UAV/MAV in Intelligent Transportation System Applications
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Remotely sensed data gathered from moving platforms such as Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs) or Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can address the shortcoming encountered with the traditional method of data collection. RPVs and UAVs are a complimentary technology to ground based cameras and other ITS technologies. They can be flown over land and traffic directly to problem areas. In doing so, they fill large ‘coverage holes’, providing a ‘big picture’ of traffic flow over large portions of the road network. They also fit within the recent framework that addresses transportation security and anti-terrorism measures. This framework, published by the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), emphasizes harnessing ‘dual-use’ technologies that meet the needs of our transportation systems as well as for homeland security roles and law enforcement. Furthermore, RPVs and UAVs do not require (a) risking the lives of highly skilled personnel to fly the aircraft especially under hostile or toxic conditions, or (b) a regional airport to house and provide the landing-takeoff-fueling cycles. And potentially, with adequate 3D feature and terrain knowledge, they may be safely flown at much lower altitudes than manned aircraft (such is the case during low cloud ceilings, etc)
Research Objectives/Issues
The research challenges associated with this work are:
- Develop accurate yet inexpensive sensor suites that will allow micro-aerial vehicles to collect data needed for highway infrastructure monitoring and traffic management. The sensors and vehicle designs must have a level of reliability that is precisely quantifiable and considered acceptable for safe operation. Click here for more details.
- Develop operational procedures which ensure that these micro-aerial vehicles are safely and legally operated alongside other passenger carrying aircraft in the national airspace system. Once again, this means that we must be able to demonstrate through a combination of analytical and experimental techniques that our designs have the required reliability for certification. Click here for more details.
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