Surveying Drone

The project comprises of a UAV (Unmanned Ariel Vehicle)/Drone equipped with camera for person detection and tracking, headcount and survey of a specified location along with  sonar sensor in order to obtain the distance of the UAV from an obstacle to be avoided. To achiev

Project Title

Surveying Drone

Project Area of Specialization

Artificial Intelligence

Project Summary

The project comprises of a UAV (Unmanned Ariel Vehicle)/Drone equipped with camera for person detection and tracking, headcount and survey of a specified location along with  sonar sensor in order to obtain the distance of the UAV from an obstacle to be avoided.

To achieve flexibility the UAV will have the ability to be controlled autonomously as well as manually through a transmitter.

Ground station will provide the user with information about the UAV along with facilities such as observing the location of the drone, sending the drone to a particular location on a map and giving it commands such as loiter, circle around a specific location in a given radius, changing the altitude, giving waypoints and whether to obtain headcount (the counting of persons) at a specified location. 

The UAV will be collaborated with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) which is being implemented by another group of students.

Project Objectives

The goal is to automate the UAV for the purpose of security and surveillance which in turn involves the achievement of following objectives. 

1. To design a UAV appropriate for the purpose of surveillance and security. 

2. To develop a ground control station (A desktop application) which shows the information about UAV and receives commands from the user.

3. Automate the UAV.

4. To obtain live streaming direcly from the UAV.

5.  Obtain headcount at a specified location by the use of computer vision techniques. 

6. Embed object avoidance by the use of sonar sensors.

7. Perform person recognition and tracking autonomously.

Project Implementation Method

1. Designing & Constructing UAV:

It involves obtaining the adequate information about the components, components gathering, assembly, flight controller calibration and calibration of GPS module. 

2. Drone Automation:

In this process the flight controller is programmed such that it is able to takeoff and obey the commands that are provided to the drone by the user autonomously without any control from the transmitter.

3. Ground Control Station Development:

Ground control station involves the GUI (Graphical User Interface) development in order to make the system user friendly, which includes embedding of map in the GUI on which the user can mark a location and command the drone to perform any of the specified tasks autonomously. 

4. Live Streaming:

Once the drone is automated the next task is to obtain the live streaming directly from the drone by the use of ip camera.

5. Headcount:

After obtaining the live streaming directly from the drone, the goal of obtaining headcount can be achieved by applying computer vision techniques on the live streaming.

6. Surveying:

It is up to the user to give the command of whether a simple survey or of headcount to the drone.However in surveying function the drone hovers over a location specified by the user through map and provides live streaming of that area.It also includes functionalities of circling around a location in a specific radius or just loitering (hovering) over a location.

7. Person Tracking:

Initially a specific colored tag or a ball will be the object of interest to be tracked by the drone. After the achievement of initial task the next task will be to track a person having a specific colored tag on his/her clothing and the final phase will involve the tracking and identification of a person who has no tag on his clothing.

The idea is to track a person who is unknown to a particular place such as headquarters. The clothing of headquarter personnel must include a specific colored tag, therefore any other person without tag on his/her clothes will be tracked by the drone. 

8. Integrating UAV with UGV:

Both the drone and UGV(unmanned ground vehicle) will communicate with one another through ground control station. UGV will have the ability to request air support of the drone by providing latitude and longitude on which the UGV will be present.

Benefits of the Project

 Making Surveillance Automated & Effective -  Normally a security system involves surveillance cameras which are fitted at different locations. However our system will provide flexibility by performing surveillance almost anywhere within the range of the system.

Making Security Automated & Effective - Through person tracking functionality of the system, security will be made effective as it will be able to detect the unknown person and provide with the location of the unknown person at continuous intervals and track the person within its range.

Effective Security Management - The headcount perspective of the project guarantees effective security management.

For example, in case of a function or an event, by obtaining the headcount from the drone the security personnel can easily deploy efficient security strategies  based on the number of people present in particular event.

PAVING THE WAY FOR FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS IN UAV TECHNOLOGY

For Military Services - UAVs constitute a major part in modern military applications, by further enhancing the project it can be easily used for military warfare. 

Drone Delivery Projects - Delivery of packages using drones is one of the recent contributions in UAV industry. Our automation using map is one of the key features which can be used for the delivery of goods using drones. However it will require the drone to maximize its payload capacity. 

Integration of Computer Vision & Artificial Intelligence With Drone - Such integration opens the door to uncountable possibilities in areas where drones can be used to automate and make the life easier. For example using drone to survey fields and its use in agriculture to detect the damaged crops etc.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The drone will provide with the information and be able to communicate with the ground station using telemetry.

The use of IP camera will make it possible for the system to show live streaming at the ground control station with speed depending upon the wifi installed.

The automated drone movement including the functions such as loiter and circling of a location at specified radius will be achieved by using dronekit python which uses mavlink protocol.

For video streaming and processing, openCV library will be used along with other libraries including numpy, dlib etc.

The map will be provided at the ground station GUI (Graphical User Interface) through the use of google map API. The drone will move to the certain location marked on map by the user through dronekit python and mavlink protocol. 

The drone will have the ability to come back to its takeoff position once the task appointed by the user is completed.

The battery used will have the ability to run the drone for 15-20 minutes. This is because of the payload capacity of the drone as batteries are heavier as compared to other equipment required for the drone.

Sonar sensors will be used for object avoidance.

Through GPS installed on the UGV the drone will obtain the location of the UGV and autonomously move to the respective UGV location if air support signal is received.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

Security

Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI)

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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