Sensor Systems and Software. Second International ICST Conference, S-Cube 2010, Miami, FL, USA, December 13-15, 2010, Revised Selected Papers

Research Article

Integration of Terrain Image Sensing with UAV Safety Management Protocols

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  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-23583-2_3,
        author={Timothy Patterson and Sally McClean and Gerard Parr and Philip Morrow and Luke Teacy and Jing Nie},
        title={Integration of Terrain Image Sensing with UAV Safety Management Protocols},
        proceedings={Sensor Systems and Software. Second International ICST Conference, S-Cube 2010, Miami, FL, USA, December 13-15, 2010, Revised Selected Papers},
        proceedings_a={S-CUBE},
        year={2012},
        month={5},
        keywords={Quadrotor UAV UAV safety management protocol UAV safe landing zone detection},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-642-23583-2_3}
    }
    
  • Timothy Patterson
    Sally McClean
    Gerard Parr
    Philip Morrow
    Luke Teacy
    Jing Nie
    Year: 2012
    Integration of Terrain Image Sensing with UAV Safety Management Protocols
    S-CUBE
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-23583-2_3
Timothy Patterson1,*, Sally McClean1,*, Gerard Parr1,*, Philip Morrow1,*, Luke Teacy1,*, Jing Nie1,*
  • 1: University of Ulster
*Contact email: patterson-t@ulster.ac.uk, si.mcclean@ulster.ac.uk, gp.parr@ulster.ac.uk, pj.morrow@ulster.ac.uk, l.teacy@ulster.ac.uk, j.nie@ulster.ac.uk

Abstract

In recent years there has been increased interest in the development of lightweight rotor-based UAV platforms which may be deployed as single or multiple autonomous UAV systems in support of applications such as ground surveillance, search and rescue, environmental monitoring in remote areas, bridge inspection and aerial imaging of crops. With the increased complexity of the UAV platforms comes a legal requirement that any UAV operates in a safe manner and is able to land safely in the presence of control and power when flight task exception conditions are alarmed. No standards currently exist for the in-line discovery and designation of UAV Safe Landing Zones (SLZs) for rotor-based platforms and this paper describes a novel approach which has been developed as part of a wider UAV Safety Management Protocol. Aspects relating to the SLZ sensing, classification and designation are described together with the methodology for deciding on the SLZ attainability.