Mobitrust Performes Autonomous Multi-Drone Flights in a Forest Environment

Within the scope of the Mobitrust project, operational field tests were carried out in a forest area to validate autonomous drone operation in one of the most demanding environments for unmanned systems. Dense canopy, irregular terrain and degraded satellite positioning make forests a difficult scenario, and one directly relevant to fire prevention, environmental monitoring and search and rescue operations.

The tests confirmed fully autonomous flight. The operator defined the area to be surveyed on a web dashboard and issued a single command; from that point on, the system planned a route for each drone and the drones took off, flew their assigned routes and landed on their own, using onboard perception to navigate rather than manual piloting. More than one drone flew concurrently in the same mission, each covering its own share of the area, demonstrating coordinated multi-drone operation from a single ground station.

During the flights, each drone recorded a three-dimensional map of the forest using an onboard LiDAR sensor, building the map in real time as it moved through the area. After landing, the collected datasets were automatically transferred to the ground command post, where they became available to the operator for analysis. Telemetry, such as position, altitude, speed and battery , was transmitted continuously throughout the mission, giving the command post a live picture of the operation.

The forest tests demonstrated the potential of the technologies developed within Mobitrust for applications in forest surveillance, wildfire prevention and response, environmental monitoring and support to search and rescue operations. By removing the need for a pilot per aircraft and allowing a single operator to supervise several drones at once, these capabilities support faster area coverage, improved situational awareness and reduced human exposure to hazardous environments.