Infrared microsensor payload for miniature unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

Miniature unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a category of aircraft small enough to be transported, launched, operated, and retrieved by a crew of one or two. The concept is not new, having been in limited use by the U.S. military over the past fifteen years, but interest in potential applications is growing as size and cost of the vehicles come down. An application that is particularly significant to the military and law-enforcement agencies is remote reconnaissance, with one or more onboard sensors transmitting data back to the operator(s) in real time. Typically, a miniature UAV is capable of flying a pre-programmed route autonomously, with manual override as an option. At the conclusion of the mission, the vehicle returns for landing, after which it can be quickly disassembled and stowed until its next use. Thermal imaging extends the utility of miniature UAVs to operations in complete darkness and limited visibility, but historically thermal imagers have been too large and heavy for this application.

Bushfire Hotspot Detection Through Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles and Reconfigurable Computing

“…To allow for unforeseen circumstances, this programming can be done before the mission or even updated during the mission. UAVs come in many different types and designs from large commercial sized fixed wing or vertical takeoff aircraft to micro sized aircraft with wing spans of less than 15 cm weighing less than 50 grams [13]. The papers [14], [15], and [16] confirm that UAVs have been used for a wide variety of applications including wildfire reconnaissance.…”

“…The smaller UAVs such as the Intellitech Vector-P UAV shown in Figure 6 can perform similar tasks to large ones but with much lower capital and running costs. They are also lightweight, small in storage size, as well as quick and easy to assemble, launch and operate [13]. These features and their performance characteristics make small UAVs ideal for impromptu detection and tracking missions [16].…”

UAS for Wetland Mapping and Hydrological Modeling

“…Although initially used mostly by the military [28], longwave infrared sensors (hereafter: thermal sensors) are now widely used for environmental monitoring. Khanal et al [29] reviewed their use in precision agriculture and named applications that are essential also for wetland mapping and monitoring: distribution of soil moisture conditions [30][31][32], water stress detection [33][34][35], soil texture mapping, [36] and plant disease detection [37][38][39].…”

The use of UAV platforms for remote sensing applications: case studies in Cyprus

“…Among the types of camera sensors that can be used with the UAVs are visible spectrum cameras, including SLR and light-weight cameras such as GoPro. Multi-spectral cameras with different bandwidths (Tetracam) and FLIR thermal cameras were also used in this study (figure 2), as their low weight and small size makes them ideal for use on UAVs [6,7,8]. According to Colomina and Molina [1], the use of UAVs for surveying archaeological sites is becoming increasingly common, due to the ease of use and the quality of the processed measurements.…”