• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.463-474
• /
• 2015

Future Ground Control Stations (GCSs) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) teleoperation targets better situational awareness by providing extra motion cues to stimulate the vestibular system. This paper proposes a new virtual environment for long range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) control via Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) communications, which is based on motion platforms. It generates motion cues for the teleoperator for extra sensory stimulation to enhance the guidance performance. The proposed environment employs the distributed component simulation over GSM network as a simulation platform. GSM communications are utilized as a multi-hop communication network, which is similar to global satellite communications. It considers a UAV mathematical model and wind turbulence effects to simulate a realistic UAV dynamics. Moreover, the proposed virtual environment simulates a Multiple Axis Rotating Device (MARD) as Human Machine Interface (HMI) device to provide a complete delay analysis. The demonstrated measurements cover Graphical User Interface (GUI) capabilities, NLoS GSM communications delay, MARD performance, and different software workload. The proposed virtual environment succeeded to provide visual and vestibular feedbacks for teleoperators via GSM networks. The overall system performance is acceptable relative to other Line-of-Sight (LoS) systems, which promises a good potential for future long range, medium altitude UAV teleoperation researches.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.107-112
• /
• 2018

In this paper, optical flow based keypoint detection and tracking technique is proposed for the collaboration between flying drone with vision system and ground robots. There are many challenging problems in target detection research using moving vision system, so we combined the improved FAST algorithm and Lucas-Kanade method for adopting the better techniques in each feature detection and optical flow motion tracking, which results in 40% higher in processing speed than previous works. Also, proposed image binarization method which is appropriate for the given marker helped to improve the marker detection accuracy. We also studied how to optimize the embedded system which is operating complex computations for intelligent functions in a very limited resources while maintaining the drone's present weight and moving speed. In a future works, we are aiming to develop collaborating smarter robots by using the techniques of learning and recognizing targets even in a complex background.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.293-302
• /
• 2014

Radar systems are used in remote sensing mainly as space-borne, airborne and ground-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), scatterometer and Doppler radar. Those systems are composed of expensive equipments and require expertise and professional skills for operation. Because of the limitation in getting experiences of the radar and SAR systems and its operations in ordinary universities and institutions, it is difficult to learn and exercise essential principles of radar hardware which are essential to understand and develop new application fields. To overcome those difficulties, in this paper, we present the construction and experiment of a low-cost educational radar system based on the blueprints of the MIT Cantenna system. The radar system was operated in three modes. Firstly, the velocity of moving cars was measured in Doppler radar mode. Secondly, the range of two moving targets were measured in radar mode with range resolution. Lastly, 2D images were constructed in GB-SAR mode to enhance the azimuth resolution. Additionally, we simulated the SAR raw data to compare Deramp-FFT and ${\omega}-k$ algorithms and to analyze the effect of antenna positional error for SAR focusing. We expect the system can be further developed into a light-weight SAR system onboard a unmanned aerial vehicle by improving the system with higher sampling frequency, I/Q acquisition, and more stable circuit design.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.270-279
• /
• 2005

Under the research project supported by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), we have conducted the development of GPR systems for landmine detection. Until 2005, we have finished development of two prototype GPR systems, namely ALIS (Advanced Landmine Imaging System) and SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar). ALIS is a novel landmine detection sensor system combined with a metal detector and GPR. This is a hand-held equipment, which has a sensor position tracking system, and can visualize the sensor output in real time. In order to achieve the sensor tracking system, ALIS needs only one CCD camera attached on the sensor handle. The CCD image is superimposed with the GPR and metal detector signal, and the detection and identification of buried targets is quite easy and reliable. Field evaluation test of ALIS was conducted in December 2004 in Afghanistan, and we demonstrated that it can detect buried antipersonnel landmines, and can also discriminate metal fragments from landmines. SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar) is a machine mounted sensor system composed of B GPR and a metal detector. The GPR employs an array antenna for advanced signal processing for better subsurface imaging. SAR-GPR combined with synthetic aperture radar algorithm, can suppress clutter and can image buried objects in strongly inhomogeneous material. SAR-GPR is a stepped frequency radar system, whose RF component is a newly developed compact vector network analyzers. The size of the system is 30cm x 30cm x 30 cm, composed from six Vivaldi antennas and three vector network analyzers. The weight of the system is 17 kg, and it can be mounted on a robotic arm on a small unmanned vehicle. The field test of this system was carried out in March 2005 in Japan.