Survey Drone
Drones can also perform a variety of surveys, from topographic and photogrammetry surveys to construction site and agricultural surveys, and even environmental and conservation surveys. The process involves careful planning and preparation,
These operations are difficult. “We are trying to measure and represent the Earth in an accurate way. This is difficult to do because the earth is not flat, perfectly round or even precisely represented by any standard. Therefore, drone operators must have a thorough understanding of the various coordinate reference systems and measurement theories to effectively communicate with surveyors and engineers.
Autopilot System
The autopilot subsystem (see Figure 1) runs on the BBB, a Linux-based single-board computer. The developed autopilot software will be loaded onto the BBB where a route for the aircraft will be automatically generated based on the user input. Input data will be sent to the BBB to process and establish navigational waypoints. The aircraft will follow its set path autonomously, driven by the autopilot system. If emergency remote control is necessary, manual operation can be enabled at any point during flight. A standard R/C transmitter will initiate a signal to the BBB to shut down, and the aircraft will respond only to manual control. The transmitter’s signals will manipulate the servos and electronic speed control on the aircraft to direct flight.
Summary
We have described a proposed fixed-wing survey drone that will autonomously image a user-selected area. The drone will accept GPS coordinates that define the area to be surveyed. It then will generate and navigate an autonomous flight plan for that area, and assemble a final aerial image of the selected area from multiple images taken during flight. The final image will be uploaded using a data link module and emailed to the operator. After flight, the survey drone can be collected at the starting location or some other user-specified location. This image information can be very valuable in precision farming applications, where details of crop health can be used to maximize yield and minimize use of resources. In the future, this design could be expanded to include other tasks such as search and rescue.