Description
ICAERUS is a project that advances safe, effective drone use in agriculture, forestry, and rural communities. The project explores the use of drones in five application areas, validating them in real contexts and equipping stakeholders with training and practical guidance. The project explores multi-purpose drone services and identifies risks, added value; support informed decision-making with inclusive business and governance models; build capacity for competitiveness and sustainability; and enable trusted scale-up across Europe.
Technology
ICAERUS combines drone hardware with a cloud-edge platform. Multirotor and fixed-wing UAVs are loaded with optical, multispectral and thermal sensing for observation, spraying and goods delivery. Mission planning and edge processing run on the drone or ground stations. The backend provides data ingestion, storage and analytics via an open Drone Data Analytics Library, and the user layer is a web platform.
Target
ICAERUS targets both innovation providers and end-users. “Push” open calls target drone manufacturers, AI and IoT companies, research institutes, and start-ups, SMEs to develop and validate concepts and prototypes for market uptake. “Pull” innovation calls target end-users in agricultural production, environmental monitoring, and rural communities to apply drone services to commercial needs, and community challenges.
Business model
ICAERUS is an EU-funded Horizon Europe project, Grant Agreement ID 101060643, run by 13 partners in 8 EU countries, with EUR 5.46 million funding, plus EUR 465 000 from UKRI. An application-oriented model uses five co-designed drone use cases, scaled through a one-stop platform and the ICAERUS Academy.
Impact
ICAERUS aims to accelerate safe, effective drone uptake in agriculture, forestry and rural logistics, as well as information and communication efforts. Evidence from use cases shows reduced losses and inputs, improved yield and quality, worker safety, enhanced biodiversity and forest monitoring, and stronger skills via the ICAERUS Academy.
Partners
AgFutura Technologies; AgriFood Lithuania; Beta Via; Ecological Interactions; GeoSense; Hellenic Crop Protection Association; Institut de l’Elevage; Noosware; Noumena; Reframe food; The Open University; Wageningen University and Research (WUR).
Four Betters
Better production
Better environment
Better life
