@proceedings {, title = {A low-cost and low-burden secure solution to track small-scale fisheries}, journal = {Conference: 2021 International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea; Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters (MetroSea)}, year = {2021}, month = {11/2021}, pages = {382-387}, abstract = {

During the last decade accurate spatial and quantitative information of industrial fisheries have been increasingly given using tracking technologies and machine learning analytical algorithms. However, in most small-scale fisheries, lack of spatial data has been a recurrent bottleneck as Vessel Monitoring System and Automatic Identification System, developed for vessels longer than 12 and 15 m in length respectively, have little applicability in these contexts. It follows that small-scale vessels (\< 12 m in length) remain untracked and largely unregulated, even though they account for most of the fishing fleet in operation in the Mediterranean Sea. As such, the tracking of small-scale fleets tends to require the use of novel and low cost solutions that could be addressed by small vessels often without dedicated electrical systems. In this paper we propose a scalable architecture that makes use of a low-cost LoRaWAN/cellular network to acquire and process positioning data from small-scale vessels; preliminary results of a first installation of the prototype are presented, as well as the data collected. The emergence of a such low-cost and open source technology coupled to artificial intelligence could open new opportunities for equipping small-scale vessels, collecting their trajectory data and estimating their fishing effort (information which has historically not been present). It enables a new monitoring strategy that could effectively include small-scale fleets and support the design of new policies oriented to inform coastal resource and fisheries management, and cross-border marine spatial planning.

}, keywords = {cloud computing, fleet management system, maritime communication, small-scale fisheries, vessel position data}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/MetroSea52177.2021.9611622}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9611622}, author = {Anna Nora Tassetti and Alessandro Galdelli and Jacopo Pulcinella} } @article {, title = {Machine learning-based design support system for the prediction of heterogeneous machine parameters in industry 4.0}, journal = {Expert Systems with Applications}, volume = {140}, year = {2020}, pages = {112869}, author = {Romeo, Luca and Loncarski, Jelena and Paolanti, Marina and Bocchini, Gianluca and Mancini, Adriano and Frontoni, Emanuele} } @article {, title = {A sequential deep learning application for recognising human activities in smart homes}, journal = {Neurocomputing}, volume = {396}, year = {2020}, pages = {501{\textendash}513}, author = {Liciotti, Daniele and Bernardini, Michele and Romeo, Luca and Frontoni, Emanuele} } @conference {8545397, title = {Convolutional Networks for Semantic Heads Segmentation using Top-View Depth Data in Crowded Environment}, booktitle = {2018 24th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR)}, year = {2018}, month = {Aug}, pages = {1384-1389}, abstract = {Detecting and tracking people is a challenging task in a persistent crowded environment (i.e. retail, airport, station, etc.) for human behaviour analysis of security purposes. This paper introduces an approach to track and detect people in cases of heavy occlusions based on CNNs for semantic segmentation using top-view depth visual data. The purpose is the design of a novel U-Net architecture, U-Net3, that has been modified compared to the previous ones at the end of each layer. In particular, a batch normalization is added after the first ReLU activation function and after each max-pooling and up-sampling functions. The approach was applied and tested on a new and public available dataset, TVHeads Dataset, consisting of depth images of people recorded from an RGB-D camera installed in top-view configuration. Our variant outperforms baseline architectures while remaining computationally efficient at inference time. Results show high accuracy, demonstrating the effectiveness and suitability of our approach.}, keywords = {Cameras, Computer architecture, Fractals, Head, Image segmentation, Semantics, Training}, issn = {1051-4651}, doi = {10.1109/ICPR.2018.8545397}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Marina Paolanti and R. Pietrini and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti} } @article {Paolanti2018, title = {Person Re-Identification with RGB-D Camera in Top-View Configuration through Multiple Nearest Neighbor Classifiers and Neighborhood Component Features Selection}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {18}, number = {10}, year = {2018}, month = {oct}, pages = {3471}, publisher = {{MDPI} {AG}}, doi = {10.3390/s18103471}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/s18103471}, author = {Marina Paolanti and Luca Romeo and Daniele Liciotti and Annalisa Cenci and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti} } @conference {liciotti2017hmm, title = {HMM-based activity recognition with a ceiling RGB-D camera}, booktitle = {ICPRAM (International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods)}, year = {2017}, month = {02/2017}, abstract = {

Automated recognition of Activities of Daily Living allows to identify possible health problems and apply corrective strategies in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). Activities of Daily Living analysis can provide very useful information for elder care and long-term care services. This paper presents an automated RGB-D video analysis system that recognises human ADLs activities, related to classical daily actions. The main goal is to predict the probability of an analysed subject action. Thus, the abnormal behaviour can be detected. The activity detection and recognition is performed using an affordable RGB-D camera. Human activities, despite their unstructured nature, tend to have a natural hierarchical structure; for instance, generally making a coffee involves a three-step process of turning on the coffee machine, putting sugar in cup and opening the fridge for milk. Action sequence recognition is then handled using a discriminative Hidden Markov Model (HMM). RADiaL, a dataset with RGB-D images and 3D position of each person for training as well as evaluating the HMM, has been built and made publicly available.

}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Bellotto, Nicola and Duckett, Tom} } @inbook {Liciotti2017, title = {An Intelligent RGB-D Video System for Bus Passenger Counting}, booktitle = {Intelligent Autonomous Systems 14: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference IAS-14}, year = {2017}, pages = {473{\textendash}484}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, organization = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-48036-7}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-48036-7_34}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48036-7_34}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Annalisa Cenci and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti}, editor = {Chen, Weidong and Hosoda, Koh and Menegatti, Emanuele and Shimizu, Masahiro and Wang, Hesheng} } @article {paolanti2017modelling, title = {Modelling and Forecasting Customer Navigation in Intelligent Retail Environments}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent \& Robotic Systems}, year = {2017}, month = {10}, pages = {1{\textendash}16}, abstract = {

Understanding shopper behaviour is one of the keys to success for retailers. In particular, it is necessary that managers know which retail attributes are important to which shoppers and their main goal is to improve the consumer shopping experience. In this work, we present sCREEN (Consumer REtail ExperieNce), an intelligent mechatronic system for indoor navigation assistance in retail environments that minimizes the need for active tagging and does not require metrics maps. The tracking system is based on Ultra-wideband technology. The digital devices are installed in the shopping carts and baskets and sCREEN allows modelling and forecasting customer navigation in retail environments. This paper contributes the design of an intelligent mechatronic system with the use of a novel Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) for the representation of shoppers{\textquoteright} shelf/category attraction and usual retail scenarios such as product out of stock or changes on store layout. Observations are viewed as a perceived intelligent system performance. By forecasting consumers next shelf/category attraction, the system can present the item location information to the consumer, including a walking route map to a location of the product in the retail store, and/or the number of an aisle in which the product is located. Effective and efficient design processes for mechatronic systems are a prerequisite for competitiveness in an intelligent retail environment. Experiments are performed in a real retail environment that is a German supermarket, during business hours. A dataset, with consumers trajectories, timestamps and the corresponding ground truth for training as well as evaluating the HMM, have been built and made publicly available. The results in terms of Precision, Recall and F1-score demonstrate the effectiveness and suitability of our approach, with a precision value that exceeds the 76\% in all test cases.

}, issn = {0921-0296}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-017-0674-7}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-017-0674-7}, author = {Marina Paolanti and Daniele Liciotti and R. Pietrini and Adriano Mancini and Emanuele Frontoni} } @conference {Cenci:2017:MAP:3109761.3109773, title = {Movements Analysis of Preterm Infants by Using Depth Sensor}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Internet of Things and Machine Learning}, series = {IML {\textquoteright}17}, year = {2017}, month = {10-2017}, pages = {12:1{\textendash}12:9}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, abstract = {

Qualitative assessment of general movements in preterm infants is widely used in clinical practice. It can enable early detection of neurological dysfunctions and consequent neuromotor impairments in high risk infants. However, the outcome of these assessments is not standardized and it is influenced by examiner{\textquoteright}s subjective interpretation. For this reason, there is an increasing interest in the use of automated movement recognition technologies being applied in this field. In this work, we use a video-based system for preterm infant{\textquoteright}s movements assessment to provide a 3D\ motion analysis method able to extract some important indicators from the sequence of depth images collected by using an RGB-D sensor placed over the infant lying on the crib. The advantage of the proposed method is that it is objective, contactless, non-invasive, easy to install, affordable and suitable to be used in an indoor environment with poor lighting, as might be rooms in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where these infants are taken into care. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to derive from statistical analysis of depth data some key performance indicators, each of which describes different characteristics of the infant{\textquoteright}s spontaneous movements. Preliminary tests are conducted in the experimental phase on a preterm infant hospitalized in a women{\textquoteright}s and children{\textquoteright}s hospital. The project can be used to investigate the relationship between the characteristics of spontaneous movements and the presence of pathologies as cerebral palsy or other minor neurological dysfunctions.

}, keywords = {3D tracking, clustering, modelling, preterm infant{\textquoteright}s movement analysis}, isbn = {978-1-4503-5243-7}, doi = {10.1145/3109761.3109773}, url = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3109761.3109773}, author = {Annalisa Cenci and Daniele Liciotti and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Virgilio Paolo Carnielli} } @inbook {liciotti2017person, title = {Person Re-identification Dataset with RGB-D Camera in a Top-View Configuration}, booktitle = {Video Analytics. Face and Facial Expression Recognition and Audience Measurement}, volume = {1}, year = {2017}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Marina Paolanti and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @inbook {liciotti2017pervasive, title = {Pervasive System for Consumer Behaviour Analysis in Retail Environments}, booktitle = {Video Analytics. Face and Facial Expression Recognition and Audience Measurement}, volume = {2}, year = {2017}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @article {luchetti2017whistland, title = {Whistland: An Augmented Reality Crowd-Mapping System for Civil Protection and Emergency Management}, journal = {ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information}, volume = {6}, number = {2}, year = {2017}, pages = {41}, publisher = {Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute}, author = {Luchetti, Gioele and Adriano Mancini and Mirco Sturari and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti} } @conference {cenci2016cloud, title = {A cloud-based healthcare infrastructure for medical device integration: The bilirubinometer case study}, booktitle = {12th IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA)}, year = {2016}, pages = {1{\textendash}6}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Annalisa Cenci and Daniele Liciotti and Ercoli, Ilaria and Primo Zingaretti and Virgilio Paolo Carnielli} } @conference {innocenti2016development, title = {Development of an automatic procedure to mechanically characterize soft tissue materials}, booktitle = {Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA), 2016 12th IEEE/ASME International Conference on}, year = {2016}, pages = {1{\textendash}6}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Innocenti, Bernardo and Lambert, Pierre and Larrieu, Jean-Charles and Pianigiani, Silvia and Marina Paolanti and Michele Bernardini and Annalisa Cenci and Emanuele Frontoni} } @article {Sturari2016, title = {Robust and affordable retail customer profiling by vision and radio beacon sensor fusion}, journal = {Pattern Recognition Letters}, year = {2016}, pages = {-}, abstract = {Abstract The development of reliable and precise indoor localization systems would considerably improve the ability to investigate shopper movements and behaviour inside retail environments. Previous approaches used either computer vision technologies or the analysis of signals emitted by communication devices (beacons). While computer vision approaches provide higher level of accuracy, beacons cover a wider operational area. In this paper, we propose a sensor fusion approach between active radio beacons and RGB-D cameras. This system, used in an intelligent retail environment where cameras are already installed for other purposes, allows an affordable environment set-up and a low operational costs for customer indoor localization and tracking. We adopted a Kalman filter to fuse localization data from radio signals emitted by beacons are used to track users{\textquoteright} mobile devices and RGB-D cameras used to refine position estimations. By combing coarse localization datasets from active beacons and RGB-D data from sparse cameras, we demonstrate that the indoor position estimation is strongly enhanced. The aim of this general framework is to provide retailers with useful information by analysing consumer activities inside the store. To prove the robustness of our approach, several tests were conducted into a real indoor showroom by analysing real customers behaviour with encouraging results.}, issn = {0167-8655}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.patrec.2016.02.010}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016786551600057X}, author = {Mirco Sturari and Daniele Liciotti and Roberto Pierdicca and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Marco Contigiani and Primo Zingaretti} } @article {cocchioni2016visual, title = {Visual Based Landing for an Unmanned Quadrotor}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent \& Robotic Systems}, volume = {84}, number = {1-4}, year = {2016}, pages = {511{\textendash}528}, publisher = {Springer Netherlands}, author = {Francesco Cocchioni and Emanuele Frontoni and Ippoliti, Gianluca and Sauro Longhi and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @conference {Mancini2015534, title = {High-resolution mapping of river and estuary areas by using unmanned aerial and surface platforms}, booktitle = {2015 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2015}, year = {2015}, note = {cited By 0}, pages = {534-542}, doi = {10.1109/ICUAS.2015.7152333}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84941111909\&partnerID=40\&md5=994c13558511f25e91843621dde17a5c}, author = {Adriano Mancini and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {liciotti2015human, title = {Human activity analysis for in-home fall risk assessment}, booktitle = {Communication Workshop (ICCW), 2015 IEEE International Conference on}, year = {2015}, pages = {284{\textendash}289}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Gionata Massi and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @conference {pierdicca2015low, title = {Low cost embedded system for increasing retail environment intelligence}, booktitle = {Multimedia \& Expo Workshops (ICMEW), 2015 IEEE International Conference on}, year = {2015}, pages = {1{\textendash}6}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Roberto Pierdicca and Daniele Liciotti and Marco Contigiani and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @conference {cenci2015non, title = {Non-Contact Monitoring of Preterm Infants Using RGB-D Camera}, booktitle = {ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference}, year = {2015}, pages = {V009T07A003{\textendash}V009T07A003}, publisher = {American Society of Mechanical Engineers}, organization = {American Society of Mechanical Engineers}, author = {Annalisa Cenci and Daniele Liciotti and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @article {Cocchioni2015, title = {Visual Based Landing for an Unmanned Quadrotor}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications}, year = {2015}, note = {cited By 0; Article in Press}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-015-0271-6}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84941686223\&partnerID=40\&md5=9ccfc812909e8a74b64d123902639160}, author = {Francesco Cocchioni and Emanuele Frontoni and Ippoliti, G. and Sauro Longhi and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @conference {Liciotti2014, title = {Advanced integration of multimedia assistive technologies: A prospective outlook}, booktitle = {MESA 2014 - 10th IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications, Conference Proceedings}, year = {2014}, note = {cited By 0}, abstract = {In the recent years several studies on population ageing in the most advanced countries argued that the share of people older than 65 years is steadily increasing. In order to tackle this phenomena, a significant effort has been devoted to the development of advanced technologies for supervising the domestic environments and their inhabitants to provide them assistance in their own home. In this context, the present paper aims to delineate a novel, highly-integrated system for advanced analysis of human behaviours. It is based on the fusion of the audio and vision frameworks, developed at the Multimedia Assistive Technology Laboratory (MATeLab) of the Universit{\`a} Politecnica delle Marche, in order to operate in the ambient assisted living context exploiting audio-visual domain features. The existing video framework exploits vertical RGB-D sensors for people tracking, interaction analysis and users activities detection in domestic scenarios. The depth information has been used to remove the affect of the appearance variation and to evaluate users activities inside the home and in front of the fixtures. In addition, group interactions are monitored and analysed. On the other side, the audio framework recognises voice commands by continuously monitoring the acoustic home environment. In addition, a hands-free communication to a relative or to a healthcare centre is automatically triggered when a distress call is detected. Echo and interference cancellation algorithms guarantee the high-quality communication and reliable speech recognition, respectively. The system we intend to delineate, thus, exploits multi-domain information, gathered from audio and video frameworks each, and stores them in a remote cloud for instant processing and analysis of the scene. Related actions are consequently performed.}, doi = {10.1109/MESA.2014.6935629}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84911977133\&partnerID=40\&md5=3a8fad94ccf6268631dbf553e9360956}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Ferroni, G. and Emanuele Frontoni and Squartini, S. and Principi, E. and Bonfigli, R. and Primo Zingaretti and Francesco Piazza} } @conference {Liciotti2014, title = {An automatic analysis of shoppers behaviour using a distributed RGB-D cameras system}, booktitle = {MESA 2014 - 10th IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications, Conference Proceedings}, year = {2014}, note = {cited By 0}, abstract = {The aim of this work is to propose an integrated system consisted of an RGB-D camera and software able to monitor shoppers in intelligent retail environments. We want to propose an innovative low cost intelligent system that can evaluate not only the shopper behaviour, but also detect their interactions with the products in the shelves, by developing automatic RGB-D techniques for video analysis. The system of cameras, located in strategic locations within the store, detects the presence of a person by identifying the blob and the centre of mass. The camera detects the person as an object in moving. Through the video frames, the system detects the interactions of the shoppers with the products on the shelf and establishes also the type of interaction: if a product is picked up, if the product is taken and then repositioned and finally, if there is not contact with the products. To understand the shopper behaviour is very important for the marketing strategies of a retail store. The proposed architecture monitors this aspect, that is low cost, easy to install and able to ensure very satisfactory results also in real environments.}, doi = {10.1109/MESA.2014.6935617}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84911973081\&partnerID=40\&md5=57f2b74e422e1e28066bf350b02a97e2}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Primo Zingaretti and Valerio Placidi} } @conference {Cocchioni2014418, title = {Autonomous navigation, landing and recharge of a quadrotor using artificial vision}, booktitle = {2014 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2014 - Conference Proceedings}, year = {2014}, note = {cited By 1}, pages = {418-429}, abstract = {In this paper a solution to UAV reduced endurance and autonomous flight is proposed. With a complete on-board solution, based on artificial vision, the developed system is able to autonomously take off, navigate and land, recharging its battery by using a dedicated landing platform, both in indoor and outdoor scenarios. The landing platform includes a passive centering system to correct the landing error of the UAV, with a novel design wich reduce cost and increase the safety (thanks to small and isolated electrical contacts) without invasive hardware changes on the drone. The developed vision algorithm provides a fast and accurate measurement of UAV position with respect to the landing platform using a visual target, but at the same time it is able to automatically switch to an estimation of position that is independent from the visual target. This aspect is used during navigation or when the tracking of the target fails, ensuring a continuous position measurement feed to the controllers. The developed control system manages all the different phases of a mission (motor turning on/off, take off, navigation, landing,...) with low control error, ensuring a landing over the landing platform with an error that is lower than 5cm for both x and y axis. The developed software in ROS environment is modular and provides input/output interfaces to receive command, or send data. {\textcopyright} 2014 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/ICUAS.2014.6842282}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84904565097\&partnerID=40\&md5=04076148a6e9b80c9da87ee06d339603}, author = {Francesco Cocchioni and Adriano Mancini and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {frontoni2014security, title = {Security issues for data sharing and service interoperability in eHealth systems: the Nu. Sa. test bed}, booktitle = {Security Technology (ICCST), 2014 International Carnahan Conference on}, year = {2014}, pages = {1{\textendash}6}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Emanuele Frontoni and Baldi, Marco and Primo Zingaretti and Landro, Vincenzo and Misericordia, Paolo} } @article {Liciotti2014, title = {Shopper analytics: A customer activity recognition system using a distributed rgb-d camera network}, journal = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)}, volume = {8811}, year = {2014}, note = {cited By 0}, abstract = {The aim of this paper is to present an integrated system consisted of a RGB-D camera and a software able to monitor shoppers in intelligent retail environments. We propose an innovative low cost smart system that can understand the shoppers{\textquoteright} behavior and, in particular, their interactions with the products in the shelves, with the aim to develop an automatic RGB-D technique for video analysis. The system of cameras detects the presence of people and univocally identifies them. Through the depth frames, the system detects the interactions of the shoppers with the products on the shelf and determines if a product is picked up or if the product is taken and then put back and finally, if there is not contact with the products. The system is low cost and easy to install, and experimental results demonstrated that its performances are satisfactory also in real environments.}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-12811-5_11}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84921652873\&partnerID=40\&md5=44bc641a712fa9af6ffd341f41b0aec0}, author = {Daniele Liciotti and Marco Contigiani and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti and Valerio Placidi} } @conference {Gaujens2014, title = {Testing of cooperative tasks for Unmanned Aerial and ground platforms}, booktitle = {MESA 2014 - 10th IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications, Conference Proceedings}, year = {2014}, note = {cited By 0}, abstract = {In the last years the Model Based Design for Unmanned Systems aided the safe and rational release of applications running on unmanned systems. In particular in this paper we focus on a hybrid methodology that merges Software in the Loop (SIL) and Model in the Loop (MIL) strategies for cooperative tasks performed by aerial and ground autonomous vehicles. The proposed work flow covers the design and testing of Ground Control Station (GCS) modelled by a finite state machine, the design and testing of navigation code running on UAV and UGV and the testing of cooperative missions. The work-flow is based on a realistic 3D physical simulator interfaced with Matlab-Simulink-Stafeflow. The proposed approach has been successfully tested and evaluated allowing to release runnable and safe code on real targets.}, doi = {10.1109/MESA.2014.6935621}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84911957715\&partnerID=40\&md5=fa0db02cfc93a2552968c6a92df82cb8}, author = {Gaujens, A. and Benini, A. and Adriano Mancini and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Cocchioni2014374, title = {Unmanned ground and aerial vehicles in extended range indoor and outdoor missions}, booktitle = {2014 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2014 - Conference Proceedings}, year = {2014}, note = {cited By 1}, pages = {374-382}, abstract = {The capability to instantiate a cooperation among heterogeneous agents is a fundamental feature in mobile robotics. In this paper we focus on the interaction between Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to extend the endurance of UAV, thanks to a novel landing/recharging platform. The UGV acts as a docking station and hosts the UAV during the indoor/outdoor transition and vice-versa. We designed a platform and a robust landing target to automate the fast recharge of UAV. The synchronization and coordination of cooperation is managed by a Ground Control Station (GCS) developed using a versatile software toolchain based on the integration of Stateflow, auto-generation of C-code and ROS. All the software components of UAV, UGV and GCS have been developed using ROS. The obtained results show that the UAV is able to land over the UGV with high accuracy (<5cm for both x and y axis) thanks to a visual position estimation algorithm, also in presence of wind (with gust up to 20-25km/h), recharging its batteries in a short time to extend its endurance. {\textcopyright} 2014 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/ICUAS.2014.6842276}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84904582437\&partnerID=40\&md5=f57cb12575d6f9ff24ff152e95b48c80}, author = {Francesco Cocchioni and Pierfelice, V. and Benini, A. and Adriano Mancini and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Ippoliti, G. and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Luchetti20131199, title = {Design and test of a precise mobile GPS tracker}, booktitle = {2013 21st Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2013 - Conference Proceedings}, year = {2013}, note = {cited By 2}, pages = {1199-1207}, abstract = {In the last years the widespread diffusion of smartphones with sensing capabilities paved the way to smart pervasive applications. The tracking of users activities aided by the set of sensor installed on board of smartphones represents a really interesting market for users which today demand reliable, smart and tailored services. The target group of sportsmen was of particular concern in this study. We aim at offering them a tool to record their training sessions along with a web community to share their activities with similar users. To achieve this we have to deal with different issues concerning localization and modelling of the training session by using the GPS, as well as synchronization with the web service to upload the training data. {\textcopyright} 2013 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/MED.2013.6608872}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84885209325\&partnerID=40\&md5=cd710f4031bf159dc90b4ee6ada8a129}, author = {Luchetti, G. and Servici, G. and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti} } @article {Benini2013461, title = {An IMU/UWB/vision-based extended kalman filter for mini-UAV localization in indoor environment using 802.15.4a wireless sensor network}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications}, volume = {70}, number = {1-4}, year = {2013}, note = {cited By 4}, pages = {461-476}, abstract = {Indoor localization of mobile agents using wireless technologies is becoming very important in military and civil applications. This paper introduces an approach for the indoor localization of a mini UAV based on Ultra-WideBand technology, low cost IMU and vision based sensors. In this work an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is introduced as a possible technique to improve the localization. The proposed approach allows to use a low-cost Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in the prediction step and the integration of vision-odometry for the detection of markers nearness the touchdown area. The ranging measurements allow to reduce the errors of inertial sensors due to the limited performance of accelerometers and gyros. The obtained results show that an accuracy of 10 cm can be achieved. {\textcopyright} 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-012-9742-1}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84871640127\&partnerID=40\&md5=c45e91f48415630a0fb3a388a2ca9aaa}, author = {Benini, A. and Adriano Mancini and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Benini2012735, title = {A Biased Extended Kalman Filter for indoor localization of a mobile agent using low-cost IMU and UWB wireless sensor network}, booktitle = {IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline)}, year = {2012}, note = {cited By 0}, pages = {735-740}, abstract = {Indoor localization of mobile agents using wireless technologies is becoming very important in military and civil applications. This paper introduces an approach for the indoor localization of a mobile agent based on Ultra-WideBand technology using a Biased Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) as a possible technique to improve the localization. The proposed approach allows to use a low-cost IMU (inertial measurement unit) which performances are improved by a calibration procedure. The obtained results show that the filter allows to obtain better result in terms of localization due to the estimation of bias and scale factor. {\textcopyright} 2012 IFAC.}, doi = {10.3182/20120905-3-HR-2030.00144}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84880993407\&partnerID=40\&md5=c8d42599e5ee04e0b909b6265235c723}, author = {Benini, A. and Adriano Mancini and Marinelli, A. and Sauro Longhi} } @article {Benini2012507, title = {A modular framework for fast prototyping of cooperative unmanned aerial vehicle}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications}, volume = {65}, number = {1-4}, year = {2012}, note = {cited By 4}, pages = {507-520}, abstract = {Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are gaining increasing interest thanks to their flexibility and versatility. However, these systems are very complex and a good simulation platform is needed. In this paper, a new Framework for simulation and fast prototyping of UAV control laws is presented. The Framework exploits the high realism of the simulations carried out in a three-dimensional virtual environment with the easiness of use of development systems such as Matlab{\textregistered} for fast prototyping of control systems. Then a novel method that exploits the benefits of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for cooperative scenarios is introduced. The obtained results show good performances of MPC in solving the formation problem of unmanned aerial vehicles; finding an optimal solution and taking into account different constraints. The developed framework allows also to easily change from simulated agent to real one. {\textcopyright} 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-011-9577-1}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84855437595\&partnerID=40\&md5=e426704537bd52bc6397b9152f01e978}, author = {Benini, A. and Adriano Mancini and Minutolo, R. and Sauro Longhi and Montanari, M.b} } @conference {Mancini2011745, title = {Coalition formation for unmanned quadrotors}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference}, volume = {3}, number = {PARTS A AND B}, year = {2011}, note = {cited By 1}, pages = {745-752}, abstract = {Today Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and in particular quad-rotors represent novel platforms to accomplish a wide set of missions as surveillance, Search \& Rescue, inspection, pho-togrammetry. The main limitation of these vehicles is represented by the restricted operating area. The area is mainly limited by power supplies (batteries or fuel). A strategy to overcame this limitation is to increase the number of vehicles forming a coalition. The main benefit of coalition formation are the extended mission range and the capability to increase the sensorial set. Each vehicles is a part of a dynamic network that must be properly coordinated in order to optimize all the available resources. In this paper a new framework for simulation of unmanned vehicles in cooperative scenarios is first presented. The framework is based on the interaction of a physics-engine, which simulates the dynamics of vehicles and their interaction with world increasing the realism of simulation, and a simulation environment where the high-level strategy is designed/developed. A Model Predictive Control (MPC) is then introduced to solve the problem of leader-follower applied to quad-rotors. Using the developed framework and the MPC technique is possible to easily instantiate the coalition minimizing also a cost function. The obtained results from the control strategy point of view show that positioning error at steady state is equal to zero. The MPC allows also the modelling of different conflicting constraints as the control actions, positioning error, and fuel/energy consumption. {\textcopyright} 2011 by ASME.}, doi = {10.1115/DETC2011-48904}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84863584753\&partnerID=40\&md5=9d10818fcd0cd5219ab5df1c9eb26502}, author = {Adriano Mancini and Benini, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Benini2011406, title = {A simulation framework for coalition formation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles}, booktitle = {2011 19th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2011}, year = {2011}, note = {cited By 3}, pages = {406-411}, abstract = {Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and in particular quad-rotors are gaining an increasing interest owing to their flexibility and versatility. Today the challenge is to integrate these versatile platforms in a wide fleet in order to perform cooperative tasks as surveillance, search \& rescue, inspection. The coalition formation problem is a pre-condition for cooperative missions. This problem can be solved with different methodologies from biologically-inspired algorithms to parasocial consensus sampling ones. In this paper a new framework for simulation of unmanned vehicles in cooperative scenarios is first presented. Then a novel method that exploits the benefits of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for a coalition formation problem (leader-follower) is introduced. The obtained results evidence the good performance of MPC to solve the problem of coalition formation for unmanned aerial vehicles finding the optimal solution taking into account different kind of constraints. The developed framework allows also to easily change from simulated agent to real one. {\textcopyright} 2011 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/MED.2011.5983163}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-80052355021\&partnerID=40\&md5=51acc4875190b250928b66e5b54b01a0}, author = {Benini, A. and Adriano Mancini and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @article {Cesetti2011157, title = {A visual global positioning system for unmanned aerial vehicles used in photogrammetric applications}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications}, volume = {61}, number = {1-4}, year = {2011}, note = {cited By 10}, pages = {157-168}, abstract = {The combination of photogrammetric aerial and terrestrial recording methods can provide new opportunities for photogrammetric applications. A UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), in our case a helicopter system, can cover both the aerial and quasi-terrestrial image acquisition methods. A UAV can be equipped with an on-board high resolution camera and a priori knowledge of the operating area where to perform photogrammetric tasks. In this general scenario our paper proposes vision-based techniques for localizing a UAV. Only natural landmarks provided by a feature tracking algorithm will be considered, without the help of visual beacons or landmarks with known positions. The novel idea is to perform global localization, position tracking and localization failure recovery (kidnapping) based only on visual matching between current view and available georeferenced satellite images. The matching is based on SIFT features and the system estimates the position of the UAV and its altitude on the base of the reference image. The vision system replaces the GPS signal combining position information from visual odometry and georeferenced imagery. Georeferenced satellite or aerial images must be available on-board beforehand or downloaded during the flight. The growing availability of high resolution satellite images (e.g., provided by Google Earth or other local information sources) makes this topic very interesting and timely. Experiments with both synthetic (i.e., taken from satellites or datasets and pre elaborated) and real world images have been performed to test the accuracy and the robustness of our method. Results show sufficient performance if compared with common GPS systems and give a good performance also in the altitude estimation, even if in this last case there are only preliminary results. {\textcopyright} 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-010-9489-5}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-79951511981\&partnerID=40\&md5=22fb7414e9a79d5c70082f7e0e8c0684}, author = {Cesetti, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Ascani, A. and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Raspa2010, title = {Selection of Lithium cells for EV battery pack using self organizing maps}, booktitle = {EVS 2010 - Sustainable Mobility Revolution: 25th World Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition}, year = {2010}, note = {cited By 0}, abstract = {A challenging problem in energy storage systems for electric vehicles is the efficiency use of lithium multicell batteries. Because of production tolerances, unbalanced cells can be overstressed during usage leading to the reduction of the available capacity and premature failure of the battery pack. In order to reduce this problem the Universit{\`a} Politecnica delle Marche and FAAM Group S.p.A. developed a method for the selection and classification of homogenous cells to form uniform battery pack using Self Organizing Maps neural networks. Experimental data are collected from a set of LiFePo4 cells tested in FAAM laboratories. The selection considers both experimental data and identified characteristics: Discharge Voltage, Open Circuit Voltage, Total Capacity and identified parameters from Randle{\textquoteright}s equivalent circuit modelling. The State of Charge variability within each selected group of cells has been chosen as the clustering criterion to find the method which gives the best results in terms of homogeneity of the battery. Simulation results consider an experimental EV load profile and show a great reduction of the SOC variability and, consequently, in the balance of the battery pack for all the methods presented compared to random selection. Capacity and discharge voltage based methods give the best results over all.}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84907415017\&partnerID=40\&md5=42dc9ff2c6cfe464e796818859e805ce}, author = {Raspa, P. and Frinconi, L. and Adriano Mancini and Cavalletti, M. and Sauro Longhi and L. Fulimeni and P. Bellesi and Isidori, R.} } @article {Cesetti2010233, title = {A Vision-based guidance system for UAV navigation and safe landing using natural landmarks}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications}, volume = {57}, number = {1-4}, year = {2010}, note = {cited By 45}, pages = {233-257}, abstract = {In this paper a vision-based approach for guidance and safe landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is proposed. The UAV is required to navigate from an initial to a final position in a partially known environment. The guidance system allows a remote user to define target areas from a high resolution aerial or satellite image to determine either the waypoints of the navigation trajectory or the landing area. A feature-based image-matching algorithm finds the natural landmarks and gives feedbacks to an onboard, hierarchical, behaviour-based control system for autonomous navigation and landing. Two algorithms for safe landing area detection are also proposed, based on a feature optical flow analysis. The main novelty is in the vision-based architecture, extensively tested on a helicopter, which, in particular, does not require any artificial landmark (e.g., helipad). Results show the appropriateness of the vision-based approach, which is robust to occlusions and light variations. {\textcopyright} 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-009-9373-3}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84893415343\&partnerID=40\&md5=1af91a05c14c688e97131ab24f43e2bd}, author = {Cesetti, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @article {Mancini2009307, title = {A framework for simulation and testing of UAVs in cooperative scenarios}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications}, volume = {54}, number = {1-3 SPEC. ISS.}, year = {2009}, note = {cited By 18}, pages = {307-329}, abstract = {Today, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have deeply modified the concepts of surveillance, Search\&Rescue, aerial photogrammetry, mapping, etc. The kinds of missions grow continuously; missions are in most cases performed by a fleet of cooperating autonomous and heterogeneous vehicles. These systems are really complex and it becomes fundamental to simulate any mission stage to exploit benefits of simulations like repeatability, modularity and low cost. In this paper a framework for simulation and testing of UAVs in cooperative scenarios is presented. The framework, based on modularity and stratification in different specialized layers, allows an easy switching from simulated to real environments, thus reducing testing and debugging times, especially in a training context. Results obtained using the proposed framework on some test cases are also reported. {\textcopyright} 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.}, doi = {10.1007/s10846-008-9268-8}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-56649092912\&partnerID=40\&md5=dc161c1b0a0533432e58fcdf588aec40}, author = {Adriano Mancini and Cesetti, A. and Iual{\`e}, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Cesetti2009, title = {A single-camera feature-based vision system for helicopter autonomous landing}, booktitle = {2009 International Conference on Advanced Robotics, ICAR 2009}, year = {2009}, note = {cited By 4}, abstract = {In this paper a feature based single camera vision system for the safe landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is proposed. The autonomous helicopter used for tests is required to navigate from an initial to a final position in a partially known environment, to locate a landing area and to land on it. The algorithm proposed for the detection of safe landing areas is based on the analysis of optical flow and of mutual geometric position of different kinds of features, observed from different points of view. Vision allows estimating the position and velocity of a set of features with respect to the helicopter while the onboard, hierarchical, behavior-based control system autonomously guides the helicopter. Results, obtained using real data and a real helicopter in a outdoor scenario, show the appropriateness of the vision-based approach. It does not require any artificial landmark (e.g., helipad), is able to estimate correctly and autonomously safe landing areas and is quite robust to occlusions.}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-70449334565\&partnerID=40\&md5=3373a2496d17d58330e7a887f552c6ba}, author = {Cesetti, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Cesetti2009910, title = {Vision-based autonomous navigation and landing of an unmanned aerial vehicle using natural landmarks}, booktitle = {2009 17th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2009}, year = {2009}, note = {cited By 13}, pages = {910-915}, abstract = {This paper presents the design and implementation of a vision-based navigation and landing algorithm for an autonomous helicopter. The vision system allows to define target areas from a high resolution aerial or satellite image to determine the waypoints of the navigation trajectory or the landing area. The helicopter is required to navigate from an initial position to a final position in a partially known environment using GPS and vision, to locate a landing target (a helipad of a known shape or a natural landmark) and to land on it. The vision system, using a feature-based image matching algorithm, finds the area and gives feedbacks to the control system for autonomous landing. Vision is used for accurate target detection, recognition and tracking. The helicopter updates its landing target parameters owing to vision and uses an on board behavior-based controller to follow a path to the landing site. Results show the appropriateness of the vision-based approach that does not require any artificial landmark (e.g., helipad) and is quite robust to occlusions, light variations and seasonal changes (e.g., brown or green leaves). {\textcopyright} 2009 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/MED.2009.5164661}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84885338997\&partnerID=40\&md5=e544d46c421bd62be9c0ad9fa4ac016b}, author = {Cesetti, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Zingaretti2008227, title = {Autonomous helicopter for surveillance and security}, booktitle = {2007 Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, DETC2007}, volume = {4}, year = {2008}, note = {cited By 0}, pages = {227-234}, abstract = {Unmanned Aerial Vehicles represent today an advanced and complex robotics platform for novel tasks. For example, UAVs can be used in applications for traffic monitoring and surveillance, emergency services assistance, photogrammetry and surveying. Generally, an UAV must be fully autonomous; autonomy is accomplished by a complex interconnection of systems related to a wide range of topics, e.g., flight low level control, navigation and task-based planning, elaboration of sensor signals, software architecture for reactive behaviours, communication. Today the challenge is the ability to insert UAVs in a cooperative network based on autonomous agents as UAV, UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) to accomplish a specific task a priori defined. In this paper we introduce a prototype of autonomous aerial vehicle, the Helibot helicopter, specifically designed for applications as surveillance and security. Copyright {\textcopyright} 2007 by ASME.}, doi = {10.1115/DETC2007-35427}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-44849089281\&partnerID=40\&md5=722c3bbead7b4107ed7b860dd3c492b3}, author = {Primo Zingaretti and Adriano Mancini and Emanuele Frontoni and Monteri{\`u}, A. and Sauro Longhi} } @article {Cesetti200817, title = {From simulated to real scenarios: A framework for multi-UAVs}, journal = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)}, volume = {5325 LNAI}, year = {2008}, note = {cited By 2}, pages = {17-28}, abstract = {In this paper a framework for simulation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), oriented to rotary wings aerial vehicles, is presented. It allows UAV simulations for stand-alone agents or multi-agents exchanging data in cooperative scenarios. The framework, based on modularity and stratification in different specialized layers, allows an easy switching from simulated to real environments, thus reducing testing and debugging times. CAD modelling supports the framework mainly with respect to extraction of geometrical parameters and virtualization. Useful applications of the framework include pilot training, testing and validation of UAVs control strategies, especially in an educational context, and simulation of complex missions. {\textcopyright} 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-89076-8-6}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-58049115678\&partnerID=40\&md5=8301ffc2a6a97aefca4df012079ad726}, author = {Cesetti, A. and Adriano Mancini and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Kidiamboko2008866, title = {A scalable telemedicine architecture for under developed countries. A case study: Democratic Republic of Congo}, booktitle = {2008 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation - Conference Proceedings, MED{\textquoteright}08}, year = {2008}, note = {cited By 0}, pages = {866-871}, abstract = {Telemedicine, defined as the use of telecommunications technologies to provide medical information and services, is electronic transfer of medical data being able to include the sound and the images to practice remote medicine. In under developed countries, as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the capability to remote monitor patients that live in villages or small rural town, is a "Big step ahead" for the health system and citizens. In this paper we present a Scalable Telemedicine Architecture designated to be used in a real scenario as the Dem.Rep. of Congo. A prototype of low cost sensor, integrable into architecture, as a pulse oximeter called Ebloops (Experimental Blood Pressure Smart Sensor), is also presented. Pulse oximetry allows doctors to monitor vital parameters as oxygen levels in a human body, heart frequency and other ones. {\textcopyright} 2008 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/MED.2008.4602255}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-52949139070\&partnerID=40\&md5=855f2f2f7ebeaf934c0f0718b306fcf0}, author = {Kidiamboko, S. and Adriano Mancini and Sauro Longhi and Spalazzi, L.} } @conference {Frontoni2007, title = {Prototype UAV helicopter working in cooperative environments}, booktitle = {IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM}, year = {2007}, note = {cited By 7}, abstract = {Today small autonomous helicopters offer a low budget platform for aerial applications such as surveillance (both military and civilian), land management, and earth science. In this paper we introduce a prototype of autonomous aerial vehicle, the Helibot helicopter, specifically designed for applications in a cooperative network based on autonomous agents as UAV and UGV. We present our scalable and robust architecture, focusing in particular on hardware and real time solutions. A mechanical structure for safe testing is then presented. {\textcopyright}2007 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/AIM.2007.4412564}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-48649092977\&partnerID=40\&md5=79d155f3eb244add87a4d8ba5d7616ed}, author = {Emanuele Frontoni and Adriano Mancini and Caponetti, F. and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} } @conference {Mancini2007, title = {Safe flying for an UAV helicopter}, booktitle = {2007 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED}, year = {2007}, note = {cited By 9}, abstract = {Today small autonomous helicopters offer a low budget platform for aerial applications such as surveillance (both military and civil), land management and earth sciences. In this paper we introduce a prototype of autonomous aerial vehicle, the Helibot helicopter, specifically designed for applications in cooperative networks. Fundamental steps in the design process of an UAV are shown. We also present work in progress in the field of failure detection and a novel idea to the problem of failure recovery using a terrain vision system. {\textcopyright}2007 IEEE.}, doi = {10.1109/MED.2007.4433946}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-50249099214\&partnerID=40\&md5=290b41c35e2f9a3766073505671d036a}, author = {Adriano Mancini and Caponetti, F. and Monteri{\`u}, A. and Emanuele Frontoni and Primo Zingaretti and Sauro Longhi} }