Toward Computing An Optimal Trajectory For An Environment-Oriented Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Toward Computing An Optimal Trajectory

For An Environment-Oriented UnmannedAerial Vehicle (UAV)

Rodrigo Romero, Jerald Brady, Octavio Lerma, Vladik Kreinovich,

and Craig Tweedie

Joint Annual MeetingNSF Division of Human Resource Development

Goals of This Project (ES Perspective)

To develop a mobile Environmental Science data collection platform- Ensure system design is well documented

and customizable- Near real time collection of data wirelessly- To optimize data collection by maximizing

coverage and minimizing time taken

Joint Annual Meeting NSF Division of Human Resource Development

Why an Unmanned Aircraft System?

- Provides Access to Remotely Sense Regions

- Covers Large Areas Fairly Easily

- Dirty Dull and Dangerous flying

- Can be Utilized Frequently

- Smaller Carbon Footprint when Compared to Other Craft and More Inexpensive


Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - Powered Paraglider


Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)

• Onboard- Flight Telemetry

@ 900 MHz

- Environmental Science Data - @ 2.4 GHz

• Ground Station- Laptop collects

wireless data

- Custom developed C# software displays data


UAV In Flight – UAV Movie 9625Joint Annual Meeting NSF Division of

Human Resource Development

UAV Landing – UAV Movie 9627Joint Annual Meeting NSF Division of

Human Resource Development

Ground Station Software Screenshot


Area Coverage Tool

• Ground Station Software Needs- Visualization of data collection while

flying

- Evaluation of how effective data collection is while flying

- Display an “optimal path” for users to take


Need for an Optimal Trajectory

Complete coverage of a given area with senor readings

• UAVs have limited flight time.

• All sensors do not record at the same speed or at the same rate

• Design a trajectory to account for these issues


Corner Coverage Is Not Complete


Solution – Fishtail Pathing


Sensor Readings and Area Coverage

• Evaluation of Our Technique- While mathematically sound the fishtail

solution is not practical while flying

- Wind and weather conditions for the day can effect flight patterns

- Areas inside the flight zone that have high levels of change need to be flown over more


Very Heterogeneous Areas Require More Flight Coverage


Future Directions

• Designing a Smarter Tool- Improving upon existing design by

including optimal pathing

- Drawing an optimal path based on data already collected

- Testing in field to verify improvement in design


Further Questions?

• Jerald Brady -Graduate Student- [email protected]

• Vladik Kreinovich –CS Researcher- [email protected]

• Craig Tweedie – ES Researcher - [email protected]

• Rodrigo Romero –Presenter- [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]




Toward Computing An Optimal Trajectory For An Environment-Oriented Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

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