Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - Science topic

You are most welcome dear Anik Islam Abhi . Wish you the best always.

May be helpful for your work:

Dear Belkheir Youcef,

I suggest you see the links and attached file on the topic.

please consider the above links and medical data set

Differential privacy (DP) is a system for publicly sharing information about a dataset by describing the patterns of groups within the dataset while withholding information about individuals in the dataset.

Dear Martin Mokros,

Got this Project！ I‘ll share this with corresponding workmates

Thanks for sharing this info. Kind Regards!

Dear Anik Islam Abhi.

Look the link, maybe useful.

Regards,

Shafagat

Yes, your are wright. This is one of the main beauty of DL algorithm with complexity in training data, whilst once it trained efficiently and accurately, the testing/validation phase over new data is much simple and much quicker.

Dear Abhijit Mitra

Have a look with these articles:

1. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/11/968/htm

2. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-drone-based-photogrammetry-reliable-low-cost-method.html

3. https://nicholas.duke.edu/news/drone-based-photogrammetry-reliable-and-low-cost-method-estimating-plant-biomass

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8374503/

5. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/561/1/012054/pdf

Kind Regards

Multirotor Aerial Vehicles: Modeling, Estimation, and Control of Quadrotor

Survey of Advances in Guidance, Navigation, and Control of Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems

1) Control laws (or controllers) can be applied to any plant (aircraft, vehicle, spacecraft, missile, etc.).

2) The term of flight control law applies to all air vehicles.

3) The flight control law design concept is diverse. Each control concept has advantages and disadvantages. While the differential PI control you asked about has some advantages, it has the disadvantage of being susceptible to noise due to differential effects. And while the NDI (Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion) control applied to the F-35 is sensitive to model uncertainty, if the model is accurate, it has the advantage that it can be commonly applied to A, B, and C versions with one control structure. This is because only OBM (On-Board Model) needs to be replaced. In addition, sensor-based INDI (Incremental NDI) is a method that is quite robust to model uncertainty, but it is difficult to obtain the measured angular acceleration, and the use of a filter that minimizes noise is essential when the angular velocity is differentiated from the IMU sensor. is. And although it has the characteristic of reducing the stability margin of the system (especially the phase margin), the stability margin is quite robust against uncertainty. Hybrid INDI, which takes advantage of these two control methods, is sometimes used.

4) IFS (In Flight Simulator) is a method that can be safely verified with an aircraft platform that has already been tested when developing a flight control computer or a new flight control rule. In other words, new functions can be efficiently verified while ensuring flight safety by using the already verified flight control system for take-off and landing and verifying the function with the newly developed flight control rule in a specific flight condition.

The UAV itself is not the vital aspect. The sensors and the cameras are the most important.

As for the UAV, you need to make sure that the battery is enough for your task and the UAV is robust against the environment conditions where it will work (for example high winds, ... etc).

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are increasingly used for mapping, crop surveillance and scouting purpose in agriculture. I seek views on the possible risks involved and expected challenges before regulatory system?

Image processing applications based on UAV can be a prominent research area. Check the following paper.

There exist several pathless model, depending on the propagation environment. But you can use conventional model such as free space or Rice.

Dear Tej Bahadur Shahi ,

Thank you for your kindness.

Always available. :)

Regards,

Wiltgen

Importance and significance of the topic.

Discuss the background and target audience.

Summarize the surveyed research area and explain why the surveyed area has been studied.

Summarize the classification scheme you used to do the survey.

Summarize the surveyed techniques with the above classification scheme.

Interesting question. Drones and self-driving cars have different market targets and challenges. I see drones being adopted in automation of delivery logistics, surveillance, and warfare. So its diffusion is industry driven rather than retail, where its use seem to be most common in recreation and photography. Self-driving vehicles on the other hand need to diffuse through market adoption by overcoming safety concerns.

I former colleague of mine is developing one sensor that should suit your needs at a German research institution: https://www.ipm.fraunhofer.de/en/about-Fraunhofer-IPM/departments/object-and-shape-detection/airborne-and-underwater-scanning.html I have flown it a couple of times and the results are relatively good. A big pro argument is that it is a multi-return system which is especially valuable in forests.

Another probably pricier, but very interesting solution can be purchased in Austria: http://www.riegl.com/products/unmanned-scanning/new-riegl-vux-120/ I am working every day with a TLS solution from that company which is absolutely outstanding.

Dear José Luis Méndez-B,

In my opinion, despite the fact that the history of drone development dates back to 1917, it was only at the beginning of the 21st century, i.e. one hundred years later, that the technology and applications of drones developed, which is related to the ongoing technological progress in various supporting technologies in the field of batteries that store electricity, plastics materials, ICT information technologies in remote control applications, etc. Besides, it is only in recent years that the development of drone applications has occurred. In 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic also caused an increase in the use of drones. Currently (December 2020), in the context of the pandemic, drones are used to transport medicines for sick people, drugs and food to places with poorly developed road communication, blood plasma of people who have recovered from Covid-19 disease, etc. In the future, drones will find many more applications as equipment for courier companies delivering different products to individuals. Moreover, conceptual technological solutions for the construction of flying cars, which are also drones, are currently being created. Transport flying machines are also built, which with their shape and avionics technology were created as a combination of the concept of a helicopter with a drone. This type of progress in the field of avionics would not be possible without, for example, constantly improved and more efficient batteries that store electricity, more and more perfect electric motors and devices that charge said batteries with electricity. Perhaps in the future, as part of the ongoing technological progress, the growing demand for electricity, the growing demand for drones and the growing importance of environmentally friendly energy sources, drones will be produced powered by photovoltaic panels, which will cover the drones.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Dear Md. Alauddin,

You have a list of software dedicated to this area here are two:

VSfm :

dronemapper :

GIS LOUNGE :

Also i suggest you to see links and attached files on subject.

Best regards

Dear Victor,

You have to specify the required bands, area (how big) and resolution. Then, choose the best available drone or sensor!

Best of luck.

Martin, check out the GatorEye dataset, they have amazing high-quality UAV-LiDAR, etc. data available for researchers! Please reach out to Dr. Eben to get more details.

Eben Broadbent

First basic step is to define "strong wind" speed, and then compare that with the quadcopter's maximum speed. No Return To Home (RTH) feature can be effective as long as wind speed > quadcopter maximum speed so "speed" has to be first defense. Once quadcopter max speed is exceeded, it is just be a matter of time before the quadcopter is out of ground control range; options then are to land, and wait for input, (maybe not a great option in heavily wooded areas, or over water), or switch to an autonomous mode which will attempt return to base GPS location as long as power allows.

Next consideration would be turbulent response; in strong winds, particularly in urban areas, where wind gusting around buildings will make control response times critical.

Note also that GPS-enabled RTH features will struggle with tall obstacles, be they trees or high rise buildings, that block the (most direct) return path.

https://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/NPF-Building-and-Managing-a-Successful-Public-Safety-UAS-Program_Final-Report.pdf

https://www.faa.gov/uas/public_safety_gov/public_safety_toolkit/media/Public_Safety_Drone_Playbook.pdf

I used a quadcopter for scanning areas and develop a new map for the area to use it for civil engineering in new projects

Dear Fellner,

I suggest you to check the following link.

Best Regards

Dipak

Very good discussion, and very useful information from Zeashan Khan , Abhishek Dixit and Anju Baroth .

Jorge, you may be interested in this article by Cook and Dietze (2019)

https://www.earth-surf-dynam-discuss.net/esurf-2019-27/esurf-2019-27.pdf

They propose a system to compare UAV derived point clouds without ground control essentially by using the sparse point cloud from Survey 1 as control for Survey 2. As photogrammetric datasets can be subject to distortion, this essential would give the same distortion to both datasets, so change detection results are more representative of process than reconstruction error.

As mentioned by Edgar, automated or pick-point registration can be a nice approach too, but since you are working with a glacier where surfaces could potentially retreat at a similar rate, you might overfit your data and estimate lower retreats than actually happened. To get around that, you could focus on bounding rocky sections of the valley to get your translation matrix (the geometric matrix used to move your data to the best fit in CloudCompare) and apply the best translation to your entire dataset for change detection.

Md Masuduzzaman Please check this question. This can be your research topic.

thank you Reuben Reyes

what is your think of about software such as visual SFM or ....

thank you Marco Baldo

Smaller UAV images in general (fixed-wing and multi copters) are quite different from classic aerial cameras in big planes.

Orientation angles are larger and their changes are more extreme .

Furthermore, UAV imagery often shows more motion blur .

and of course the ground resolution is much higher .

All this needs different strategies and matching techniques to be applied to successfully match tie points.

Maybe you can refer to NS-3. Verifying your protocol by implementing it on the simulator.

Abdullatif Baba thank you

Dear Anik,

I suggest you to see links and attached files on topic.

Paper Title (use style: paper title) - laccei

Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks: A Cyber ... - arXiv

Survey of Important Issues in UAV Communications Networks - arXiv

Best regards

Hi,

I don't know what do you mean exactly by ground effect, it could be aerodynamically or other ones. however, take look to the attached pdf, it maybe helpful.

Best,

Sajad

Thanks William for your help. I will at this competition.

Surveying burn areas, fire movement, damage/impact. Looking for survivors.

Yesterday I read and recommend a very good review, published recently about this topic, including pros and cons:

Field Phenotyping for the Future July 2018 DOI: · 10.1002/9781119312994.apr0651 In book: Annual Plant Reviews Online Jonathan A. Atkinson · Robert J. Jackson · Alison R. Bentley · Show all 5 authors · Darren Mark WellsDarren Mark Wells

It depends a bit on what aspect of the fire-fighting you focus:

- For the assessment phase, typically quite standard UAV's are used. These are typically sturdier models that feature a short deployment time and are often also used by civil protection, police, ...

- For the fire-extinguishing phase, purpose-built solutions do exist, e.g.: https://www.aerones.com/eng/firefighting_drone/

Dear Adwitiya Mukhopadhyay,

the following "Call for Papers" contain lists of current research topics in FANETs:

There is a long list of current topics - especially:

Call for Papers: Journal „Computers & Electrical Engineering“, Special Issue in 2019 on Recent Advancements in Flying Ad hoc Networks

There, among other things, the following topics of interest:

The following articles can also supply some ideas:

Much success and best regards

Anatol Badach

i am working on NS3

Dear it is easy to use the size of captured object with its real size to get the resolution!

regards

Dear Maykon,

Its another drones application:

Water sampling

"https://enterprise.dji.com/news/detail/water-sampling-with-drones"

You can take a look at: A survey on position-based routing protocols for Flying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs) in which different restrictions about the use of UAVs have been referenced.

Technology in farming is constantly evolving. Collecting accurate, reliable geo referenced (location in terms of GPS coordinates) data is essential to capitalise on technologies such as variable rate application of chemicals and fertiliser and aid in crop monitoring at a level once not imagined.

See: https://agmapsonline.com/2014/01/06/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uav-in-precision-agriculture/

The red edge refers to the wavelengths between approx. 0.7 and 0.8 µm, the region between the red, where reflectance from green vegetation is very low and the near infrared where the reflectance is very high.

Now, there are sensors which record wavelenghts within this spectrum like e.g. Sentinel-2 which has bands at 0.705 and at 0.74 µm. The information gives deeper insights in the biochemistry of the leafs as the reflectance in this spectrum is sensitive e.g. to the chlorophyl content. See for example this poster for getting an impression what can be done with this information: http://old.esaconferencebureau.com/docs/12c04_docs2/poster1_18_clevers.pdf

If your drone camera records in this spectrum, you can use this information for example as proxy for the chlorophyl content of the leaves. But the interpretation depends of course also on the scope of your study.

I found a few articles that may be useful for you. 

Lee, T., Leoky, M., & McClamroch, N. H. (2010, December). Geometric tracking control of a quadrotor UAV on SE (3). In Decision and Control (CDC), 2010 49th IEEE Conference on (pp. 5420-5425). IEEE.

Dierks, T., & Jagannathan, S. (2010). Output feedback control of a quadrotor UAV using neural networks. IEEE transactions on neural networks, 21(1), 50-66.

Sharifi, F., Mirzaei, M., Gordon, B. W., & Zhang, Y. (2010, October). Fault tolerant control of a quadrotor UAV using sliding mode control. In Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (SysTol), 2010 Conference on (pp. 239-244). IEEE.

Ryll, M., Bülthoff, H. H., & Giordano, P. R. (2012, May). Modeling and control of a quadrotor UAV with tilting propellers. In Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2012 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 4606-4613). IEEE.

dear Zeke see these papers

Thank you, Mr. @Yaron Ogen: Yes, I succeeded to collect GPS point from the Google map, now need to extract coordinate pointing become map sketch. Can I do that? any method to do that?

Thank you, Mr. @Ayad Ali, "- press on placemark icon move the mark  to the required position the read the E, N coordinates from the windows, by this procedure select at least 4 control points and use them in the registration of your map on GIS software." -> thank you for your advice. Can we export the polygon line too?

Last year I designed a UAV (as shown in the attached picture, without its winglets), which I intend to use to test my hybrid setup. I designed it to have a large cargo bay, so that there is plenty of room for experimental payload.

To obtain the most accurate aerodynamic model of the aircraft I plan to perform full-scale wind tunnel experiments later this summer. 

@Jusoff: Yeah I meant in the United States.

@Arthur. Thanks

Dear ED thank you so much for your answer

I agree with Naceur's input on specifics - looking, for example, at HALE type fixed wing UAV, 1/2kg seems no challenge at all...

Nevertheless, in general, I would focus on three main aspects to derrive at load carrying capabilities:

- size (larger lifting surfaces whether as wing or rotor usually translate into more lifting capability)

- speed (higher speeds allow higher lift production, all other parameters considered fixed; again, in general, it doesn't matter whether fwd speed of a wing or rotational speed of a rotor)

- propulsion (the two points above directly will affect drag which in turn will require excess thrust to overcome)

Hope that helps at the conceptual level

HI Saman,

This might help:

Best regards,

Jack

it's very useful,

Also contact Dr. Yu Gu of West Virginia University, he has an extensive experience on UAV for agriculture

Very good. This is one of my primary programs. If you need assistance we can make arrangements off-line for you to contact me.. One thing to watch for when seeding points in TBC is that it is useful to disable the base global coordinates prior to recalculation of all points.

I guess that will depend the country you are looking for. All countries have their own laws and rules about UAV.

yes, 

thank you

If you can read portuguese or use google translator, there is a simple and straightforward paper about modelling a UAV, focused on the usage of fuzzy logic, easy to use other artificial intelligence techniques: http://sbesc.lisha.ufsc.br/sbesc2014/dl201

There isn't too many books with development tips on this field, they are, usually, abstract. You will have better ideas and directions with papers.

Hi, you could install additional sensors, to get georeferenced images. At first you will need the position X, Y, Z (longitude, latitude, height) which is mostly done by GPS or DGPS sensors. Sometimes a pressure sensor in combination with the barometric height formula is used to get height infos. Additionally an inertial movement unit (IMU) or a fluxgate sensor should be used, to get attitude data for the projection (or angle of view) of the camera.

But I think if you use an UAV, all these sensors are present. You will also need some camera parameters to describe the inner orientation (sensor pixel sizes, focal length, distortion of the optics). Usually these data are given by the manifacturer (aerial cameras).  If not available, you have to make some calibrations experiments with your camera (for example openCV).

For the projection equation the dynamic parameter focal length is important. Sometimes (if the focus is variable) it is logged by the cam self in the EXIF data. Sometimes a fixed focus system with a defined focal length can be used.

Next step is to ortho-rectify the image frame, but at least there will be more than one image and you have to stitch these frames together. Normally this is done if the material is geo-rectified but sometimes gaps will occur (accuracy of the sensors). So in at least both rectification and 'inter' image adjustment have to be done.

To describe all the material more systematicly - photogrammetry is the buzzword. I've attached some links (software, how to, literature, open source solution).

Regards Alex

A design of a path planning from scratch (not just giving GPS waypoints) depends essentially on the dynamics of the system, in the case of UAV (quadcopters or other) the dynamic model has to be well known, with the most parameters that you can get (weight, dimension, interias, different forces, etc...).

Then for sensors, it depends on the navigation area, if it's open, you mostly need a GPS and IMU combined for refining the measurements. If you're in an indoor area, IMU is needed as well, but GPS is inefficient, and in this case you'll need a visual odometry (this can be used outside as well) to estimate the travelling distance of your UAV, and an obstacle avoidance system (sonars, lidars and so on).

I have experiences with methanol and patrol engines, but do not use them in our campaigns. What do you want to know exactly?

weight,shape and body dimensions,length the blades,wings extend,range at which moves,speed, location of sensors, obstacle distance,shape and movement details(if moving,even its velocity), planning algorithm,even the kind of control system in the uav is responsible.

Dear Ajmal

Mary Cummings, MIT, Human Automation Laboratory HAL, is an expert in supervisory control of UAV.

Perhaps you could find some interesting research work related to US Forces in this field.

Salvador Lorite and I have a contribution to supervisory control interface design of UAV

page 253

If you do need aerodynamic simulation, X-Plane works quite well. We used that along with matlab to simulate a few rotorcraft uavs. X-plane has a simple network based API that you can use to provide inputs to controls and get back pretty much any variable used in the aerodynamic simulation.

Hi Gamal, the technology is there, that is not the issue. Many devices have safety features programmed on their IMUs like no flight zones, limited altitude and radius, self-landing if loosing power and back to home if loosing contact with the transmitter, etc. Others even have an in-built parachute and most have prop guards accessories as well. They are reliable as long as their users follow the directions of the manufacturer. Like taking off only after the position has been fixed by the internal GPS and so on. So, safety features are already being included in prosumer models  by modern technology (e.g. DJI). I do not think there is a limit there. Manufacturers are already addressing it. In my opinion the problem of "security restrictions" is not on how many safety features technology can provide in an UAV but on the "simplistic" way these regulations are being made.

These devices are not "cheap toys" neither (unless thinking in toys like Cheerson CX10 - like) nor the cameras we use on them (gopro or DSLR) and so, UAV pilots are of course people willing to do everything to prevent their devices from having accidents and there are basic rules that common sense can provide to avoid accidents. As an example, I have read on RC forums from the very same pilots to propose rules like only people with enough experience, insurance, using only plastic props (not CF), with limited altitude and for specific purposes should be allowed to fly over populated areas. Newbies should fly only on open areas and dedicated sites until acquiring more experience. General public no flight zones are obvious (populated, military, airports, etc). There are several RC forums where this subject is addressed extensively by way more experienced people than me.

The problem you site is relevant because the actual direction the U.S. FAA or law makers are taking is in my opinion creating not desired negative effects. As you mentioned the restrictions are threatening the use of this technology on several important and useful fields because of few irresponsible customers. Think about a portable defibrillator (those simple to use models with vocal instructions) could be sent by your local hospital to your house in case of an emergency in seconds, saving critical time while the ambulance arrives through the traffic. That technology is feasible and safe, but today FAA's regulations make it very difficult to implement.

In my country I use UAVs for aerial surveys of sea lion colonies, cetaceans and even nesting sites, as well as to produce low altitude geographic seasonal information in remote areas. I do not even need to approach anymore with a boat to these sensitive sites. The effects of the boat were way more significant than the small DJI Phantom. I am writing a paper about the use of this device in ecology since with few simple modifications, I have seen it tolerated by wildlife so well that it can become an important tool for field scientists and protected areas managers. Of course, there too are some common sense rules to be adopted like the altitude, distance to the animals and time of exposure. Using 3-blade props the noise from props is significantly diminished and the LEDs can be disconnected as well adjusting these devices to work with wildlife. Modern cameras have such a great image quality that allow us to stay far and produce good data anyway. FPV technology allows us to confirm the images are right, check in real time the effects of the presence of the UAV and get out without further delay. I also use a modified version to transport devices like a hydrophone and data logger to sites I cannot reach or I do not want to disturb with my presence. In minutes I can collect data that otherwise would take me several hours or even days without ever be as sure as with the UAVs of producing the same quality due to my presence at the field. To do this in the USA, it would be quite complex with the actual FAA restrictions (FPV seems that will not be even allowed)

In my opinion the problem of these "quick" regulations is that they do not accomplish their main goal and instead produce unwanted effects. They do not stop irresponsible people from buying and misuse these devices. Instead they make harder their use by responsible pilots, limiting the many positive uses of this technology because the problem is not on the technology itself but on the user of it. This is a fundamental fact that regulators have not addressed properly. A guy taking not allowed photos of the girl next door, can use a drone, a telescope, a photocamera or even his cellphone. The wrong doing is on the action itself of taking photos of the girl without her permission, rather than the use of some specific device to accomplish his goal. Are we going to ban DSLRs? telephoto lenses will need an expensive license as well?

UAV can have many safety features provided by modern technology, that in fact have already been included in prosumer and professional models, but it has not been properly recognized by regulators. Instead the focus has been against the device itself rather than the irresponsible use of this technology.

As in many other cases of technology produced by and for military purposes, as soon as it is used outside of that field, the initial response is driven by fear and thus the intention to ban its general public use, or to limit it as much as possible regardless of the limitations that these "quick" regulations pose to positive applications of this technology. Then the regulations are modified due to public pressure and becomes something more reasonable after some time. Just think about the GPS technology... Now we have it on our cellphones and we are not more at risk than before. I guess with UAVs it will happen the same but it is going to take some time for lawmakers to learn about this technology and address it properly.

The use of small but highly technological UAVs has provided me of a great tool for wildlife research on remote areas minimizing significantly the impacts and costs of the projects. Since many regulators follow what the USA do, I do not know for how long I will be able to use it in my country and actually I cannot even think about using it in the USA... Your question is about how to handle these regulations... Well, we have just to abide to them until they are replaced by something more reasonable. Experiences overseas with UAVs applied on field research can provide valuable information to regulation makers.

This is highly controversial in some forums perhaps due to the idea of "expensive toys" or "dangerous devices" (due to few irresponsible customers and the associated image to the word "drone") that general public may have about UAVs. But certainly this is a technology that depending on the purpose, it can have many positive positive and needed effects in environmental sciences and management.

Hi Victor,

There are some solutions with directive lasers. High communication bandwidth van be achieved, but the positionnement precision , and stability of the station keeping requirements are important.