Perspectives Issue 2 / December 2016

UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), commonly referred to as drones, repeatedly hit the headlines in 2016. This was due to increasing reports of near misses with aircraft and Amazon proposing to use them to deliver products to customers. Here we examine how drones could change our lives, and look at some of our current research in UAVs and their applications. autonomous world An

Helping to secure a sustainable food supply for China

EuroSWARM: A swarm of sensor platforms! We are also leading one of three projects selected for the first Pilot Project, run and managed by the European Defence Agency (EDA) on behalf of the European Commission, in the field of defence research. EuroSWARM (Unmanned Heterogeneous Swarm of Sensor Platforms), led by Dr Hyo-Sang Shin, has received a €434,000 grant as part of the €1.4 million total pilot funding announced at the EDA in late October. Running for 12 months until November 2017, the project consortium also includes the French aerospace research agency ONERA, the Swedish Defence Research Agency FOI and the University of Patras (Greece). It is hoped to demonstrate, through live experimentation, that typical defence and security missions and tasks can be performed by an unmanned, autonomous and heterogeneous (diverse) ‘swarm’ of systems, using emerging enabling technologies. Hyo-Sang said: “The EuroSWARM project, which is using static / mobile sensors and vehicles in an unmanned ‘swarm’-based autonomous system, is a pilot for large-scale usage to deal with critical European and global challenges such as border control or surveillance security.”

We are part of an Anglo-Chinese collaboration enabling wide area, persistent remote sensing capability for agricultural applications by developing and coordinating a number of sensing platforms such as UAVs, satellites, airships and even ground unmanned vehicles. This should enable better crop health monitoring, early detection of pests and disease, and provision of information for better farm management including targeted intervention / treatment. This three-year Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Newton Fund project is focused on agriculture and the environment in China but will have a number of other applications with a global reach.

How drones will change our cities by Professor Antonios Tsourdos

Amazon’s promise of a 30 minute drone delivery service 'Prime Air' might look like clickbait PR – but it is one early sign of significant changes coming in how our everyday world works. For the moment, all the language around

drones and the Prime Air service itself is full of caveats. Safety is always the first priority and no-one knows the full extent of what’s possible and how new services can weave their way through airspace and other regulations. 'Prime Air' is likely to take four to five years to become a mainstream service, a common enough sight not to be just a novelty or a threat. But in the meantime there’s going to be a tidal wave of changes in technology and attitudes. Autonomous aerial vehicles will be similar to the first motorised cars, starting out as a toy, and a sometimes hazardous toy at that, before becoming the norm and the basis of a new way of living and working. There’s not the scope for the same scale of transformation from UAVs but changes will be many and far reaching, and there will be opportunities in jobs, business and for all of us in our daily lives. Beyond delivery services, applications are already being worked out for monitoring structures like wind turbines, keeping a check on the environment – riverbank and coastal erosion, water levels and threats from flooding – in agriculture for monitoring crop growth and spotting any problems, for accident investigation, security and military uses. All of these rely on highly-skilled UAV pilots, people capable of operating groups of UAVs at any one time. There’ll be all the opportunities for associated businesses and services growing around UAV provision, the development and management of vehicle, communications and safety technologies (meeting the need for ultra-reliable and more sophisticated tech such as ‘first person’ vision goggles to control UAVs at a distance), as well as maintenance and systems for testing and licensing of pilots. Some roles and systems have the potential be replaced: traffic wardens, speed cameras, some forms of policing. The UAV infrastructure – locally, nationally, internationally – also has real potential for transforming operations for overseas aid and development, enabling a greater understanding of changing situations and needs, and pinpointing the delivery of support and supplies. Linked to pilot training will be the need for formal, accredited education and skills in UAV services management. Being able to handle a UAV will become a useful life skill for people generally. Our physical environment will be adapted. The pressure on airspace will lead to a push towards decluttering and removing any unnecessary ‘sky furniture’, telecommunications wires, electricity lines, advertising hoardings, and ways to re-position or make obstacles like street lighting and transmitter masts more easily navigable. Networks of UAV landing pads, recharging hubs and virtual air traffic control stations will be created across the country in both urban and rural areas. ‘UAV-ready’ features will become a standard part of homes – a new selling point for property with the space to offer straightforward UAV access. While the digital revolution has made it more practical to live and work in remote areas, UAV services will provide the physical link and make rural living viable and attractive for more people. In urban areas, residents living in flats, for example, will need to rely on more communal arrangements. Just as the motor engine led very quickly to motor sports, the availability of new tech and new skills will lead to competition. Drone racing is already gaining interest in the US and the future landscape will include UAV racing courses, with local racers but also participants and audiences who could be anywhere in the world. We need high-profile trailblazers like Prime Air for the technology to realise its potential. The hard work, though, is going to be behind the scenes, creating the safety mechanisms for each stage of UAV use, and piece by piece, putting in place the legislation that gets the balance right between control and allowing the tech the chance to grow and demonstrate its ability to solve some basic problems of modern life.

AIRSTART: UAVs coming soon to an airspace near you?

Recognising the need for tighter rules around the flying of drones, we are one of the research institutions in the £3.2 million collaborative AIRSTART project led by Airbus Group Innovations which also involves several small and medium-sized enterprises. It is exploring the technologies and regulations needed to make sure small UAVs can fly safely in the UK’s airspace in order to carry out a variety of tasks. Four main areas of development are being considered to ensure safety – high-speed laser communications; detect and avoid technology; obstacle detection; and high-efficiency engines. Cranfield’s lead on the project, Dr Al Savvaris, said: “UAVs are one of the most effective ways of carrying out essential, complicated tasks such as powerline inspections and beyond-line-of-sight operations. AIRSTART, which involves working with a number of different partners including the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the University of Southampton and QinetiQ, could transform the way health, safety and maintenance tasks are carried out in the future.” We are working to convert the engine of a UAV developed by specialist manufacturer Rotron into a zero emissions, electric system. The first step has been to develop a test rig UAV with a wingspan of four metres; once the engine has been developed and integrated into the UAV, the vehicle’s power management system and motor generator will be introduced. The technology will be tested at Rotron’s facilities in Dorset. AIRSTART (Accelerated Integration of Reliable Small UAV systems Through Applied Research and Testing) is ongoing until 2018.

Drone Watch: Managing flood risk

We investigated the feasibility of using UAVs to improve mapping of the extent of flooding events in the Drone Watch project. It was the first time the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had given permission to carry out survey works over any congested space in the UK with a range of 1,000m from the pilot and up to a potential altitude of 400ft AGL (height above ground level). This technology could also be used to validate insurance claims for property and infrastructure damage. Following her successful Drone Watch project, Dr Monica Rivas Casado’s research has included the potential use of UAVs in mapping the UK’s waterways for ecological monitoring and assessment. This data could be used in river management, restoration and river quality regulatory frameworks, ultimately improving water quality for the benefit of landowners, local authorities and the general population.

Perspectives Keeping staff informed December 2016

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