8,405 research outputs found
MusA: Using Indoor Positioning and Navigation to Enhance Cultural Experiences in a museum
In recent years there has been a growing interest into the use of multimedia mobile guides in museum environments. Mobile devices have the capabilities to detect the user context and to provide pieces of information suitable to help visitors discovering and following the logical and emotional connections that develop during the visit. In this scenario, location based services (LBS) currently represent an asset, and the choice of the technology to determine users' position, combined with the definition of methods that can effectively convey information, become key issues in the design process. In this work, we present MusA (Museum Assistant), a general framework for the development of multimedia interactive guides for mobile devices. Its main feature is a vision-based indoor positioning system that allows the provision of several LBS, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits according to visitors' personal interest and curiosity. Starting from the thorough description of the system architecture, the article presents the implementation of two mobile guides, developed to respectively address adults and children, and discusses the evaluation of the user experience and the visitors' appreciation of these application
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Drones: Innovative Technology for Use in Precision Pest Management.
Arthropod pest outbreaks are unpredictable and not uniformly distributed within fields. Early outbreak detection and treatment application are inherent to effective pest management, allowing management decisions to be implemented before pests are well-established and crop losses accrue. Pest monitoring is time-consuming and may be hampered by lack of reliable or cost-effective sampling techniques. Thus, we argue that an important research challenge associated with enhanced sustainability of pest management in modern agriculture is developing and promoting improved crop monitoring procedures. Biotic stress, such as herbivory by arthropod pests, elicits physiological defense responses in plants, leading to changes in leaf reflectance. Advanced imaging technologies can detect such changes, and can, therefore, be used as noninvasive crop monitoring methods. Furthermore, novel methods of treatment precision application are required. Both sensing and actuation technologies can be mounted on equipment moving through fields (e.g., irrigation equipment), on (un)manned driving vehicles, and on small drones. In this review, we focus specifically on use of small unmanned aerial robots, or small drones, in agricultural systems. Acquired and processed canopy reflectance data obtained with sensing drones could potentially be transmitted as a digital map to guide a second type of drone, actuation drones, to deliver solutions to the identified pest hotspots, such as precision releases of natural enemies and/or precision-sprays of pesticides. We emphasize how sustainable pest management in 21st-century agriculture will depend heavily on novel technologies, and how this trend will lead to a growing need for multi-disciplinary research collaborations between agronomists, ecologists, software programmers, and engineers
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in environmental biology: A Review
Acquiring information about the environment is a key step during each study in the field of environmental biology at different levels, from an individual species to community and biome. However, obtaining information about the environment is frequently difficult because of, for example, the phenological timing, spatial distribution of a species or limited accessibility of a particular area for the field survey. Moreover, remote sensing technology, which enables the observation of the Earth’s surface and is currently very common in environmental research, has many limitations such as insufficient spatial, spectral and temporal resolution and a high cost of data acquisition. Since the 1990s, researchers have been exploring the potential of different types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for monitoring Earth’s surface. The present study reviews recent scientific literature dealing with the use of UAV in environmental biology. Amongst numerous papers, short communications and conference abstracts, we selected 110 original studies of how UAVs can be used in environmental biology and which organisms can be studied in this manner. Most of these studies concerned the use of UAV to measure the vegetation parameters such as crown height, volume, number of individuals (14 studies) and quantification of the spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation changes (12 studies). UAVs were also frequently applied to count birds and mammals, especially those living in the water. Generally, the analytical part of the present study was divided into following sections: (1) detecting, assessing and predicting threats on vegetation, (2) measuring the biophysical parameters of vegetation, (3) quantifying the dynamics of changes in plants and habitats and (4) population and behaviour studies of animals. At the end, we also synthesised all the information showing, amongst others, the advances in environmental biology because of UAV application. Considering that 33% of studies found and included in this review were published in 2017 and 2018, it is expected that the number and variety of applications of UAVs in environmental biology will increase in the future
Earth Satellite Direct Broadcast and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Direct Readout of directly broadcasted remote sensing data has become the driving force for real-time data processing and global data product distribution. Direct readout methods of aerial and spaceborne platforms carrying spectral imagers and profilers have allowed immediate local monitoring of our environment to support natural and man made hazards, bio-mass changes and urban and rural monitoring. This paper describes NASA\u27s latest direct readout technologies necessary to undertake real-time aerial and spaceborne remote sensing for the next generation environmental satellites and uninhabited aerial vehicles
Fundamental Research on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Support Precision Agriculture in Oil Palm Plantations
Unmanned aerial vehicles carrying multimodal sensors for precision agriculture (PA) applications face adaptation challenges to satisfy reliability, accuracy, and timeliness. Unlike ground platforms, UAV/drones are subjected to additional considerations such as payload, flight time, stabilization, autonomous missions, and external disturbances. For instance, in oil palm plantations (OPP), accruing high resolution images to generate multidimensional maps necessitates lower altitude mission flights with greater stability. This chapter addresses various UAV-based smart farming and PA solutions for OPP including health assessment and disease detection, pest monitoring, yield estimation, creation of virtual plantations, and dynamic Web-mapping. Stabilization of UAVs was discussed as one of the key factors for acquiring high quality aerial images. For this purpose, a case study was presented on stabilizing a fixed-wing Osprey drone crop surveillance that can be adapted as a remote sensing research platform. The objective was to design three controllers (including PID, LQR with full state feedback, and LQR plus observer) to improve the automatic flight mission. Dynamic equations were decoupled into lateral and longitudinal directions, where the longitudinal dynamics were modeled as a fourth order two-inputs-two-outputs system. State variables were defined as velocity, angle of attack, pitch rate, and pitch angle, all assumed to be available to the controller. A special case was considered in which only velocity and pitch rate were measurable. The control objective was to stabilize the system for a velocity step input of 10m/s. The performance of noise effects, model error, and complementary sensitivity was analyzed
Software platform to control squads of unmanned vehicles in realtime
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) applications are becoming more and more researched.
“Drones” (UAVs) were mainly used as a military technology but are now becoming a leisure
and professional activity for many civilian users.
Nowadays UAVs are mostly controlled by the use of a controller that operates in Radio
Control (RC), although this method of communication limits the vehicle’s distance to the line
of sight of the operator. As a need to overcome the line of sight obstacle, cellular networks
provide a mean of connection and as the coverage is increasing they’re a natural solution as
Wi-Fi is not present everywhere.
In order to accomplish this communication between Drone and Operator, there needs to be a
Ground Control Station that provides the user all the tools needed to operate the vehicle.
This project provides a software platform that is able to monitor a squad of drones whilst also
being able to control one at a time. The platform maintains the communication with the
vehicle at all times, and is also be able to receive live-video in order to overcome the beyond
line of sight obstacle. Besides this, the application provides an admin user, with the capability
of overriding a regular user’s control, assigning the user’s drone to itself for controlling
purposes. A public server is used to make the exchanging of messages possible, and to have a
centralized control over drones and their respective user.
Keywords:Os VeĂculos AĂ©reos NĂŁo Tripulados (UAVs) sĂŁo cada vez mais utilizados e desenvolvidos. O
que antes era utilizado principalmente como tecnologia militar, tem-se vindo a tornar uma
profissĂŁo ou um hobbie para muitos civis.
Hoje em dia os UAVs são controlados geralmente através de um comando, que opera em
Radio Controlo (RC) e, embora seja muito utilizado, este método de comunicação limita a
distância do veĂculo Ă linha de visĂŁo do operador. Este Ă© um obstáculo que se tem procurado
ultrapassar e as redes móveis providenciam o meio necessário para tal. Desta forma e como a
cobertura das redes mĂłveis tem aumentado progressivamente Ă© hoje em dia uma alternativa ao
Wi-Fi que nĂŁo tem o mesmo alcance nem a mesma cobertura.
Para que a comunicação entre drone e operador seja viável, tem que existir uma estação de
controlo que forneça ao utilizador todas as ferramentas necessárias para operar o veĂculo.
Este projeto visa a criação de uma plataforma de software que seja capaz de monitorizar uma
esquadra de UAVs e seja também capaz de controlar um aparelho de cada vez. A plataforma
mantĂ©m a comunicação com o veĂculo em todos os momentos, e permite ainda a receção de
vĂdeo ao vivo, superando assim o obstáculo da linha de vista. TambĂ©m Ă© disponibilizada a um
administrador a capacidade de retirar o controlo dos utilizadores aos seus drones alterando
assim o responsável pelo controlo. É também utilizado um servidor público de forma a tornar
a troca de mensagens possĂvel e tambĂ©m por outro lado, controlar de forma centralizada os
drones e os seus respetivos utilizadores.
Palavras-chave: Monitorização, Controlo Remoto, Redes Sem fios, Aplicação, Drone
Drones for Medical Supplies
In this project, the use of current drone technologies is reviewed, optimized, and used to demonstrate the feasibility of medical supply delivery to remote areas of China via UAVs. The design of a biocompatible payload and a modified drone is to accomplish medical supply delivery. The payload and UAV arm mechanism must consider the safety of medical supplies and blood biocompatibility throughout the delivery. This paper discusses the engineering design and experimental results of the final prototype
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