DAEDALUS

Existing tracking systems are not capable of being used in different fields of application. For this reason, the DFKI together with Fraunhofer IIS has developed an energy-efficient tracking system which can be adapted to different scenarios. The developed system can be used both for indoor and outdoor. Goods, humans and animals can be tracked and parameters such as, e.g. vibration, temperature or pulse can be measured. The combination of different technologies such as GNSS and GSM were used. In combination, several tracking tags can use a common GSM connection and thus send data in an energy efficient way to a central visualization platform. With the help of energy harvesting, individual tags can be operated autarkic.
Within this project, the DFKI has implemented the software for the central control unit and developed the sensor board.

Furthermore, the autonomous underwater vehicle AUVX was developed within the DAEDALUS project. Inside the AUVX, the tracking tag serves as a central data hub for preprocessing and collecting sensor data and for sending the data to a visualization platform. This demonstrates the applicability of the developed technologies in a robotic context. The mission scenario for the AUVX is the EurEx mission scenario. Purpose of the AUVXX is to  increase the accuracy of the position estimation as well as near field exploration.

During the development, particular attention was paid to its possible space application which resulted in an energy efficient design. In particular, the hull of the AUVX was optimized with the help of CFD simulations in order to be able to drive energy efficiently through the water. An FPGA was used for the low level control. Here, too, space is clearly visible as FPGAs have been successfully used in space for many years. In the development of the VHDL model, the project team was able to profit from an existing DFKI internal code base. In this context a radiation hardening concept (triple modular redundancy) was synthesized and evaluated concerning resource consumption for the first time at the institute.

The shape of the vehicle has been adapted such that the AUVX fits into the Icedrill developed within the EurEx project. Alltogether the AUVX combines capabilities, which are expected in much larger systems.