[OpenRelief Developer] UAVs (drones) in OpenRelief

[Shane Coughlan]

Dear all

I am cross-posting this on the outreach list as well as the developer list because everyone seems interested in the drones we plan to include in OpenRelief. :)

Overview:

Transportation systems provide a way to observe and interact with disaster areas. Over time they will include air, sea and land transportation, though the system currently being prepared is a lightweight electronic Unmanned Aeronautical Vehicle (UAV). The idea is to have a platform that allows manual (fly by wire) or autonomous control via GPS waypoints/mission plans to survey ground and provide communications support.  

To get the ball rolling we are building a limited-range testbed from off-the-shelf technology. We have two light airframes on their way to the UK right now. You can see take-off and landing tests of this type of airframe here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k78N2HOvA1s
These airframes will allow us to start testing modules, the UAV autopilots, and things like our OpenCV technology.

Technology:

The core computational technology behind our UAV uses ArduPilot optionally paired with the BeagleBoard/PandaBoard running the Ångström Distribution to allow a flight control system to be mated with sophisticated mission control (situation adaptive) software.  This nervous system plus brain can then be placed in various airframes - depending on budget - while being linked to various tools like our OpenDisaster modules or OpenCV optics (photography/video) to solve different problems. 

Reference URL (autopilot technology overview): http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot-mega/wiki/Introduction 
Reference URL (target autopilot overview): http://www.diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/apm-2-0-release

Deployment: 

This UAV transport system will be evolved into a solution for deployment in disaster areas to allow for information gathering, communications and other uses depending on the airframe selected and the modules included.

Concept summary:

Putting the UAV in context beyond "it carries modules" is a little challenging. Thankfully Karl and Dan have assist with this matter, and produced a little brainstorm about how visual recognition and other services from the UAV can work together to address tasks in a disaster (left) and how aspects of the UAV systems could be managed in a disaster (right):




PS: Perhaps Karl will be interested in these two build instructions videos for our testbed light airframe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6skohgpAsaI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Y6mJEg_aU
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