Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems for Terrain Mapping and Geospatial Data Management

The application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for short range civilian applications has reached new dimensions with the advent of modern yet affordable autonomous guidance systems. Low altitude light weight UAV systems were developed that have capability for semi-autonomous and autonomous way point navigation with a payload of sensing system. While UAV I was utilized to test the feasibility of application with manual control using radio control and first person wireless video, UAV II was built for autonomous flight and field data collection. With UAV II, in addition to an autopilot navigation system, a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver and fight stabilization sensors were utilized for system stability and guidance during completely autonomous flights. Both the UAVs successfully performed in flight conditions for terrain mapping of property, range, agricultural and natural resource management with respect to initial test flights, flight parameter calibration and field trials. In UAV II, average calibration parameters were +/-0.64 deg. for pitch, +/-3.35 deg. for roll in speed range of 40 -50 mph indicating good flight stability. The UAVs were tested over a user set waypoint path on fields, facilities/properties, and urban locales, altitude ranging 100 ft to 1000 ft, speed from 25 to 60 mph, and maneuvers including straight paths, turns, and banks. An autonomous image acquisition system was developed that records images and videos with onboard sensors at specified time, frequency and coverage area. Georeferenced aerial images were created to 4 in. resolution using mosaic images and post processing software. UAV I and UAV II maintained intended flight path parameters within 55 ft. and 8.23 ft. spatial position or cross track error, respectively.