-23 March 2016. [poster]

1st EC Review

The first EC Review of the INACHUS project will take place in Athens, Greece (June 22, 2016).

1st Pilot and 5th Plenary meeting

The 1st Pilot of INACHUS will take place Agosta, Sweden (June 14-15, 2016) and will be followed by the 5th Plenary meeting in Stockholm, Sweden (June 16-17, 2016).

INACHUS project was presented in the 7th edition of the European Robotics Forum

INACHUS project was presented in the 7th edition of the European Robotics Forum that took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia from the 21st till the 23rd of March 2016 (www.erf2016.eu). This 3-day event is a meeting point for researchers, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, companies and robotics officials from the European Commission. The program is designed to provide an opportunity for the companies and researchers to meet and interact in workshops and seminars in order to expand their networks, gather the latest relevant information, and discuss topics and contents which also have an immediate impact on the roadmapping process for Robotics in Europe.

4th Plenary meeting

The next INACHUS plenary meeting took place in Toulouse, France (March 14 - 17, 2016).

Publications at TAMSEC 2015

A paper with the title “The EU FP7 project INACHUS Technological and Methodological Solutions for Integrated Wide Area Situation Awareness and Survivor Localization to Support Search and Rescue Teams” has been presented at the Symposium on Technology and Methodology for Security and Crisis Management (TAMSEC) 2015. (poster and abstract pdf file)

A paper with the title "RPAS as a sensor carrier," has been presented at the Symposium on Technology and Methodology for Security and Crisis Management (TAMSEC 2015). (abstract pdf file)

Presentation at Blender Conference

Oliver Walter and Kai Kostack from LUAS are going to present the work with the title "Bullet Constraints Builder for collapse simulation" (presentation file) at the coming Blender Conference in De Balie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (October 23-25, 2015). The source code can be found in GitHub.

Presentation at EUCONCIP Opening Conference

The INACHUS project was presented at the EUCONCIP Opening Conference in Rome (October 20th, 2015 ). Details about the conference can be found in this link and the INACHUS presentation here.

3rd Plenary meeting

The next INACHUS plenary meeting took place in Rome, Italy (November 4-6, 2015).

Publication at EOGC/GiT4NDM 2015

A paper with the title "INACHUS: Integrated Wide Area Situation Awareness and Survivor Localization in Search and Rescue Operations" has been accepted in the 5th International Conference on Earth Observation for Global Changes (EOGC 2015) and the 7th International Conference on Geo-information Technologies for Natural Disaster Management (GiT4NDM 2015). [paper, presentation]

INACHUS participation in the UN INSARAG Global Meeting in Abu Dhabi (18-19 October 2015)

The INACHUS project participated in the UN-INSARAG Global Meeting (18-19 October, Abu Dhabi) alongside with other representatives from the international urban search and rescue (SAR) community. INSARAG is a global network of more than 80 countries and organisations dedicated to urban search and rescue (USAR). The main objectives of INSARG are to establish minimum international standards for USAR teams and to develop a methodology for international coordination in earthquake response. This year, more than 314 participants from 94 countries and more than 200 participants from the Abu Dhabi Police attended the meeting, which was a great opportunity for the INACHUS project to be presented to potential end users and to inform them about the project outcomes and exploitable results.

News & Announcements

The project partners together with e

2nd end user workshop & 2nd plenary

3rd plenary meeting

5th plenary meeting & 1st field test

INACHUS kick-off meeting

4th plenary meeting