AVERT
Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery Tool
At a glance
- Project leader : Aneesh Neeschal Chand, Christopher Michael Henschel, Richard Alexander Hüppi
- Project team : Gauri Chetan Deshmukh, Nicola Amadeo Haggenmacher, Fabian Hertner, Vincent Meiser, Dejan Seatovic
- Project budget : CHF 957'600
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : EU and other international programmes
- Project partner : IDUS – IDUS Consultancy Ltd., FW – ForceWare GmbH, DUT – Democritus University of Thrace, BB Ingenieure – Ingenieurbüro Dr. Bernd Birkicht
- Contact person : Richard Alexander Hüppi
Description
In Europe, terrorism threatens horrific loss of life, extensive
disruption to city transport and damage to commercial real estate.
Vehicles provide an ideal delivery mechanism because they can be
meticulously prepared well in advance of deployment and then
brought in to the Area of Operations. Furthermore, a real and
present danger comes from the threat of Chemical, Radiological,
Biological and Nuclear (CRBN) contamination. Current methods of
bomb disruption and neutralisation are hindered in the event that
the device is shielded, blocked or for whatever reason cannot be
accessed for examination. The Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Recovery
Tool (AVERT) shall provide a unique capability to Police and Armed
Services to rapidly deploy, extract and remove both blocking and
suspect vehicles from vulnerable positions such as enclosed
infrastructure spaces, tunnels, low bridges as well as
under-building and underground car parks. Vehicles can be removed
from confined spaces with delicate handling, swiftly and in any
direction to a safer disposal point to reduce or eliminate
collateral damage to infrastructure and personnel.
AVERT shall be commanded remotely and shall operate autonomously
under its own power and sensor awareness, as a critical tool
alongside existing technologies, thereby enhancing bomb disposal
response speed and safety.