4DDS PROJECT: PROJECT, DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF UNMANNED VEHICLES THAT CAN OPERATE IN THE FOUR DIMENSIONS (4D): AIR, LAND, SURFACE, UNDERWATER, BOTH AS SWARMS AND AS AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

With great pleasure we announce that IDS Ingegneria Dei Sistemi SpA is taking part in the 4DDS (4D Drone Swarms) project, a research and development project for the development and refinement of enabling technologies and advanced prototypes to enable the creation of “autonomous drone swarms” capable of operating in all four domains (air, land, water, and underwater) and, potentially, in mixed domains. These technologies will be tested and demonstrated on prototype autonomous vehicles and drone swarms.

The 4DDS project, launched by the Italian Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy and developed by IDS in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano, Fincantieri NexTech and Università di Pisa, aims at developing and testing enabling technologies for multi-domain unmanned systems (air, land, surface and underwater), with particular attention to cooperation between heterogeneous platforms and advanced mission management through a command and control system (IDS’ proprietary UMS – Unmanned Management System).

4DDS project allows to consolidate a coherent set of technological and architectural capabilities with significant potential for industrial development, particularly in the field of multi-domain unmanned systems with a focus on maritime and underwater applications.

Fincantieri companies, IDS and Fincantieri Nextech will focus their efforts on the following topics:

• Design and construction of a prototype fixed-wing Maritime VTOL UAV with vertical take-off and landing/landing capability. Use of a COTS solution for multi-copter operations
• Development of autonomous capabilities for surface vehicles (USV)
• Development of swarm capabilities for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), in simulated environments
• Use of COTS UUVs to develop technological capabilities for underwater drone swarm operations. The work focused on both command-and-control systems for swarm management and on-board equipment and payloads for the UUVs.

The technical evidence which will be gained during the project will allow the development of a reusable architectural framework based on modular software architectures (ROS2), standards-based interoperability and tasking mechanisms (CATL and its evolution), and a Command and Supervision System (UMS) as the central element for mission orchestration.
The capabilities which will be developed in the project are consistent with an institutional and dual-use target market, characterized by a growing demand for solutions for monitoring and protection of critical underwater infrastructure, maritime security and surveillance operations and integration, command and control, and multi-asset mission management services.

The availability of modular and interoperable architectures allows for scalable and reconfigurable solutions, facilitating access to new market segments. The expected economic benefits derive not only from the potential for leveraging assets and subsystems, but also from the possibility of offering integration, supervision, mission management, and dual-use operational configurations, with positive effects on the economic sustainability of future development lines in the medium to long term.