The report 'Drone Research and Innovation in Europe' from the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission analyzes the recent trends, challenges and achievements of European R&I projects in unmanned aircraft and urban air mobility. The study identifies relevant initiatives using the Transportation Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (TRIMIS) database and evaluates their contribution to technological advancement and research on environmental and socioeconomic impacts.

On a technological level, the drone sector faces challenges such as the integration of artificial intelligence, robotics and semiconductors. From a policy perspective, the objectives are to encourage R&I in drone technologies to maintain Europe's competitive advantage and technological leadership, as well as ensure the safe integration of drones into European airspace, minimize operational risks and address concerns related to privacy and security. All this in line with the EU's climate and sustainability objectives.

In the field of vehicles and their subsystems, the main achievements included in the report are related to technologies that lead to a holistic drone concept and with propulsion systems, aerodynamics, energy efficiency and increased autonomy and payload.

The Arcopter project drone operates satisfactorily in strong winds thanks to an innovative control system that allows the wings to rotate 360º; while Extremdron's, with heat dissipation systems and sensors that detect explosive compounds, works in conditions of high temperatures, fires, nuclear radiation or strong electromagnetic fields.

The Drodinamics initiative has developed a cargo drone that can carry up to 350 kilos and has a flight range of 2,500 kilometers, and QLEX CREO has designed a vehicle to carry medical supplies with a range of about 250 kilometers. For its part, Hoppersup has created a stable device to transport large volumes of water, equipped with a spray system capable of covering a large intervention surface.

On the other hand, the Uavendure I and II and Apollo projects have optimized propulsion with electric energy, Percevite has designed a processing package and a lightweight sensor that detects obstacles by combining information and exchanging data with other aircraft, Odessa has developed a small and light short-range obstacle detection device that fuses radar technology derived from advanced driver assistance systems with image processing algorithms, and Adacorsa uses radar, LiDAR, 3D cameras, hardware and software to combine precise sensors with data analysis .

The AST-FCS_VF initiative proposes an adaptive self-tuning flight control system that will be integrated into existing systems, and Airsens has focused on drone swarms in which each device acts as an autonomous agent, communicating and collaborating with surrounding drones. to detect and avoid obstacles. As for Autofly, it has promoted a platform for the autonomous operation of drones that uses advanced algorithms for vision-based guidance and navigation, real-time detection and tracking, visual positioning and autonomous inspection. It also allows constant communication with the control center with minimal use of network bandwidth.

As a result, autonomous delivery and transportation drone systems, landing systems for difficult conditions, improvements in communications, navigation and surveillance have been developed; The telecommunications infrastructure has been adapted to improve and secure communication, navigation and traffic; and GNSS (global navigation satellite system) and EGNOS (European geostationary overlay navigation service) services have been applied for the management of drones in urban air mobility environments.

Specifically, the Realise Grolas project has promoted a mobile landing system; 5G! Drones has demonstrated that 5G infrastructure can support the simultaneous operation of several types of drone services through network segmentation and Sapient integrates accurate estimates of flight trajectories to optimize management.

To assess the impact of drones on noise pollution, several European projects have measured and mapped noise, and have carried out studies on citizen perception. Along these same lines, work has been done to improve propulsion systems to reduce noise pollution. However, there is room for improvement in research on the impact of noise on wildlife and drone passengers.

Security must be guaranteed, the level of cybersecurity of urban air mobility technologies or anti-drone systems must be evaluated.