Perspectives Issue 2 / December 2016

Perspectives

Keeping staff informed

December 2016

Helping to secure a sustainable food

supply for China

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

How

drones will

change our cities

by Professor Antonios Tsourdos

Here we examine how drones could change our lives, and look at some of our

current research in UAVs and their applications.

autonomous world

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