Airbeam
Natural or man-made disasters have caused severe damage and many casualties in all European countries over the past ten years. Due to high population densities, the risks and effects of future disasters are expected to be even more dramatic. A key capability to leverage unpredictable large-scale incidents is access to associated information and situation-awareness. Within the FP7 Project AIRBEAM (AIRBorne information for Emergency situation Awareness and Monitoring), a multi-platform approach is investigated to provide fast, large-scale and enriched data to rescue forces.
Project duration: 01.01.2012 - 31.12.2015

Airborne platforms from satellites to micro-UAVs and sensors such as electro-optical, multi-/hyper-spectral and acoustic are combined to demonstrate new technologies and standards during crisis management.
With an approach based on a multiplatform system for situation awareness and through an effective collaboration between industrial partners, research organizations, stakeholders and end users, AIRBEAM intends to:
- Provide and demonstrate value to crisis management
- Provide an integration framework serving security applications to the multiple related initiatives
- Develop the technological bricks and standards
- Assist the civilian RPAS market
- Deliver a regulatory framework for RPAS insertion into civil airspace
AIRBEAM defines system requirements as well as designs and optimizes dedicated architectures aiming at presenting the relevant information to users, based on various available assets (sensors, platforms and communication systems). The benefits of the AIRBEAM system for end users have been demonstrated in two live demonstrations in Antwerp Belgium and Beja, Portugal. The Communication Networks Institute designed and implemented the overall system architecture and developed a UAV swarm. With the help of innovative communication-aware mobility strategies and role-based behaviors, the swarm was able to operate much longer than the individual resource constrained UAVs and provide important information to the rescue forces. Results, impressions and end user feedback is presented in the video below.
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Location & approach
The campus of TU Dortmund University is located close to interstate junction Dortmund West, where the Sauerlandlinie A 45 (Frankfurt-Dortmund) crosses the Ruhrschnellweg B 1 / A 40. The best interstate exit to take from A 45 is “Dortmund-Eichlinghofen” (closer to South Campus), and from B 1 / A 40 “Dortmund-Dorstfeld” (closer to North Campus). Signs for the university are located at both exits. Also, there is a new exit before you pass over the B 1-bridge leading into Dortmund.
To get from North Campus to South Campus by car, there is the connection via Vogelpothsweg/Baroper Straße. We recommend you leave your car on one of the parking lots at North Campus and use the H-Bahn (suspended monorail system), which conveniently connects the two campuses.
TU Dortmund University has its own train station (“Dortmund Universität”). From there, suburban trains (S-Bahn) leave for Dortmund main station (“Dortmund Hauptbahnhof”) and Düsseldorf main station via the “Düsseldorf Airport Train Station” (take S-Bahn number 1, which leaves every 20 or 30 minutes). The university is easily reached from Bochum, Essen, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Duisburg.
You can also take the bus or subway train from Dortmund city to the university: From Dortmund main station, you can take any train bound for the Station “Stadtgarten”, usually lines U41, U45, U 47 and U49. At “Stadtgarten” you switch trains and get on line U42 towards “Hombruch”. Look out for the Station “An der Palmweide”. From the bus stop just across the road, busses bound for TU Dortmund University leave every ten minutes (445, 447 and 462). Another option is to take the subway routes U41, U45, U47 and U49 from Dortmund main station to the stop “Dortmund Kampstraße”. From there, take U43 or U44 to the stop “Dortmund Wittener Straße”. Switch to bus line 447 and get off at “Dortmund Universität S”.
The AirportExpress is a fast and convenient means of transport from Dortmund Airport (DTM) to Dortmund Central Station, taking you there in little more than 20 minutes. From Dortmund Central Station, you can continue to the university campus by interurban railway (S-Bahn). A larger range of international flight connections is offered at Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), which is about 60 kilometres away and can be directly reached by S-Bahn from the university station.
The H-Bahn is one of the hallmarks of TU Dortmund University. There are two stations on North Campus. One (“Dortmund Universität S”) is directly located at the suburban train stop, which connects the university directly with the city of Dortmund and the rest of the Ruhr Area. Also from this station, there are connections to the “Technologiepark” and (via South Campus) Eichlinghofen. The other station is located at the dining hall at North Campus and offers a direct connection to South Campus every five minutes.
The facilities of TU Dortmund University are spread over two campuses, the larger Campus North and the smaller Campus South. Additionally, some areas of the university are located in the adjacent “Technologiepark”.
Site Map of TU Dortmund University (Second Page in English).