Flying High
MicroUAV (Unmanned Air Vehicles)
Applications for Public Works
APWA National Congress
San Antonio, Texas
September 2007
Mike Harrell, P.E.
Senior Engineer
[email protected]
www.ara.com
(p) 217.356.4500
Flight Plan
Traditional Aerial Video/Photography
Background on UAVs/MUAVs
Sample Applications of this Technology
Georeferenced Aerial Photographs and your
GIS system
Flight Plan –
Traditional Aerial Video/Photography
Typical methods
Ø
Tasked satellite
(special
circumstances)
Ø
NASA Space Shuttle
Ø
Full-size aircraft
1
Flight Plan –
Traditional Aerial Video/Photography
Typical methods
Ø
Helicopter
Ø
TerraServer
(Microsoft)
Ø
Google Earth
Flight Plan –
Traditional Aerial Video/Photography
Disadvantages
Ø
Expensive!
Ø
Time Sensitive
² Slow
to schedule –
often requires flight
plan
² Slow
to deliver
results once mission
is complete
Ø
Not reactionary
Flight Plan –
Traditional Aerial Video/Photography
Typical Aerial Image from Full-size Aircraft
(Image property of Skylight Photographic, June 2005,
taken with Canon EOS 20D)
2
Flight Plan –
The Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV)
Unmanned – duh!
Remote-controlled
Can be large
Often needs catapult or
runway for launch
Likely requires at least 2
people to operate
Flight Plan –
The Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV)
Some examples of
UAVs
Ø
US Naval Research Lab
- Sender
Ø
MLB’s BAT3
Original concepts began
with the military
Flight Plan –
The Micro Unmanned Air Vehicle
(MUAV)
Small
Lightweight – a pound or less
Similar functionality
Typically lower image
resolution – a result of lighter
payload
3
Flight Plan –
The Micro Unmanned Air Vehicle
(MUAV)
Some examples of MUAVs
Ø
Ø
ARA ’s Nighthawk
Aerovironment’s WASP
Most developed for the war
fighter in theatre
Flight Plan –
Advantages of the MUAV Approach
Portable
One-Man Operation
Robust, Field-Tough
Flight Plan –
MUAV Portability
Current Model of ARA Nighthawk®
4
Flight Plan –
Advantages of the MUAV Approach
No Flight Plan Required
Safe for Operator and
General Public
No humans put at risk!
(pilots)
Flight Plan –
Flight Controls
GPS
waypoints
Manual – with
joystick
“Follow-me”
Flight Plan –
Camera Payloads
Digital color
video/photography
Infrared
(color infrared image courtesy of
NASA)
Coming soon
Ø
Ø
Heat-Sensitive
Gimbal mount
5
Flight Plan –
Camera Payloads
Gimbal Camera
Ø
360o of viewing capability
Flight Plan –
Camera Payloads
Gimbal Camera
Ø
360o of viewing capability
(play video clip from desktop)
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Flood
Management
(Aerial Photograph courtesy of
NOAA)
6
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Traffic/Intersection Monitoring
Parking Lot Utilization
Ø
“Surface Transportation Surveillance from
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles”
(Coifman et al, Ohio State University, 2004.)
Ø
Research sponsored by the National
Consortium for Remote Sensing in
Transportation – Flows (NCRST-F)
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Traffic/Intersection
Monitoring
(image courtesy of Coifman, MLB)
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Parking Lot/ Parking Space
Utilization Monitoring
(image courtesy of Acclaim Images)
7
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Roof/Facility
Inspections
Ø
Annual or
systematic
Ø
In response to
event
(image courtesy of
TodaysFacilityManager.com)
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Pavement/Bridge
Inspections
Ø
In response to
event
Ø
Likely not
detailed enough
to perform annual
inspections
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Emergency
Response
Fire response
and strategic
placement of
equipment
Ø Live intel
without
putting
people at risk
Ø
8
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
Under Development – Aerial Asset Management
Flight Plan –
Applications – Where do we use this?
The Sky is the Limit!
Flight Plan –
UND UAV COE
Center of Excellence for Economic Development
in Unmanned Aerial Systems and UAV
Simulation Applications (whew!)
University of North Dakota – 2006
three central research questions integrating
UAS into the national airspace:
Ø
navigating and controlling UAVs ,
Ø
airspace management,
Ø
homeland security and related technology
9
Flight Plan –
UND UAV COE
Sense-and-avoid technology
“…designing a payload with the
instruments and sensors needed to see —
and avoid — any type of moving target,
such as a parachutist, a small airplane,
anything that isn’t equipped with a
transponder or other device signaling its
presence.”
Flight Plan –
Sense and Avoid?
Flight Plan – Mosaicking
UAV with down-looking (survey) EO and thermal cameras surveys at
low altitude
Live video feed to laptop is turned into high-resolution map- view
mosaic image of the airfield
Interactive post-processing on the laptop
identifies and maps damage features
(Crater, Spall, UXO, Bomblets)
• Images courtesy of ARA, Inc.
k
Lin
RF
Remote Operation Provides Safe Standoff
10
Example Actual Mosaic
High Altitude (500(500-ft)/Low Resolution
Sp
rin
kle
r
Automatically
created from
Nighthawk video
using software
process
Irrig
atio
n
Altitude flown is
~500 ft
Lower altitude
proposed (e.g.,
75’) will produce
finer resolution
(1”/pixel)
Vehicle
Tracks
Spr
ink
ler
Tra
ck
Image courtesy of ARA, Inc.
Achievable Ground Resolution
Minimum Altitude, ft
Plot of lens field of vision (FOV) angle v s altitude to
achieve desired ground resolution of 1 inch/pixel
Ø
5” spall will be 5 pixels wide
Ø
Feature size resolution: ±20% at 5”, ±4% at 2’
300
280
260
240
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Video Resolution (transverse x axial)
640 x 480
320 x 240
Nighthawk stock EO
Camera (75’ altitude)
Nighthawk stock IR
Camera (38’ altitude)
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
Camera FOV angle, degrees
Post--Processing/Analysis
Post
Ø
Ø
Ø
One-man portability
Software-based path planning
Flight operations to include
² Hand
launch capability
waypoint navigation
streaming at 640 x 480 pixel
resolution, 30 frames per second (EO)
and 320 x 240, 30 fps (thermal IR)
² Autonomous
² Video
Ø
Ø
AV landing and recovery
Video stabilization and mosaic
construction features using standalone software
• Image courtesy of ARA, Inc.
11
Example Road EO Flight Data
•E-W Run
•W-E Run
• Images courtesy of ARA, Inc.
Example Composite Road EO
Flight Data
• Image courtesy of ARA, Inc.
Example Composite Road Thermal
Flight Data
• Image courtesy of ARA, Inc.
12
Example Composite Road Thermal
Flight Data
• Image courtesy of ARA, Inc.
Flight Plan –
Inclusion into Existing GIS
Easier than you would think!
Still-images are georeferenced (geospatial
imagery)
Upload like any aerial image
• Image courtesy of Géo- 3D, Inc.
Flight Plan –
Inclusion into Existing GIS
COTS Software available to identify assets in
images
User can categorize, measure, and assess
condition of assets
OCR may automate this process
13
Nighthawk Sample Video
14