Infrastructure inspection using a team of unmanned aerial vehicles

这一研究项目的预期成果是使用多个无人机(UAV)进行基础设施检查的实用解决方案。定期检查大型结构物，如桥梁、建筑物和风力涡轮机，对于确保它们的安全和及时修复至关重要，但昂贵、繁琐和危险。为政府和企业提供多功能、可靠、交钥匙的检查解决方案将使需要检查的行业以及依赖这些行业服务的加拿大人受益。现有的基于无人机的检查是使用一架带有视线(LOS)定位信息的无人机向全球导航卫星系统(GNSS)发送的。为了实现更快、更复杂的检查，本研究项目考虑使用同时配备GNSS和超宽带(UWB)传感器的多架无人机。GNSS和UWB是互补的传感器；GNSS提供绝对位置信息，而UWB可以提供无人机之间的相对位置信息。作为这项研究计划的一部分开发的导航、路径规划和地图绘制算法将使传统上难以或不可能进行的检查成为可能，例如检查桥梁底部，或检查密集城市环境中的建筑。这项研究项目的最终目标是通过实验演示使用多架无人机进行稳健可靠的检查。

The expected outcome of this research project is a practical solution to infrastructure inspection using multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Regularly inspecting large structures, such as bridges, buildings, and wind turbines, is critically important to ensure their safety and timely repair, but is expensive, cumbersome, and dangerous. Providing governments and businesses with versatile, reliable, turnkey inspection solutions will benefit the industries needing inspections as well as Canadians who rely on the services of those industries. Existing UAV-based inspections are done using one drone with line-of-sight (LOS) positioning information to a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). To realize faster and more complex inspections, this research project considers the use of multiple UAVs endowed with both GNSS and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) sensors. GNSS and UWB are complementary sensors; GNSS provides absolute position information while UWB can be used to provide relative position information between UAVs. The navigation, path planning, and mapping algorithms developed as part of this research program will enable traditionally difficult or impossible inspections, such as inspection of the underside of a bridge, or the inspection of a building in a dense urban environment. The end goal of this research project is to experimentally demonstrate the robust and reliable inspections using multiple UAVs.