Autonomous UAV solution for ecological mapping and surveillance.
2022-26-1245
05/26/2022
- Event
- Content
- The proposed UAV can be used to triangulate the areas of unnatural deforestation, by processing the area undergoing land cover transition, hence, restraining illegal logging as well as illegal deforestation which will, in turn, feed the ecological succession cycle. It triangulates the green cover which can be used in identifying fruiting trees, vegetation cycles, even in predicting the population of the animal species feeding on the subjective green cover and hence, the biodiversity. The system will be influential for curbing the landscapes with heterogeneous habitats and diverse topographical features. The model employs an onboard automated controller- ARDUPILOT MissionPlanner, a flight controller with inbuilt compass, GPS, and telemetry module which collects data from the controller such as, Altitude, GPS location, Pitch, Roll, etc. and transmits it to the Ground Control Station (GCS) when flying. The mission planner is programmed by selecting the Target Survey Area which is divided into a grid, Home which is the launch point, and Waypoints which will be crossed autonomously. Through the cruise, the camera is programmed to be triggered autonomously. At the end of the cruise, the GPS information is incorporated into JPEG and RAW files extracted from the SD card, at the GCS, by GeoSetter while QGIS is used to create a single TIFF file for every file and Pix4D mapper stitches the files into one target area which is processed to form an orthomosaic, which is compared against various vegetative indices to draw the complete profile of the forest area and plan the next steps.
- Citation
- Devi, M., Neigapula, K., Anand, S., Tiwari, A. et al., "Autonomous UAV solution for ecological mapping and surveillance.," SAE Technical Paper 2022-26-1245, 2022, .