3DSensorNode = 3D airborne sensor platform for use in a hostile environment

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Shell, BP and Statoil have all voiced interest in the use of small Vertical Take Off andLanding (VTOL) unmanned multi-rotor air vehicles, to act as stabilised sensor platforms gasflare stack inspections: it would significantly reduce the cost of the inspections. The questionsto be confronted by us are:• how big is this market?• what are the market dynamics?• what we need to do to make money in this market?We have developed and successfully tested a six rotor VTOL air vehicle, suitable for use as asensor platform. Multi-rotor platforms have advantages over the traditional helicopter:• simple direct drive propellers: no complex mechanical parts to perform the traditionalhelicopter cyclic and collective functions;• no wasted power in a tail rotor, needed to stop the helicopter body from rotating;• lower vibration and noise levels: important for sensors.Another application is in high voltage power line inspections. The monitoring of a gas flarestack and of a high voltage power line involves sensing in a potentially hostile environment:• gusty wind conditions up to 35 km;• large electromagnetic fields from 400 kV power lines;• proximity to the flame in a gas flare stack.In these applications, the user needs a stable sensor platform, with sub-metre 3D spatialposition hold capability. From experiments we have performed using our hexrotor VTOL(HVTOL) sensor platform, with a high frame rate high-resolution optic flow based navigationunit, we have confidence in our ability to hold the position and attitude of the HVTOL sensorplatform, to enable precision remote sensing of gas flare stacks and power lines.We propose to investigate the nature of the global market and the financial and technicalfeasibility of developing our HVTOL sensor platforms, for use in remote sensing in hostileenvironments. We have developed prototype software for use in the management of a swarmof sensor platforms.