SUMMARY

The AUTOPSY project aims at the design and development of an innovative robotic Inspection System for the Critical Energy for the identification of faults and the prevention of sabotage in the external installations of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) network. Power plants, both thermal and hydroelectric power plants, transmission lines, cooling towers, dams and lignite mines are some examples of critical infrastructure, the uninterrupted and smooth operation of which must be ensured in every way. More specifically, the project focuses on the development of a coordinated and collaborative system of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), i.e. drones, which will work together independently and in an optimal way to timely detect autonomously high-risk points in the area of ​​the facilities they supervise.  This will be achieved by equipping the “swarm” of UAVs with cutting-edge technologies that will provide skills suitable for the autonomous inspection of large facilities. Specifically, a multi-sensory system based on color and thermal cameras as well as Lidar type sensors will be developed and integrated in each UAV, which using machine learning techniques will allow the identification of a wide range of faults from different outdoor region of interest. Integration in the swarm UAVs with autonomous collaborative navigation technologies will be carried out to maximize flight duration and to cover a maximum inspection area. At the same time, intelligent decision-making systems will be developed for the prediction of faults and the timely information of the maintenance team through cyber-secure user interfaces, while also the integration of the system with the existing methods of surveillance by fixed cameras is foreseen.