Environment Monitoring
Environment Monitoring
Environment Monitoring
Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(43), DOI :10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i43/104396, November 2016 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645
Abstract
An unmanned aerial vehicle is an aircraft with its crew removed and replaced by a computer system and radio link. This
paper describes the use of a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle which includes a system for real time video transfer,
temperature sensing and also a smoke detecting unit. The multi-rotor described in this paper is a quad-rotor, which is
capable of flying autonomously and transmitting the collected data in real time along with a video feed. The control of
multi-rotor is done using graphic user interface, video is received and recorded on a laptop and the data is displayed over
another graphic user interface designed on lab-view software. This multi-rotor with the described set of sensory nodes
helped in real time monitoring of environment. The use of these unmanned aerial vehicles can be extended to various other
fields such as data collection, object delivery, surveillance, research etc.
Keywords: Autonomous, Central Node, Environmental Monitoring, GPS, Multi-Rotor, Real-time Video Surveillance, Sensor
Nodes, Safety Inspection, Temperature Sensor, UAV
has been developed in order to perform surveillance, envi- 2.2 II-B. Payload Components
ronment monitoring, smoke detection in case of fire and
• Camera: A 2 mega pixel, 480 tvl camera is placed on
for safety inspection. In order to make the task of the user
board to be used as a real time video transfer mod-
easy, GUI (see Figure 2 part a and part b) based drone con-
ule. This provides a live feed from the flight, making
trol along with a central node data transfer feature has been
surveillance, safety inspections and other video based
incorporated in the flying platform.
operations possible.
• Video telemetry: A video telemetry module transmits
audio video data from UAV to the central data collec-
tion center. This can help in flying the drone manually
even out of line of sight.
• Global positioning system: The use of GPS along
with the flight controller makes this quad-copter an
autonomous flying drone. It provides with the cur-
rent location and heading of the drone and also
helps in performing various tasks based on the
location8.
• Data telemetry R.F. module: All the flight data along
with the data collected from onboard sensors is trans-
mitted to the central data collection centre using R.F.
transceiver for system monitoring.
• Sensors: The drone described contains temperature
Figure 1. Designed UAV. and smoke sensor, whose data is constantly monitored
and transmitted using an open source microcontroller
2.1 II-A. Quadcopter (General Components) platform by arduino.
Quad-copter has a few main components to achieve
flight, which are:
2.3 II-C. Results
• Flight controller: It is an open source arduino board
with magnetometer, accelerometer and barometer to • Graphic User Interface: Since the drone can fly in
provide itself with the necessary feedback values to autonomous mode, there is an open source G.U.I.
sustain flight. available to use this feature that works on both com-
• Brushless direct current motors: These are three phase puters and hand-held devices. Using these G.U.I.
motors, that is, they require a three phase controlled GPS coordinates can be fed to the micro-controller
power supply, which can vary the speed of each of the giving drone a flight path and by adding specific
motor to keep the platform air borne. tasks at particular coordinate, flight plan is created9
• Electronic speed controller: This component is a cur- (see Figure 2).
rent amplification circuit, which takes in power from
a power source and provides it to the motors on the
basis of signal received from the flight controller.
• Radio Transceiver: A radio transceiver module is a
control module used by the user in order to manually
control the quad-copter. This emits radio frequency
PWM signals, which are then converted into input
signals for electronic speed controllers.
• Lithium Polymer Batteries: LiPo batteries provide
great energy density as compared to other battery
power sources and have a high discharge rate, making Figure 2. Graphic User Interface (Hand-held device (left),
them ideal to use in multi-rotor applications. Laptop (right)).
2 Vol 9 (43) | November 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology
Sajal Sharma, Ankit Muley, Rajesh Singh, Anita Gehlot
Vol 9 (43) | November 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3
UAV for Surveillance and Environmental Monitoring
4 Vol 9 (43) | November 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology