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

壳牌、英国石油公司和挪威国家石油公司都表示有兴趣使用小型垂直起降（VTOL）无人驾驶多旋翼飞行器作为稳定的传感器平台进行气体火炬烟囱检查：这将大大降低检查成本。我们面临的问题是：这个市场有多大？什么是市场动态？我们需要做什么才能在这个市场上赚钱？我们已经开发并成功地测试了六旋翼垂直起落飞行器，适合用作传感器平台。与传统直升机相比，多旋翼平台具有以下优势：·简单的直接驱动螺旋桨：不需要复杂的机械部件来执行传统直升机的循环和集合功能;·尾旋翼中没有浪费的动力，需要停止直升机机身旋转;·较低的振动和噪音水平：对传感器很重要。气体火炬烟囱和高压电力线的监测涉及到在潜在恶劣环境中的传感：·高达35 km的阵风条件;·来自400 kV电力线的大电磁场;·接近气体火炬烟囱中的火焰。在这些应用中，用户需要一个稳定的传感器平台，具有亚米级3D空间位置保持能力。从我们使用我们的六旋翼VTOL（HVTOL）传感器平台进行的实验中，我们有信心保持HVTOL传感器平台的位置和姿态，我们建议调查全球市场的性质以及开发我们的HVTOL传感器的财务和技术可行性平台，用于在战场环境中进行遥感。我们已经开发了原型软件，用于管理一群传感器平台。

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.