Use of UAVs for ecosystem monitoring. Genova, July 20 th 2016

Transcription

1 Use of UAVs for ecosystem monitoring Genova, July 20 th 2016 Roberto Colella

2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard.

3 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard.

4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard.

5 Ecosystem An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system.

6 Monitoring an ecosystem means: executing sampling tasks at a desired frequency, collecting raw data organizing and processing data to extract useful information and check threshold overcoming Scopes to enrich the scientific comprehension of the ecosystem behaviour to enhance wildlife protection, fire prevention, searche and rescue operations, and support human activities (e.g. agriculture)

7 Applications climate change studies forest and wildlife protection populations and migratory flux estimate

8 Examples protect wildlife

9 Examples - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration protect wildlife identify animal estimate the age of population detect invasive grasses detect non native species

10 Examples - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration protect wildlife help future target surveys during nesting andhatching

11 Examples - conservation drones protect wildlife

12 Examples - conservation drones detect illegal activities

13 Examples - Departement of Energy improve weather forecast

14 Why UAVs? - UAVs can fly quite everywhere - volcanos - artic areas - Marshes - UAVs can execute simple scheduled tasks autonomously - Low flight altitudes allow high resolution - Using UAVs means cost reduction for repeated campaigns - Small UAVs do not perturbate the status of the observed ecosystem

15 Why UAVs? Lower prices Technical advances on-board navigation using the Global Positioning System (GPS) miniaturization of autopilots and single-board pc LiPo batteries and brushless motors have lured many scientific groups to develop new experiments with UAVs

16 What do we need Sensors One or more UAVs

17 Definition of an UAV Requirements (not a complete list ) Sensors weight of the payload Dimensions of the area/path to be monitored during a single mission Desired resolution or sample dimension

18 Fixed vs rotary wing pros Fixed wing autonomy speed altitude cons cannot stand still need for take off and landing distance or catapult and catching mechanism Rotary wing precision autonomy -> coverage

19 Fixed vs rotary wing VTOL! Vertical Take Off and Landing

20 Definition of an UAV Requirements flight time, payload It s time to choose the right setup... Frame Motors ESCs Propellers Batteries Flight Control Unit

21 Definition of an UAV ecalc is a good starting point

22 Definition of an UAV Requirements flight time, payload It s time to choose the right setup... Frame Motors ESCs Propellers Batteries Flight Control Unit

23 Flight Control Unit It fuses data coming from gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometer, barometer and radio control, sends throttle values to motor drivers to obtain a stabilized flight (low level task) with the addiction of a GPS module, most of them can manage a waypoint-based mission execution

24 Flight Control Unit - Pixhawk Additional inputs and outputs to manage extra sensors and actuators (e.g. gimbal) Open source firmware Highly customizable (~250 params) ROS enabled

25 From UAV to flying robot An UAV with an onboard computer running ROS for high level tasks (computer vision, path planning, sensing and reasoning) and integration with other ROS-robots. UAV flying robot

26 Marsupial Robotics

27 Laws and regulations 1/2 EU regulations are still not ready Each country is developing its own legislative framework In Italy, the use of UAS (UAV + ground control station) follows ENAC regulations (rev /2015)

28 Laws and regulations 1/2 EU regulations are still not ready Each country is developing its own legislative framework In Italy, the use of UAS (UAV + ground control station) follows ENAC regulations (rev /2015)

29 Laws and regulations 2/2 Radio Control model or UAS? it s a matter of UAS for scientific research? is considered ad specialized activity Full autonomous flight is forbidden, unless in VLOS (Visual Line Of Sight) conditions or for a pilot directly licensed by ENAC + = UAV?

30 ISSIA reel for USB spectrometer

31 ISSIA reel for USB spectrometer Requirements Unroll the fiber (length 3 mt) down to a user defined depth Keep the probe pointing downward User or autonomous activation Constraints Minimum bending radius of the fiber Preserve the integrity of the optic fiber, avoiding shocks.

32 ISSIA reel for USB spectrometer reel sensors, actuators and control

33 Considerations Many research groups are experiencing with low-cost UAVs. The use of UAVs for ecosystem monitoring is growing but is limited by rules that are becoming looser with time During each mission an UAV can collect a huge amount of images automated image processing is needed to shorten the analysis process.

34 Thank you! Useful links