Aerial surveys and tagging of free-drifting icebergs using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

McGill, Paul; Reisenbichler, Kim R.; Etchemendy, S.; Dawe, T. Craig; Hobson, Brett

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2010.11.007

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…However, we believe that the benefits of SfM outweigh these limitations. Exploring the use of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) is recommended, as their use could alleviate the dependency on costly, weather-sensitive helicopters, and data collection via fixed-wing UAVs is already increasingly utilized in glacier [27,72] and iceberg or ice island [17] investigations. To truly be independent of helicopter use, one would additionally need to use an alternative method for marker/GPS deployment such as that developed by McGill et al [17] in the Southern Ocean.…”

Section: Future Iceberg and Ice Island Surveyingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, the calibration and validation of both iceberg and ice island deterioration models has been restrained by a paucity of in-situ data sets that accurately capture both the morphological change and corresponding environmental data required [14,15]. This is largely due to logistical, financial, and safety issues that accompany surveying these subjects in remote locations [16,17]. In addition, one must overcome the technical challenges associated with surveying a The two surveying methods are evaluated with consecutive, triplicate surveys over which time (<70 min) we assume that no appreciable deterioration (i.e., from melting or calving) has occurred.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surveying Drifting Icebergs and Ice Islands: Deterioration Detection and Mass Estimation with Aerial Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning

2018

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Icebergs and ice islands (large, tabular icebergs) are challenging targets to survey due to their size, mobility, remote locations, and potentially difficult environmental conditions. Here, we assess the precision and utility of aerial photography surveying with structure-from-motion multi-view stereo photogrammetry processing (SfM) and vessel-based terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for iceberg deterioration detection and mass estimation. For both techniques, we determine the minimum amount of change required to reliably resolve iceberg deterioration, the deterioration detection threshold (DDT), using triplicate surveys of two iceberg survey targets. We also calculate their relative uncertainties for iceberg mass estimation. The quality of deployed Global Positioning System (GPS) units that were used for drift correction and scale assignment was a major determinant of point cloud precision. When dual-frequency GPS receivers were deployed, DDT values of 2.5 and 0.40 m were calculated for the TLS and SfM point clouds, respectively. In contrast, values of 6.6 and 3.4 m were calculated when tracking beacons with lower-quality GPS were used. The SfM dataset was also more precise when used for iceberg mass estimation, and we recommend further development of this technique for iceberg-related end-uses.

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Section: Future Iceberg and Ice Island Surveyingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surveying Drifting Icebergs and Ice Islands: Deterioration Detection and Mass Estimation with Aerial Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning

2018

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“…The simplest and most intuitive solution is to release the payload from the body of the UAV, and let it fall unguided and freely to the ground. This has been successfully tested out by McGill et al (2011), delivering payloads to an ice berg. McGill et al (2011) describes manually guided UAVs releasing GPS sensors without the need for high precision.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has been successfully tested out by McGill et al (2011), delivering payloads to an ice berg. McGill et al (2011) describes manually guided UAVs releasing GPS sensors without the need for high precision. They simply released the payload when they were certain that the ice berg was underneath.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approach Methods for Autonomous Precision Aerial Drop from a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

2017

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Abstract:One of the many basic operations that a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) should master autonomously is to deliver an object to a precise position. Among several possible delivery approaches, this paper chooses to focus on releasing the object from the UAV, at a carefully calculated state, and let it fall freely to the selected landing location. In such an operation, the computation of suitable release positions, velocity and attitude is essential. Due to time-varying disturbances like wind, a previously calculated release state may not be suitable once it has been reached by the aircraft. On account of these challenges, this paper suggests a dynamic calculation of the release state with respect to the wind velocity and current state of the UAV, with a sufficient re-optimization frequency. This is tested in simulation and with field tests, and compared with results from a static calculation approach.

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“…An outstanding capacity of these vehicles is that they can allow not only monitor environments with harsh conditions where humans cannot have access, but they can also monitor scenarios that change periodically, with a high spatial and temporal resolution [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-Foraging-Oriented Reconnaissance Based on Bio-Inspired Indirect Communication for Aerial Vehicles

et al. 2017

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Abstract:In recent years, aerial vehicles have allowed exploring scenarios with harsh conditions. These can conduct reconnaissance tasks in areas that change periodically and have a high spatial and temporal resolution. The objective of a reconnaissance task is to survey an area and retrieve strategic information. The aerial vehicles, however, have inherent constraints in terms of energy and transmission range due to their mobility. Despite these constraints, the Data Foraging problem requires the aerial vehicles to exchange information about profitable data sources. In Data Foraging, establishing a single path is not viable because of dynamic conditions of the environment. Thus, reconnaissance must be focused on periodically searching profitable environmental data sources, as some animals perform foraging. In this work, a data-foraging-oriented reconnaissance algorithm based on bio-inspired indirect communication for aerial vehicles is presented. The approach establishes several paths that overlap to identify valuable data sources. Inspired by the stigmergy principle, the aerial vehicles indirectly communicate through artificial pheromones. The aerial vehicles traverse the environment using a heuristic algorithm that uses the artificial pheromones as feedback. The solution is formally defined and mathematically evaluated. In addition, we show the viability of the algorithm by simulations which have been tested through various statistical hypothesis.

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Aerial surveys and tagging of free-drifting icebergs using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Cited by 25 publications

References 6 publications

Surveying Drifting Icebergs and Ice Islands: Deterioration Detection and Mass Estimation with Aerial Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning

Surveying Drifting Icebergs and Ice Islands: Deterioration Detection and Mass Estimation with Aerial Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning

Approach Methods for Autonomous Precision Aerial Drop from a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Data-Foraging-Oriented Reconnaissance Based on Bio-Inspired Indirect Communication for Aerial Vehicles

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