scholarly journals Graphic Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Study of Industrial Heritage Assets

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 8821
Author(s):  
Sergio Martín-Béjar ◽  
Juan Claver ◽  
Miguel A. Sebastián ◽  
Lorenzo Sevilla

As a typology of cultural heritage, a wide range of singularities must to be taken into account when analysing industrial heritage assets. Graphical resources have been usually employed in heritage assets research. Nowadays, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer the possibility to obtain images of complex and difficult access areas that cannot be observed on the ground. Furthermore, aerial images allow to analyse heritage assets as a whole. Therefore, in this work, different photographs and videos has been carried out in the San Joaquin sugar cane factory and in the Aguila aqueduct, located in Nerja (Spain). These images have been used to analyse both assets as a set. Different indirect measurements on the factory chimney and irrigation water pond were taken. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) about the use of UAV graphic applications in heritage assets was developed. Finally, the possibilities of conventional photograph technologies and UAV application were compared. Using UAVs allows more image acquisition possibilities than conventional systems. However, both technologies can be complemented and applied together when analysing heritage assets.

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 101692
Author(s):  
Daniel Trevisan Bravo ◽  
Gustavo Araujo Lima ◽  
Wonder Alexandre Luz Alves ◽  
Vitor Pessoa Colombo ◽  
Luc Djogbénou ◽  
...  

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (21) ◽  
pp. 4779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader S. Labib ◽  
Grégoire Danoy ◽  
Jedrzej Musial ◽  
Matthias R. Brust ◽  
Pascal Bouvry

The rapid adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) has encouraged the integration of new connected devices such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to the ubiquitous network. UAVs promise a pragmatic solution to the limitations of existing terrestrial IoT infrastructure as well as bring new means of delivering IoT services through a wide range of applications. Owning to their potential, UAVs are expected to soon dominate the low-altitude airspace over populated cities. This introduces new research challenges such as the safe management of UAVs operation under high traffic demands. This paper proposes a novel way of structuring the uncontrolled, low-altitude airspace, with the aim of addressing the complex problem of UAV traffic management at an abstract level. The work, hence, introduces a model of the airspace as a weighted multilayer network of nodes and airways and presents a set of experimental simulation results using three UAV traffic management heuristics.


Subject Post-Obama armed UAV policy. Significance As President Barack Obama prepares to leave office in January 2017, his administration has called for the United States to lead development of a set of international norms to govern the use of armed UAVs ('unmanned aerial vehicles' or 'drones'). The international proliferation and military use of armed UAVs by nations outside the circle of trusted US allies have highlighted the urgency of formulating clearly articulated international rules to govern an otherwise vaguely defined arena of international behaviour dominated by US precedent. Impacts Congressional aversion to supporting ground interventions abroad will enable the next president further to delay UAV policy reform. A wide range of countries frustrated with restrictions from Washington may turn to China as a key supplier of armed UAVs. Failed US efforts to reform the covert drone programme may complicate intelligence-sharing with European allies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
SASIWIMOL RINNAMANG ◽  
KAMPANART SIRIRUEANG ◽  
SORAVIS SUPAVETCH ◽  
PONTHEP MEUNPONG

Abstract. Rinnamang S, Sirirueang K, Supavetch S, Meunpong P. 2020. Estimation of aboveground biomass using aerial photogrammetry from unmanned aerial vehicles in teak (Tectona grandis) plantation in Thailand. Biodiversitas 21: 2369-2376. Thailand is one of the best teak planting locations in the world. Teak is one of the most species planting and a significant source of high-value timber in Thailand. For plantation management, biomass is one of the important factors while determining the production of a plantation and also for sustainable forest management. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have the ability to produce 3D RGB digital images which can be used to study the plantation characteristics. This study aimed to use aerial images and photogrammetry techniques derived from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to estimate teak biomass in Thong Pha Phum plantation, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. We conducted our study on 15-and 36-year-old teak stands, and compared the tree dimension between data obtained from field measurement and that from aerial images and photogrammetry techniques. In the 15-year-old stand, the average tree height estimated from the UAV and ground-truthing were 12.34 and 13.06 m, respectively. In the 36-year-old stand, the average tree height from the UAV and ground-truthing were 28.87 and 29.39 m, respectively. We found that in both stands, the difference between data generated from the UAV and ground-truthing data was not significant (p-value = 0.07 and 0.306, respectively). There was also a strong correspondence between tree height estimated from the UAV and that measured on the ground which is indicated by the high R2 (i.e. 0.70 and 0.64 for the 15-and 36-year-old stands, respectively). Using UAV generated data, the total biomass of 15-and 36-year-old stands was estimated to be around 42.07 t ha-1 and 67.13 t ha-1, respectively. The overall results suggest that UAV can be used as an effective tool to survey and monitor stand’s productivity in teak plantation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 237-250
Author(s):  
Nikolay Zagorski

Modern military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are assigned a wide range of functions, for the implementation of which they perform many tasks in various military conflicts. The results of the analysis give them the opportunity to reveal the problems in the use of UAVs, make changes in their functions and tasks and identify areas for further development. At present, this requires the introduction of the achievements of artificial intelligence, the introduction of expert systems and microelectronics on board UAVs, as well as their integration with various other means of conducting armed struggle. At the same time, some of the technological solutions for the creation and improvement of UAVs for military purposes can be applied in the civilian sector.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-92
Author(s):  
E. A. Vinogradov

Not less than one hundred thousand Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are expected to perform flights simultaneously in Russia by 2035. The UAV fleet capacity triggers the development of the systems for informational support, operating control and management of UAV flights (Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) systems) similar to that one already operating in manned aviation. The challenges arising in the sphere of civil aviation cannot be solved without wireless communication. The goals of this article are as follows: 1) familiarization of communication experts with the latest scientific developments of unmanned aerial technologies 2) description of the telecommunication-related problems of extensive systems of UAV control encountered by development engineers. In this article a schematic architecture and main functions of UTM systems are described as well as the examples of their implementation. Special emphasis is put on enhancing flight safety by means of a rational choice of communication technologies to manage conflicts (Conflict Management) known as "collision avoidance". The article analyzes the application of a wide range of wireless technologies ranging from Wi-Fi and Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) to 5G cellular networks as well as cell-free networks contributing to the development of 6G communication networks. As a result of the analysis, a list of promising research trends at the intersection of the fields of wireless communication and UAVs for civil application is made.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (28) ◽  
pp. eaau6637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiyu Hang ◽  
Ximin Lyu ◽  
Haoran Song ◽  
Johannes A. Stork ◽  
Aaron M. Dollar ◽  
...  

Perching helps small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) extend their time of operation by saving battery power. However, most strategies for UAV perching require complex maneuvering and rely on specific structures, such as rough walls for attaching or tree branches for grasping. Many strategies to perching neglect the UAV’s mission such that saving battery power interrupts the mission. We suggest enabling UAVs with the capability of making and stabilizing contacts with the environment, which will allow the UAV to consume less energy while retaining its altitude, in addition to the perching capability that has been proposed before. This new capability is termed “resting.” For this, we propose a modularized and actuated landing gear framework that allows stabilizing the UAV on a wide range of different structures by perching and resting. Modularization allows our framework to adapt to specific structures for resting through rapid prototyping with additive manufacturing. Actuation allows switching between different modes of perching and resting during flight and additionally enables perching by grasping. Our results show that this framework can be used to perform UAV perching and resting on a set of common structures, such as street lights and edges or corners of buildings. We show that the design is effective in reducing power consumption, promotes increased pose stability, and preserves large vision ranges while perching or resting at heights. In addition, we discuss the potential applications facilitated by our design, as well as the potential issues to be addressed for deployment in practice.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 876
Author(s):  
Joana Engana Carmo ◽  
João Paulo Neto Torres ◽  
Gonçalo Cruz ◽  
Ricardo A. Marques Lameirinhas

Photovoltaic technology and unmanned aerial vehicles are both alluring areas with a lot of potential to explore. Consequently, they have an ability to adapt and progress when faced with new challenges, hence their wide range of applications. An auspicious combination between the two is born from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAVs) inability to to overcome some of its problems, namely the autonomy one. This article springs from the need to vanquish the problem, finding a more permanent solution. Its aim consists in the installation of solar photovoltaic panels in the structure of a UAV, with the objective of studying being its influence on the vehicle’s time of flight. To accomplish this, a theoretical study will be made, encompassing all the potential variables together with its influence. In order to verify the credibility of these claims, a prototype, based on the original aerial vehicle structure form and material, is constructed, using a finite element tool. Later, the prototype is used to evaluate possible harsh circumambient air to structure interactions, modeled by the fluid motion describer Navier–Stokes equations. For a smooth approach involving lighter computational power, a RANS model is used to asses the equations. Based on its results the chosen solar technology credibility is evaluated. A simulation of solar cells will also be carried out, accepting as input previously studied parameters which will modify its performance. Bearing in mind the produced results, it is concluded that the solar panels can only significantly augment the time of flight in very specific conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (30) ◽  
pp. 125-136
Author(s):  
G. S. Vasilyev ◽  
O. R. Kuzichkin ◽  
I. A. Kurilov ◽  
D. I. Surzhik

The use of a formation consisting of adaptive autonomous mobile agents allows solving a wide range of tasks that are often beyond the capabilities of individual agents. A multi-agent formation is a complex high-order dynamic system, so analyzing the stability of such a system is a complex task. At present, the problem of estimating the stability of a formation formed by substantially nonlinear high-order agents with variable dynamic parameters is not sufficiently considered. This task is particularly important for a formation that is affected by complex unstable environmental conditions, in particular for the formation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A method for analyzing the stability of formations of nonlinear agents with different types and orders of transfer function has been developed for studying information exchange in UAV networks. The new approach is based on the use of the Popov frequency criterion and the piecewise linear approximation of the hodograph. A computational experiment was performed to analyze the stability of a formation with transfer functions of various types and orders from the 1st to the 10th. The conducted studies revealed a significant difference in the calculated boundary coefficients of formation stability in the linear and nonlinear modes, which confirms the need to analyze the nonlinear stability under the influence of strong destabilizing influences on the formation.


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