February 8, 2024
In December, the project iMEDCAP, funded by the European Defence Fund, was kicked-off. With its user-driven, holistic approach, the flagship iMEDCAP sets out to revolutionize the emergency detection, identification, extraction, treatment, and evacuation of gravely injured and possibly contagious personnel in a completely autonomous way.
Funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF) and in collaboration with a robust consortium of esteemed European partners, AVILUS GmbH, is proud to announce the launch of the iMEDCAP project with its kick-off meeting held in Garching, Germany, on 13/14 December 2023. This innovative project, led by Technische Universität München as the Coordinator, brings together a diverse array of 24 organizations from 9 countries, uniting European expertise and resources to pioneer ground-breaking advancements in military healthcare and emergency response capabilities.
Over the last decade, significant progress has been made in the development of autonomous air and ground transport, detection technologies as well as (remote) medical interventions. These developments reveal both the potential and the necessity to modernize and adapt rescue systems to facilitate evacuation from complex and/or dangerous situations. Novel weapon technologies have led to several paradigm changes of the situation of ground forces, influencing the requirements for ad hoc medical support and transport logistics. In scenarios, decentral medical support will be needed in a potentially hostile environment, including CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) threats. Current medical evacuation solutions are limited both in their available numbers and their usability in CBRN situations which contradicts the medical paradigm of the "golden hour" postulating immediate response to traumatic injury to guarantee the highest possible survival rates. A holistic and innovative approach is needed to enhance Europe’s preparedness.
In response to these needs, the user-driven concept of iMEDCAP sets out to design and develop a rescue system which facilitates the autonomous detection of injured personnel, the automatic definition of an evacuation and rescue strategy and an initial treatment in an interoperable patient box, equipped with diagnostic and intervention equipment, during transport under remote control. iMEDCAP brings together partners from the armed forces, universities, small and medium sized entities and industrial partners, sharing their expertise in their research fields and advancing their technologies and know-how towards a sophisticated solution. The final outcome of iMEDCAP will be the validation of the components and a roadmap for further development, laying the foundations for a modern and digital European rescue system.
While the iMEDCAP project is initiated in the defence sector, technical developments will reveal huge potential for intelligent solutions, facilitating autonomous rescue approaches not only limited to military scenarios, but also covering civil emergency scenarios like wildfire or nuclear incidents.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
