AN ADVANCED SYSTEM FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING BASED ON A AUV PLATFORM

The aim of our work is the development and validation of a UAV-based system for territorial and environmental surveys. The study also includes the development of an architecture for the management, processing, storage and control of all information collected (i.e. data, images, video). The UAV structure is made of carbon fiber and a propulsion system characterized by six brushless electric motors. The main characteristic is an advanced on board avionics that is composed by an attitude and heading reference system for determining the UAV layout (Roll, Pitch and Yaw), and a geo-localization system based on a GPS device for determining longitude, latitude, altitude and the derived variables (i.e. velocity and track). In particular, thanks to a ground GPS master station, it is possible to perform a differential correction DGPS/RTK and obtain a precise and accurate positioning of the UAV. Another important feature of the system relies on the sensors onboard the UAV, which consist of a 24-megapixel camera NEX-7 with interchangeable lenses, a laser scanner Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW with a scanning range of 30 meters, a ADC Lite camera for high quality visible and NIR imaging, and a thermal camera FLIR TAU640. The UAV navigation is managed within a GIS platform (Desktop and Web) developed with free and open source technologies. The system is useful for aerophotogrammetric surveys, the production of terrain and digital elevation model, topographic surveys, land use mapping and all applications in environmental monitoring and evaluation.