Submitted Abstract
The contract security industry already worth 145 billion euros worldwide is predicted to reach 180 billion in 2020. The boom in this sector is accompanied with a surge for new technological solutions to provide more efficient, effective and cheaper services. Drones, also referred to as unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), are one emerging and promising approach, providing a bird’s eye view of the environment to monitor, for running costs orders of magnitude below traditional ones, e.g. helicopters.However, UAVs also face limitations such as their autonomy and range of operations when operated remotely, in addition to mobilizing a qualified human resource per device.The AURORA (unpredictAble Uav swaRms fOr surveillance) project aims at providing a unique solution through a new generation of aerial surveillance service based on multiple-features autonomous drones evolving simultaneously as a swarm and using unpredictable trajectories.To this end, AURORA exploits a disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) approach that combines a nature inspired technique (ant colony optimization – ACO) and chaos theory. The developed UAV swarming intelligence is the result of 15 years of expertise in AI and mobile ad hoc networks of the AURORA team, which also works on military solutions, e.g., for the European Defense agency (EDA). AURORA proposes a unique and timely solution in a market in its infancy but with tremendous potential with numerous customers ranging from private companies (e.g., industrial sites or warehouses), to security services companies and public authorities (police, fire brigades, rescue teams).