Since 2009, the USRL is participating in national and international research projects such as the European Union (EU) funded projects Bacchus (FP7), Actris2 (H2020), ACCEPT, EMME-CARE, and the national Research Promotion Foundation (RPF) projects APAESO and AQ-SERVE. Through these projects the USRL team has gained valuable experience (more than 400 flight hours) in actual UAS operations along with system development, integration and payload data handling. Flights have been performed in remote and urban environments up to an altitude of 3.5 Km above ground level (AGL) with their mission mainly focused on providing high-quality observations of atmospheric pollutants and other parameters relevant to air-quality and climate change.Such accumulated technical expertise – specialized on UASs – is rarely available in research institutions and objectively represents a major asset for the rapid development of this infrastructure and its competitiveness in various research and commercial applications. In addition, the USRL team is actively supporting the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC) of the Cyprus Institute in research activities mainly focused in 3D reconstruction of archaeological sites.
