Infrastructure inspection using a team of unmanned aerial vehicles

该研究项目的预期成果是使用多架无人机（UAV）进行基础设施检查的实用解决方案。定期检查大型结构，如桥梁，建筑物和风力涡轮机，对于确保其安全和及时维修至关重要，但昂贵，繁琐且危险。为政府和企业提供多功能、可靠的交钥匙检测解决方案将使需要检测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无人机完成的，该无人机具有到全球导航卫星系统（GNSS）的视线（LOS）定位信息。为了实现更快和更复杂的检查，该研究项目考虑使用多个具有GNSS和超宽带（UWB）传感器的无人机。GNSS和UWB是互补的传感器; GNSS提供绝对位置信息，而UWB可用于提供UAV之间的相对位置信息。作为该研究计划的一部分开发的导航，路径规划和映射算法将使传统上困难或不可能的检查成为可能，例如检查桥梁的底部，或检查密集城市环境中的建筑物。该研究项目的最终目标是通过实验证明使用多架无人机进行强大而可靠的检查。

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.