SABER, Strategic Autonomous Vehicles for Battlefield Reconnaissance and Logistics
Funded by the European Defense Fund under Grant Agreement No. 101224105
- DESCRIPTION:
SABER proposes an autonomous multi-agent system composed of collaborative aerial and ground robots, with the goal of transforming aerial delivery and data collection systems on the battlefield. It will investigate hardware and software components as complementary solutions for existing robotic platforms, enhancing their autonomous capabilities to provide near-real-time situational awareness and user-friendly “delivery-as-a-service” capabilities. The disruptive nature of the project lies in the use of existing drones and ground vehicles as part of a universal multi-agent system that enables scalability and cost-effectiveness.
- OBJECTIVES:
The project aims to develop a validated design for a system-of-systems with a proof of concept at TRL 4. At the end of the project, the designed solutions will be demonstrated under laboratory or field conditions:
- A multi-domain combat cloud that includes the management of robot fleets with a visual representation of their missions.
- A workflow for autonomous navigation in uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments, such as wetlands.
- A system for data collection and AI analysis that enables near real-time situational awareness and secure control of robots at the edge.
- A universal approach to collaborative operations between aerial and ground robots, such as the exchange of payloads—including cargo—and versatile sensors based on mission requirements
- CONSORTIUM MEMBERS:
The SABER project consortium consists of six European organizations from four different countries (Spain, France, Greece, and Finland), led by a Spanish technology SME.
Coordinator:
Partners:
- CATEC ROLE:
CATEC brings its expertise in advanced UAV technologies to the SABER project, leading the development of edge AI capabilities, air-to-ground cooperation, and swarm operations. It contributes to the analysis of the state of the art, the design of solutions for navigation, perception, and collaboration between aerial and ground robots, and the development of the fleet management architecture and the multi-domain operational environment.
In addition, it provides its laboratories and testing facilities to experimentally validate the technologies and concepts developed, serving as one of the project’s technical pillars.
The technology center contributes its expertise in robotics and applied autonomy to fulfill the following technical responsibilities:
- Swarming Algorithms: Designs and develops technological solutions that enable multiple aerial and ground robots to collaborate with one another completely autonomously on joint missions.
- Advanced Drone Autonomy: Implements the operational logic needed to create intelligent, scalable, and cost-effective drone swarms for the battlefield.
- FEATURED TECHNOLOGIES:
The technological core of the SABER project centers on the concept of “Universal Multi-Agent Retrofitting. “ This means that the project does not seek to build new robots from scratch, but rather to develop hardware and software technologies that act as “add-ons” to provide existing drones (UAVs) and ground vehicles (UGVs) with autonomy and intelligent collaboration capabilities.
The main technologies integrated into the project are as follows:
- Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) Architecture
- Advanced Computer Vision and Situational Awareness
- Autonomous Navigation in Critical Environments (GNSS-Denied)
- Combat Logistics Automation