Development of an AI-based Drone Autonomy Platform & Applications for ING Robotic

该提案的目标是为ING Robotic(ING Robotic Avionics Inc.)开发一个人工智能(AI)平台(开发和运行时环境)。无人驾驶飞机，以便使它们在执行任务时尽可能自主。该平台将使嵌入无人机的本地智能能够在无需与地面控制站通信的情况下做出本地实时决策。目前和未来的ING机器人无人机的射程为10到100公里，可能会在遥测范围之外运行，没有移动互联网，甚至没有GPS；因此，自主执行任务的能力至关重要。通过AI平台，我们还计划提供一套应用程序，用于对输电线、管道、铁轨、道路和桥梁进行自主视觉检测。我们的应用研究方法是将敏捷软件开发与信息系统设计科学研究方法相结合，其中研究成果是一个人工产物(无人机AI平台和应用程序)。这项应用研究将由城市学院和INGRobotic的智能原型专业知识中心(CEPI)联合进行。ING Robotic的好处将是提高其应用程序开发人员的生产率，缩短其产品的上市时间，并降低对人工智能技能的依赖，而人工智能技能在市场上并不是很难获得。另一个更长期的好处是，他们的产品在与任何竞争对手的竞争中增加了差异化。学院的好处是，我们的学生在与行业需求最相关的领域进行有针对性的培训，并提高这些学生的录取率。应用研究学科的主要好处是增加了与行业需求密切相关的实时嵌入式AI知识、诀窍和软件技术，从而增加了学科知识库。

The objective of this proposal is to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform (development and run-timeenvironments) for ING Robotic (ING Robotic Avionics Inc.) drones in order to make them as autonomous aspossible in the execution of their mission. This platform will enable local intelligence embedded inside thedrone to make local real-time decisions without having to communicate with the Ground Control Station. INGRobotic drones, current and future, have a range of 10 to 100 km, and may operate beyond the range oftelemetry, without mobile internet, or even GPS; therefore, the ability to execute their mission autonomously iscritical. With the AI Platform, we also plan to deliver one set of Applications for the autonomous visualinspection of power lines, pipelines, rail tracks, roads and bridges. Our approach to applied research is tocombine Agile software development with the Design Science Research in Information Systems methodology,where the research outcome is an artifact (the Drone AI Platform and the Applications). This applied researchwill be undertaken jointly by the Center of Expertise in Smart Prototyping (CEPI) of Collège La Cité and INGRobotic. The benefits for ING Robotic would be an increased productivity for their application developers, ashorter time-to-market for their products, and a lower dependency on Artificial Intelligence skills which arenotoriously difficult to acquire on the market. Another longer-term benefit is an increased differentiation oftheir products against any competition. The benefits for the Collège are a focused training of our students in anarea most relevant to industry needs, and a higher hiring rate of these students. The main benefits to the appliedresearch discipline are an increase in the discipline knowledge base with the addition of real-time embedded AIknowledge, know-how, and software technology which are deeply relevant to the industry needs.