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

该提案的目标是为ING机器人（ING机器人航空电子公司）无人机开发一个人工智能（AI）平台（开发和运行时环境），以使其在执行任务时尽可能自主。该平台将使嵌入无人机内部的本地智能无需与地面控制站通信即可做出本地实时决策。无论是现在还是未来，无人驾驶飞机的航程都在10到100公里之间，而且可能在没有移动互联网甚至GPS的情况下，超出遥测范围。因此，自主执行任务的能力至关重要。通过人工智能平台，我们还计划提供一套应用程序，用于电力线、管道、铁路轨道、道路和桥梁的自动视觉检测。我们的应用研究方法是将敏捷软件开发与信息系统方法论中的设计科学研究相结合，其中研究结果是一个工件（无人机人工智能平台和应用程序）。这项应用研究将由巴黎城市大学智能原型技术中心（CEPI）和INGRobotic联合进行。ING robotics的好处是提高了应用程序开发人员的生产力，缩短了产品上市时间，降低了对人工智能技能的依赖，而人工智能技能在市场上是出了名的难以获得的。另一个长期的好处是，他们的产品在任何竞争中都更加差异化。学院的好处是在与行业需求最相关的领域对学生进行重点培训，并提高这些学生的就业率。应用研究学科的主要好处是增加了学科知识库，增加了实时嵌入式知识、专有技术和与行业需求密切相关的软件技术。

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.