Effective EU support to a large external crisis requires new approaches. In response to this challenge and to identified user and market needs from previous projects, Reaching Out proposes an innovative multi-disciplinary approach that will optimize the efforts, address a wide spectrum of users and maximize market innovation success. This approach results in five main objectives: to 1. Develop a Collaborative Framework, with distributed platforms of functional services, 2. Implement a flexible and open “collaborative innovation” process involving users and SMEs, suppliers, operators and research organisations, 3. Develop, upgrade and integrate 78 new connectable and interoperable tools, 4. Conduct 5 large scale demonstrations on the field: o health disaster in Africa (Epidemics in Guinea, with strong social and cultural issues), o natural disaster in a politically complex region and a desert environment (Earthquake in the Jordan Valley, led jointly by Jordan, Israel and Palestine), o three global change disasters in Asia targeted at large evacuation and humanitarian support in Bangladesh (long lasting floods, huge storms and associated epidemics,), EU citizen support and repatriation in Shanghai (floods & storm surge), radiological and industrial disasters impacting EU assets in Taiwan (flash floods, landslides, storm surge and chemical and radiological disasters), supported and co-funded by local authorities, 5. Provide recommendations and evaluations for future legal and policy innovations. The project will be conducted under the supervision of senior end-users. It will be performed with flexible and proven procedures by a balanced consortium of users, industry, innovative SMEs, RTO and academia in the EU and the demonstration regions. The main expected impact is to improve external disaster and crisis management efficiency and cost-benefit and increase the EU visibility whilst enhancing EU industry competitiveness and enlarging the market.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the frequency of severe weather incidents has quintupled over the last five decades, causing more than 100 000 fatalities and 1.5 trillion euros of economic losses in Europe (EU). Consequently, disaster management capabilities need to be enhanced in this fast-evolving context. Robotics can play a crucial role to improve first responders’ safety and effectiveness in their operations. HURRICANE is a 15 partners multidisciplinary consortium aiming to overcome limitations that are still holding back these cutting-edge innovations from becoming a disaster management standard. HURRICANE will unlock the potential of UGV operation in hazardous environment, relying on enhanced vision capabilities and smart integration over a holistic, resilient and real-time situational awareness infrastructure that includes innovative UAV-UGV cooperation pathways (laser-based charging, UAV supporting UGV regarding route planning) and multi-technology communication infrastructure (5G, RF, optical wireless). Data-driven optimization models will provide recommendations through a user-friendly API to support FR’s tactics. Three complementary pilots will be implemented to demonstrate the benefits brought by HURRICANE solutions, in several challenging environments: peri-urban areas (Corsica), mountains (Alps) and wildfires (Andalusia). Last, but not least, EU-wide advanced training modules will be implemented to raise awareness among FR about these innovative technologies, integrating new operational procedures. At the end of the project, HURRICANE will show improved hazard management efficiency (60% operation time reduction, 95% false positive readout reduction), with reduced FR exposure to harmful situations, strengthened EU robotics industry leadership (5M€ of revenues and 50 jobs). In 2028, training will be provided for 100 FRs across 15 EU countries, aiming to achieve a total of 10,000 trained FRs by the year 2035.