Design of UAV for photogrammetric mission in Antarctic area

The history of UAVs is relatively long and many such vehicles are in service for different tasks. They can be used even in environments inhospitable for humans, e.g. because of extreme temperature. Moreover, they can perform a task that is difficult or impossible for a manned aircraft because of its...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Main Authors: Goetzendorf-Grabowski, Tomasz, Rodzewicz, Mirosław
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0954410016656881
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0954410016656881
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0954410016656881
Description
Summary:The history of UAVs is relatively long and many such vehicles are in service for different tasks. They can be used even in environments inhospitable for humans, e.g. because of extreme temperature. Moreover, they can perform a task that is difficult or impossible for a manned aircraft because of its size and usually relatively high airspeed. The photogrammetric tasks belong to this group, especially if we need to take high-resolution pictures during low level flight. The advantages of a small UAV for such mission are more evident if we want to investigate the natural environment, where the wild animals are. The paper presents the small UAV designed for a special task, which is counting of the penguins in Antarctica. Inhabited area, extreme weather conditions, the fearfulness of penguins and the goal of the mission put up certain requirements for the UAV. It had to be a reliable, stable platform, which is able to carry photogrammetric equipment and to perform precise flight to cover all investigated areas. The presented UAV was used on such missions in Antarctica in 2014 and 2015. All mentioned tasks were successfully accomplished.