The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is addressing national security concerns about unauthorized drone operations over 133 military facilities.
This is the first time the agency has instituted airspace restrictions that specifically apply only to unmanned aircraft. The authority, under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) § 99.7 — “Special Security Instructions” — is limited to requests based on national security interests from the Department of Defense and U.S. federal security and intelligence agencies.
The FAA and the Department of Defense have agreed to restrict drone flights up to 400 feet within the lateral boundaries of these 133 facilities. The restrictions are effective as of April 14. There are only a few exceptions that permit drone flights within these restrictions, and they must be coordinated with the individual facility and the FAA.
Operators who violate the airspace restrictions may be subject to enforcement action, including potential civil penalties and criminal charges.
To ensure the public is aware of these restricted locations, the FAA has created an interactive map online. The link to these restrictions is also included in the FAA’s B4UFLY mobile app. The app will be updated within 60 days to reflect these airspace restrictions. Additional information, including frequently asked questions, is available on the FAA’s UAS website.
Section 2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016 also directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a process to accept petitions to prohibit or restrict UAS operations over critical infrastructure and other facilities. The Department of Transportation and the FAA are currently evaluating options to implement such a process.
The FAA is considering additional requests from federal security and intelligence agencies for restrictions using the FAA’s § 99.7 authority as they are received.
Assessing the health of an entire industry is not an easy task, but talking with industry leaders and looking for examples of growth and investment can help. My inquiries have led to discussions with General Atomics, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), Aeryon Labs and SensoFusion. Further viewpoints welcome; see the conclusion of this article.
Discussions included questions around these issues:
The level of maturity of common technologies in use on UAV platforms and systems
The level of maturity of integration of those technologies
A sketch portrait of the industry
Rough numbers or percentage of small players versus large ones
The rate of consolidation of companies: Has it happened, or has it yet to happen?
The financial underpinnings of the market: Does it have legs to go the distance?
If we start with a top-level overview of the industry, we find on the commercial side an industry trying to figure out what it is and who its customers might be. But a well-established military segment is quite mature. A large number of multi-rotor UAV suppliers use simple handheld controllers, all aimed at different applications where they are seeking a niche. The FAA’s release of regulations last year for use of small unmanned vehicle systems (sUAS) has provided a real boost to many more commercial pay-for-service ways these vehicles are now being used.
Multi-rotor UAVs are being put to use in surveying, filmmaking, newsgathering, real estate, crop and pipeline inspection, firefighting, law enforcement, security, search and rescue, and disaster monitoring and relief, just to mention a few applications. Of course, home and hobby flying your own drone in your backyard or open areas has fueled the Chinese DJI drone manufacturers’ growth significantly. While the FAA requires registration of private drones, this has not prevented an increase in commercial pilot reports of UAV incursions into controlled airspace, which appear to be on the increase.
Military Use. Then there are small, medium and large fixed-wing UAVs that appear to have been mostly developed for and used by the military. These include hand-launched surveillance drones for small groups of ground troops; mid-sized, longer range surveillance drones finding applications in commercial inspection; and the bigger GA Predator type aircraft that have become the U.S. military’s search and destroy long-range vehicle, which can carry significant ordinance.
At the top end, UAVs like Global Hawk are used for very high altitude, long-endurance surveillance. Finally, we have target drones like the Northrup Grumman BQM-74E, which earns its living pretending to be an enemy anti-ship cruise missile for the U.S. Navy.
Northrop Grumman’s BQM-74E Target Drone works for the U.S. Navy. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
Commercial Growth. Brian Wynne, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), believes for the commercial segment that, “The UAS industry is primed for incredible growth. UAS are being used in all 50 states by industries like real estate, agriculture and the oil and gas industry for more than 40 different types of business applications, including aerial photography, emergency management and utility inspection.”
More than 500,000 people have registered their UAVs with the FAA in the U.S., and around 20,000 of those are looking to start commercial operations. AUVSI expects more than 100,000 jobs will be created when UAS are integrated into and allowed to operate in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS).
AUVSI analysis of initial UAS applications. (Source: AUVSI)
However, Wynne went on to comment, “This this can only happen if the government puts in place a true, holistic plan for full UAS integration that includes flights over people, as well as beyond line-of-sight operations, access to higher altitudes and platforms above 55 pounds.” AUVSI estimates that in the first decade after full UAS integration into the NAS, these commercial operations could generate more than $82 billion is economic impact.
Even before the FAA’s release of formal regulations (known as Part 107) for use of sUAS in June 2016, more than 5,500 businesses received approval to fly for commercial purposes. AUVSI published a report analyzing these applications: “Commercial UAS Exceptions By the Numbers” provides an overview of the developing commercial UAS industry in the U.S. (See auvsi.org/advocacy/exemptions70)
More than 90 percent of these businesses make less than $1 million in annual revenue and have fewer than 10 employees. This indicates that the engine behind this growth comes from small, independent business.
Nevertheless, big organizations such as CNN are also exploring visual line-of-sight operations over people and safely using UAS for newsgathering in populated areas, as part of the FAA’s Pathfinder Program. PrecisionHawk is testing extended visual line-of-sight operations in rural areas, aimed at precision agriculture, and BNSF Railway is testing beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations in rural and isolated areas for the inspection of rail system infrastructure.
Anti-Drone Systems. More recently, anti-drone systems have joined the party to help defend against unwanted UAV incursions into secure areas already protected by conventional systems like radar, acoustic and optical detection systems. Secure areas include prisons, government buildings/facilities, utility companies (including nuclear power stations) and airports. Sensofusion in Finland is one such company with its Airfence, one of three anti-drone systems tested last November by the FAA at Denver airport. The other systems were supplied by CACI International and Liteye Systems.
The Airfence drone countermeasure platform can automatically detect, locate, track and take over UAV controls as well as locate the operator.
Kaveh Mahdavi, VP of Operations for Sensofusion, thinks that, relatively speaking, the UAV industry is quite mature — what’s still being developed are systems to enable autonomous drone flight. The regulations published so far only address ground-pilot-controlled operations, even though BVLOS testing is progressing well.
On the other hand, the maturity level of anti-drone systems range from proven to embryonic. As many as 50 companies with different technical solutions are vying to succeed in this new segment.
As the UAV segment continues to grow, so does the need for detection and prevention of drone incursions.
These systems employ three basic technologies: radar, optical and RF. Radar and optical need direct line of sight and cannot see over the horizon. That makes them quite short-range, and detection and defense has to be exceptionally quick to prevent unwanted UAV visits. The Airfence RF system is omnidirectional and can even detect UAS preparing for take-off up to six miles away, as demonstrated at the Denver airport.
Thus, intrusion warnings at a geofence distance of 3–4 miles can be generated, and automatic defense/prevention is readily achieved. Some utility companies want to have detection, warnings and control of intruder drones within a mile of their facilities.
Mahdavi described how Airfence uses a library of drone control RF signatures for all known UAS, with new signatures added regularly. The system can detect, intercept and directly take control of the offending vehicle.
During the Denver tests, Airfence initially only detected one third of the target UAVs, but the RF signatures of all targets were acquired.
Using remote engineering updates to the library, by Day Three all were detected. With lower prices, consumer drones are becoming a real threat for these sensitive areas.
The anti-drone industry will no doubt face considerable consolidation over the next couple of years, but Mahdavi feels that Sensofusion is well placed, with significant military and government business funding its growth — “securing the right contracts with the right customers,” as he says — without external investment.
Mature Company. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), makers of the well-known Predator, Reaper and other Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) drone systems, has been in this business for almost 25 years. GA-ASI considers its products to be proven, mature and resilient for the military and government markets that demand them to be so. The company uses in-house products and technology across its range of air and ground systems.
SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian will be commercially certifiable versions of the Predator.
In an effort to align with European customer interest, GA-ASI has been investing in a certifiable version of the Predator-B, recently named SkyGuardian. A derivative for marine applications will be known as the SeaGuardian.
Just as military transport aircraft want to transit through civilian airspace and, in order to do so, have been equipping with certified navigation systems for a number of years, military drone operators want to be compatible with Europe’s high-density commercial flight regulations and to operate within existing air-traffic control corridors.
To arrive in time for these European programs, GA-ASI has invested to get ahead of the market. This has entailed assessment of all on-board and ground components, and has led to upgrades and redesigns where necessary.
“Nevertheless, on existing product lines, there is a large degree of commonality across common systems on multiple platforms,” said Mike Cannon, VP of international programs. Common systems include datalinks, avionics, de-icing systems, and some airframe components.
GA-ASI has developed and integrated its own flight control system in its aircraft for more than 20 years. This has proven to be a key element of the success for the Predator family of products. Because all these systems have been flying for so long, they have become proven elements of their unmanned systems.
Hughes Network Systems Defense and Intelligence and Systems Division (DISD) has been selected by GA-ASI to provide satellite communications on the type-certifiable Predator B remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) system. Working with GA-ASI, Hughes will customize the aircraft’s satellite communications system with modified Hughes HM series modems. The advanced modems will enable a significant increase in data transfer rates, using an enhanced waveform that ensures resilient and secure communications when operating in challenging environments.
Big Players. It is very difficult for new start-up companies to enter this top-level segment of the UAV market. It’s very expensive to develop, demonstrate and prove large airframes, control systems and avionics that customers can rely on. GA-ASI has a unique position alongside major suppliers such as Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Lockheed Martin. However, viable Chinese UAS are beginning to show up in the marketplace, apparently as a result of significant, focused investment.
Nevertheless, with an enviable position as a major supplier of platforms used in multiple applications, with sufficient internal resources to fund initial vehicle developments, GA-ASI has secured a large number of programs with multiple follow-on orders and funding for increasingly more capable derivative UAS. As the company now looks toward the certifiable segment using another internally funded product launch, it is again reinforcing its leadership position in its chosen unmanned market segment.
Small Vehicles. Meanwhile, the world of small unmanned air vehicles (sUAS) continues to thrive, given the release of FAA regulations last year, and the blossoming of many commercial applications using increasingly capable small multi-rotor drones. David Koetsch, CEO and co-founder of Aeryon Labs in Ontario, Canada, thinks the sUAS segment is also quite mature.
Aeryon has been around for more than 10 years, so it has also had time to prove its platforms and internal systems. It also builds its own flight-control hardware and software, affording substantial power savings and longer endurance from automatically managing rotor speeds.
Aeryon Labs provides complete solutions, such as its SkyRanger sUAV partnered with AeryonLive Tools software.AeryonLive Tools software. by Aeryon Labs.
“The quad platform has been around since 1938, so the concept is hardly new; however, over the last decade, Aeryon Labs has substantially matured and ruggedized our platform, the Aeryon SkyRanger sUAS,” Kroetsch said.
The company’s focus is on not only on the UAV platform, but also in supplying complete systems meeting different customer needs. With electro-optical and thermal imaging camera payloads and an onboard georeferencing data collection/processing system, it provides integrated solutions such as AeryonLive Video and Telemetry and AeryonLive Fleet Management using real-time software tools.
For the oil and gas industry, providing compatibility for off-line flight planning software inputs and importing compatible aerial imagery into existing GIS systems is a significant feature. The SkyRanger UAS has benefited from many years of use in the field, and has been designed with modularity and ease of use with snap-on/off parts that make set-up and operating in bad weather a lot easier.
Aeryon’s business is currently 50% military, 25% oil and gas and 25% public safety (such as rapid traffic accident data gathering). Other entrants to these segments might find it easy to put together an unmanned system from parts bought on the internet; what comes considerably harder is proving reliability and interoperability with existing customer systems.
Actually, to develop an industrial-grade UAV takes lots of investment and requires experience gathered over many years. Customers have learned how to differentiate between those dabbling in the market and those with serious capabilities.
Consolidation. Consolidation is inevitable in this market segment — perhaps within the next six months, certainly over the next two years — because there are so many companies trying. Investment for these start-ups is getting harder to find, and it may be too late for most, as the leaders are already well established.
“It’s essential to pick a niche within the increasingly competitive UAV industry,” Kroetsch said. “This is why Aeryon chose early on to focus on enterprise-level offerings in commercial, public safety and military.”
Recall what happened to 3D Robotics. Even though 3D Robotics raised many millions in funding, its Solo quadrotor fell from grace, perhaps due to continuing design issues and being higher priced compared to rapidly declining DJI Phantom 3 prices. “Competition and consolidation look to be very similar to that which happened with digital cameras,” Kroetsch said.
For Aeryon, being Canadian appears to be an advantage, as U.S. export regulations seem to be handicapping U.S. drone manufacturers. Aeryon sells in 35–40 countries because its product does not contain military-restricted components and only uses commercial parts. Canadian regulations for drone system exports do not prohibit worldwide sales for such products, while U.S. regulations can be difficult for U.S. suppliers to negotiate.
Nevertheless, unexpected hurdles to adoption still exist, such as company policies related to health and safety, union restrictions, and potential internal clashes on responsibility for implementation. But with 100% test, and a hardened design for tough environments, Aeryon sees itself well positioned to grow in its chosen industrial sector.
Conclusion
This has been a brief overview of the UAV/UAS industry — a first try, if you will. Nevertheless, it’s a summary that we can use as a benchmark for where we are right now, and a departure point for future growth.
We have quite mature capability in both large and small UAS, with integration focused on flight-control and navigation systems. The larger UAS enjoy a relatively mature market with established suppliers of lower numbers of expensive systems, while the sUAS segment is larger, younger and less expensive, with fewer barriers to entry.
Nevertheless, the mature industrial segments with harder, more integrated requirements make it difficult for new entrants to climb the steps into more complex commercial operations. The recreational segment is dominated by DJI, and it remains strong with well-performing, easy-to-operate drones.
Because of the ease of access to smaller drones, despite FAA and other countries’ regulations, people seem to want to penetrate secure facilities like utilities, airports, military bases, prisons and other government locations. Therefore, anti-drone systems using optical, radar and RF are becoming available, and facilities are being equipped to prevent unwanted drone incursions.
AUVSI XPONENTIAL. In May, I’ll be roving the show floor at the XPONENTIAL show in Dallas, and I welcome your added insight, from all corners of the UAV industry. We will continue this assessment in an upcoming
Professional OEM + UAV newsletter column (subscribe free at gpsworld.com/subscribe).
A speaker from UAV manufacturer senseFly will appear on the free April 20 webinar, “From Flying Drones to Doing Business,” addressing ease of use for the user in business applications. The Switzerland-based company specializes in professional-grade UAVs for survey, mapping, precision agriculture and asset inspection. The company recently became the first drone operator to be granted anytime Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) authorization in Switzerland.
Photo: senseFly
The webinar will cover a broad range of issues concerning sensor integration aboard a flying platform, and in particular their use for commercial purposes. Webinar attendees will have the opportunity to ask direct questions of the speakers, both upon registration and during the live event. Register free at env-gpsworld-integration.kinsta.cloud/webinar.
The senseFly speaker (name to be announced soon) will join a panel that consists of:
Gustavo Lopez, Product manager GNSS solutions for UAV applications, Septentrio; Jan Leyssens , Managing Director, Sales & Business Development, Airobot; and Zak Kassas, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Riverside.
Further speaker details:
Lopez: Septentrio is an leader in bringing high end GNSS technology when accuracy and reliability matters. Gustavo Lopez is Product manager for UAS applications at Septentrio. Since joining the company, he has held a number of R&D and product management roles. Gustavo holds a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from Monterrey’s Technology Institute and an MBA from United Business Institute
Leyssens: Airobot specializes in meeting safety demands for UAVs by providing intelligent safety components, specifically designed for drones, and in facilitating end-users’ success in completing their missions. Leyssens has Masters’ degrees in avionics, electrical engineering and business administration.
Kassas will present the research material from his cover story in the April issue of GPS World: “LTE Steers UAV — No GPS? No Problem! Signals of Opportunity Work in Challenged Environments.” Long-term evolution cellular can be exploited for accurate and resilient autonomous vehicle navigation in the absence of clear GNSS signals. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that GPS-like performance can be achieved in the absence of GPS signals when cellular pseudoranges aid an inertial navigation system.
Sierra Wireless, a provider of fully integrated device-to-cloud solutions for the Internet of Things, has completed the acquisition of GlobalTop Technology’s GNSS embedded module business for $3.2 million.
GlobalTop’s GNSS embedded module portfolio will become part of the Sierra Wireless OEM Solutions product line, and the GNSS staff from GlobalTop will join Sierra Wireless.
GlobalTop’s GNSS products generated $5 million in revenue in the last 12 months, and the business is break-even, Sierra Wireless said.
“Building on our portfolio of cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, we will have additional products to offer to our customers in markets where positioning data is critical, including high-value asset tracking, telematics, drones and automotive,” said Dan Schieler, senior vice president and general manager of OEM Solutions for Sierra Wireless.
The TitanX1 GNSS antenna.
GlobalTop GNSS modules include the Firefly, Ivory and Hummingbird series (GNSS standalone), and the Titan and Ladybird (GNSS with antenna). GlobalTop launched the Titan X1 module in February.
“With a wide array of modules and established sales channels, as well as a proven engineering team, we believe that the GlobalTop GNSS business is an important addition to Sierra Wireless,” Schieler said.
Long-term evolution (LTE) cellular signals can be exploited for accurate and resilient autonomous vehicle navigation in the absence of clear GNSS signals. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that GPS-like performance can be achieved in the absence of GPS signals when cellular pseudoranges aid an inertial navigation system.
By Zaher M. Kassas, Joshua J. Morales, Kimia Shamaei, and Joe Khalife
Navigation systems onboard today’s vehicles mainly rely on integrating global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers with an inertial navigation system (INS). As vehicles approach full autonomy, requirements on the accuracy and resiliency of the vehicle’s navigation system become ever more stringent.
Besides the known limitations of GNSS indoors and in deep urban canyons, recent cyber attacks on GNSS signals (jamming and spoofing) are exposing an alarming vulnerability, necessitating alternative and complementary navigation systems when GNSS signals become unavailable or untrustworthy.
When GNSS signals become unavailable, the errors of the INS’s navigation solution diverge, and the divergence rate is dependent on the quality of the inertial measurement unit (IMU). Such diverging errors compromise the required safe and efficient operation of autonomous vehicles (AVs).
Two conflicting considerations arise in the design of an AV’s integrated navigation system: high accuracy and low size, weight, power and cost (SWaP- C). Current trends to supplement an autonomous vehicle’s navigation system in the inevitable event when GNSS signals become unusable are traditionally sensor-based, such as cameras and lasers.
However, such sensors could violate SWaP-C constraints and may not function properly all the time, in all weather conditions. Recently, research in navigation via signals of opportunity (SOPs) has revealed their potential as an attractive source for navigation in GNSS-challenged environments. SOPs are ambient radio signals, which are not intended as positioning, navigation and timing sources: cellular, Wi-Fi, AM/FM, digital television, Iridium satellites and so on. SOPs are practically free to use and could alleviate the need for expensive and bulky aiding sensors.
Among different SOPs, cellular signals are particularly attractive due to their inherent characteristics:
Abundance: Cellular signals base transceiver stations (BTSs) are plentiful.
Geometric diversity: The cellular system configuration by construction yields favorable BTS geometry, unlike certain terrestrial SOPs such as digital television, which tend to be co-located.
Large bandwidth: Cellular signals have a bandwidth up to 20 MHz, yielding accurate time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation.
High received power: The received carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0) from nearby cellular BTSs is commonly tens of dBs higher when compared to GNSS signals.
While cellular SOPs are lucrative to exploit for navigation purposes, a number of challenges must be first addressed, since such signals were never intended for navigation purposes. TABLE 1 compares GNSS space vehicles (SVs) and cellular BTSs with respect to relevant navigation attributes. Unlike GNSS SVs whose positions and clock errors are transmitted to the receiver in the navigation message, cellular BTSs do not transmit such information. Therefore, the receiver must either estimate these quantities in a stand-alone fashion or have access to a database (cloud-hosted) that is crowdsourcing this information from multiple nearby receivers.
The first strategy is analogous to the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem in robotics, while the second strategy could be achieved by deploying multiple receivers, whether vehicle-mounted or affixed on dedicated stations.
This article discusses relevant cellular code division multiple access (CDMA) and long-term evolution (LTE) signals that could be exploited for navigation. The article also presents a specialized software-defined receiver (SDR) called Multichannel Adaptive TRansceiver Information eXtractor (MATRIX), developed at the Autonomous Systems Perception, Intelligence, and Navigation (ASPIN) Laboratory at the University of California, Riverside. MATRIX is capable of producing pseudorange observables to cellular CDMA and LTE BTSs. We also present a radio SLAM approach for AV navigation via a tightly-coupled cellular-aided INS framework. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) navigating with cellular signals in the absence of GNSS signals.
CDMA SIGNALS
CDMA is at the heart of third-generation (3G) wireless communication systems, which use orthogonal and maximal-length pseudorandom noise (PN) sequences to enable multiplexing over the same channel. The sequences transmitted on the forward link channel, from BTS to receiver, are known. By correlating the received cellular CDMA signal with a locally generated PN sequence, the receiver can estimate the TOA and produce a pseudorange measurement. In a cellular CDMA communication system, 64 logical channels are multiplexed on the forward link channel: a pilot channel, a sync channel, seven paging channels, and 55 traffic channels.
The receiver uses the pilot signal to detect the presence of a CDMA signal and synchronize its locally-generated short code. The sync and paging channels are used to provide time and frame synchronization to enable the receiver to register in the network. All forward-link signals are spread at 1.2288 MHz by a 32,768-chip PN sequence called the short code. To distinguish the received data from different BTSs, each station uses a shifted version of the short code. This shift, known as the pilot offset, is unique for each sector of each BTS and is an integer multiple of 64 chips; hence, a total of 512 pilot offsets can be realized.
The goal of a cellular CDMA navigation receiver is to acquire and track the signal parameters, namely the code phase and the carrier phase. To this end, such a receiver consists of three main stages: signal acquisition, signal tracking and message decoding. The pilot channel is used for signal acquisition and tracking. In fact, the pilot channel is dataless: only the short code is transmitted. This enables longer integration periods. A search in time and frequency in the acquisition stage obtains a coarse estimate of the TOA and the Doppler frequency.
Next, these parameters are tracked and their estimates are refined via tracking loops. Similar to a GPS receiver, a phase-locked loop (PLL) and a carrier-aided delay-locked loop (DLL) are used to track the carrier and code phase, respectively. Finally, the sync and paging channels are decoded for timing and data association purposes. FIGURE 1 illustrates the three stages of the cellular CDMA module of the MATRIX SDR, implemented as LabVIEW virtual instruments (VIs), and the front panel corresponding to each stage.
LTE SIGNALS
LTE has become the prominent standard for fourth-generation (4G) communication systems. Its multiple-input, multiple-output capabilities allow higher data rates compared to previous wireless standards. The high bandwidth and ubiquity of LTE networks make LTE signals attractive for navigation. In LTE Release 9, a broadcast positioning reference signal (PRS) was introduced to enable network-based positioning capabilities within the LTE protocol.
However, PRS-based positioning suffers from a number of drawbacks:
The user’s privacy is compromised since the user’s location is revealed to the network.
Localization services are limited only to paying subscribers and from a particular cellular provider.
Ambient LTE signals transmitted by other cellular providers are not exploited.
Additional bandwidth is required to accommodate the PRS, which caused the majority of cellular providers to choose not to transmit the PRS in favor of dedicating more bandwidth for traffic channels.
To circumvent these drawbacks, user equipment-(UE)-based positioning approaches, which exploit the existing reference signals in the transmitted LTE signals, have been explored.
LTE Frame Structure. LTE uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to transmit signals. In OFDM, the transmitted symbols are first parallelized into groups of length Nr. Then, to provide a guard band, the resulting signal is zero-padded to a length Nc, which is set to be greater than Nr. Finally, an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) is taken, and the last Lcp elements are repeated at the beginning. TABLE 2 shows the possible values for Nr and Nc in an LTE system.
The OFDM signals are arranged into blocks called frames. A frame is composed of 10 ms data, which is divided into either 20 slots or 10 subframes with duration of 0.5 ms or 1 ms, respectively. A slot can be decomposed into multiple resource grids and each resource grid has numerous resource blocks. Then, a resource block is broken down into the smallest elements of the frame, namely resource elements. The frequency and time indices of a resource element are called subcarrier and symbol, respectively.
LTE Reference Signals
There are three possible reference sequences in a received LTE signal that can be exploited for navigation.
Primary synchronization signal (PSS). The PSS is transmitted in symbol 7 of slots 0 and 10 of each frame. This signal, which is transmitted on the middle 62 subcarriers, provides symbol timing to the UE. The PSS is expressible in only three different orthogonal sequences, each of which represents a BTS’s (also known as eNodeB) sector ID. This presents two main drawbacks: the received signal is highly affected by interference from neighboring eNodeBs with the same PSS sequences, and the UE can only simultaneously track a maximum of three eNodeBs, which is not desirable in an environment comprising more than three eNodeBs.
Secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The SSS is transmitted in symbol 6 of slot 0 or 10 of each frame. This signal, which is transmitted on the middle 62 subcarriers, provides frame timing to the user equipment. The SSS is expressible in only 168 different sequences, each of which represents the cell group identifier; therefore, it does not suffer from the aforementioned drawbacks of the PSS. The transmission bandwidth of the SSS is 930 KHz, which is slightly less than the GPS C/A code bandwidth (1.023 MHz). Therefore, navigation with SSS provides comparable results to GPS: low-cost and relatively precise pseudorange information using conventional PLLs and DLLs in an environment without multipath, but low TOA accuracy in a multipath environment.
Cell-specific reference signal (CRS). The CRS is mainly transmitted to estimate the channel between the eNodeB and the UE. Therefore, it is scattered in both frequency and time and is transmitted from all transmitting antennas. The CRS is known to provide better accuracy in estimating the TOA in a multipath environment due to its higher transmission bandwidth. Since the CRS is scattered across the LTE bandwidth, it is not possible to track the TOA from the CRS using conventional low-complexity DLLs. Several methods can be used to estimate the channel parameters, including the TOA: multiple signal classification (MUSIC), estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) and space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithms.
LTE Receiver Structure
The LTE navigation receiver exploits SSS, PSS and CRS, and consists of four stages.
Acquisition. In this step, the received signal is correlated with the locally generated PSS and SSS signals to obtain the frame start time estimate, Doppler frequency estimate and the eNodeB’s cell ID.
System information extraction. In LTE systems, the bandwidth can be assigned to different values. The actual value of the bandwidth is provided to the UE by the eNodeB in a block called master information block (MIB). When user equipment enters an LTE network, it starts receiving signals with the lowest possible bandwidth. After obtaining the frame start time, it is possible to convert the LTE signals into frame structure by executing the steps discussed in the LTE Frame Structure section in reverse order. Then, the UE decodes the MIB and obtains the actual bandwidth. The UE can then increase the sampling rate to as high as the signal bandwidth.
Due to the near-far effect on the PSS signal, it is not possible to acquire all the available eNodeBs in the environment. Each eNodeB provides the list of its neighboring cell IDs to the UE in the system information block (SIB). After obtaining the frame start time and the actual transmission bandwidth, the UE can decode the SIB to obtain the neighboring cell IDs.
Tracking. The receiver starts tracking the SSS using components of the tracking loop: a frequency-locked loop (FLL)-assisted PLL to track the carrier phase and a carrier-aided DLL to track the code phase.
Timing information extraction. To overcome the error due to multipath in tracking the SSS, the CRS is used. For this purpose, by knowing the CRS sequence and the received signal, the channel frequency response is first estimated. Then, the channel impulse response is obtained by taking an IFFT of the channel frequency response. Finally, the first peak of the channel impulse response is detected, which represents the line-of-sight TOA.
FIGURE 2 illustrates the block diagram of the LTE module of the MATRIX SDR and the corresponding LabVIEW VIs.
CELLULAR-AIDED INERTIAL NAVIGATION
To correct INS errors using cellular pseudoranges, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) framework similar to a traditional tightly coupled GNSS-aided INS integration strategy is adopted, with the added complexity that the cellular BTSs’ states (position and clock error states) are simultaneously estimated alongside the navigating vehicle’s states (position, velocity, attitude, IMU measurement error states and receiver clock error states). This framework is composed of two modes.
Mapping Mode. The EKF produces estimates and associated estimation error covariances of both the navigating vehicle and the cellular BTSs’ states (augmented in x) using both GNSS SV and cellular BTS pseudoranges. Between aiding corrections, the EKF produces the state prediction x^– and prediction error covariance P– using INS model and receiver and cellular BTS clocks models. When an aiding source is available, either a GNSS SV or cellular BTS pseudorange, the EKF produces a state estimate update x^+ and associated estimation error covariance P+.
SLAM Mode. The cellular-aided INS framework enters a SLAM mode when GNSS pseudoranges become unavailable. In this mode, INS errors are corrected using cellular BTS pseudoranges and the cellular BTSs’ state estimates provided from the mapping mode. As the autonomous vehicle navigates, it simultaneously continues to refine the BTSs’ state estimates. FIGURE 3 illustrates a high-level diagram of the cellular-aided INS framework.
SIMULATION RESULTS
To evaluate the performance of this cellular-aided INS framework presented, simulations were conducted of a UAV equipped with the MATRIX SDR, navigating in downtown Los Angeles, while exploiting ambient cellular signals. Two navigation systems were employed to estimate the trajectory of the UAV: a traditional tightly-coupled GPS-aided INS with a tactical-grade IMU; and the cellular-aided INS discussed here with a consumer-grade IMU.
A simulator generated the true trajectory of the UAV and clock error states of the UAV-mounted receiver, the cellular BTSs’ clock error states, noise-corrupted IMU measurements of specific force and angular rates and noise-corrupted pseudoranges to multiple cellular BTSs and GPS SVs.
The IMU signal generator models a triad gyroscope and a triad accelerometer, each with time-evolving biases that provided sampled data at 100 Hz. GPS L1 C/A pseudoranges were generated at 1 Hz using SV orbits produced from receiver independent exchange files downloaded Oct. 22, 2016, from a continuously operating reference station server. The GPS L1 C/A pseudoranges were set to be available for only the first 100 seconds of the 200-second simulation. Cellular pseudoranges were generated at 5 Hz to four BTS locations, which were surveyed from real tower positions in downtown Los Angeles.
The UAV’s true trajectory included a straight segment followed by two banked orbits in the vicinity of the four cellular BTSs, shown in FIGURE 4(a). The resulting EKF estimation errors and corresponding three standard deviation bounds for the north and east position of the UAV are plotted in FIGURE 4(b). The navigation solution from using the cellular-aided INS and navigation solution from using only an INS during the 100 seconds GPS pseudoranges were unavailable appear in FIGURE 4(c). The final BTS estimated position and corresponding 95th percentile estimation uncertainty ellipse is shown in FIGURE 4(d).
We can conclude that when GPS pseudoranges become unavailable at 100 seconds, the estimation errors associated with the traditional GPS-aided INS integration strategy begin to diverge, as expected, whereas the errors associated with the cellular-aided INS are bounded within this 100-second duration of GPS unavailability. Second, when GPS was still available during the first 100 seconds, the cellular-aided INS with a consumer-grade IMU almost always produced lower estimation error uncertainties when compared to the traditional GPS-aided INS integration strategy with a tactical-grade IMU.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
To evaluate the standalone LTE navigation performance, two field tests were conducted with real LTE signals in semi-urban and urban environments. In both tests, a ground vehicle was equipped with LTE and GPS antennas and universal software radio peripherals (USRPs). LTE signals were simultaneously downmixed and synchronously sampled via a dual-channel USRP driven by a GPS-disciplined oscillator. The GPS navigation solution served as ground truth. FIGURE 5(a) shows experimental results for a CRS-based and an SSS-based receiver in a semi-urban environment with moderate multipath. The table, FIGURE 5(b), demonstrates the importance of exploiting CRS to alleviate multipath effects. Figure 5(b) shows the experimental results for a CRS-based receiver in an urban environment with severe multipath.
To evaluate the performance of cellular-aided inertial navigation, a field test was conducted with real cellular signals and an IMU-equipped UAV. The UAV was equipped with three antennas to acquire and track:
GPS signals
LTE signals from nearby eNodeBs
cellular CDMA signals from nearby BTSs.
Samples of the received signals were stored for off-line post-processing. The LTE and CDMA signals were processed by the MATRIX SDR. FIGURE 6 depicts the experimental hardware setup.
Experimental results are presented for two scenarios: the cellular-aided INS described in this article, and for comparative analysis, a traditional GPS-aided INS using the UAV’s IMU. The true trajectory traversed by the UAV is plotted in the opening figure (b)-(c), which consists of a GPS unavailability run of 50 seconds, starting at a location marked by the red arrow. The north-east root mean squared errors (RMSE) of the GPS-aided INS’s navigation solution after GPS became unavailable was more than 100 meters.
The UAV also estimated its trajectory using the cellular-aided INS framework using signals from the two eNodeBs and three cellular BTSs illustrated in opening figure (a) to aid its onboard INSs. The north-east RMSEs of the UAV’s trajectory after GPS became unavailable was 4.68 meters with a final error of 4.92 meters.
TABLE 3 summarizes the UAV’s RMSEs and final errors.
CONCLUSION
Cellular signals can be exploited to navigate in the absence of GNSS signals. Experimental results demonstrated a UAV navigating with a cellular-aided INS using two LTE eNodeBs and three cellular CDMA BTSs achieving GPS-like performance in the absence of GNSS signals. This article is based on IEEE/ION PLANS, ION GNSS+ and ION ITM papers by the authors; see online version.
This work is supported by grants from the Office Naval Research (ONR) under Grant N00014-16-1-2305 and the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant 1566240.
MANUFACTURERS
Cellular antennas used were consumer-grade 800/1900-MHz cellular omnidirectional antennas. The UAV and GPS antenna used were DJI with the A3 flight controller. The cellular signals were simultaneously down-mixed and synchronously sampled via two Ettus E-312 USRPs tuned to 1955 MHz (AT&T) and 882.75 MHz (Verizon) carrier frequencies.
JOSHUA J. MORALES is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Riverside and a member of the Autonomous Systems Perception, Intelligence, and Navigation (ASPIN) laboratory.
KIMIA SHAMAEI is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Riverside and a member of the ASPIN Laboratory.
JOE KHALIFE is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Riverside and a member of the ASPIN Laboratory.
ZAHER (ZAK) M. KASSAS is an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside and director of the ASPIN Laboratory. He received a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Do anything interesting today? Specifically, did you do something interesting involving positioning, navigation or timing (PNT)?
GPS World is always on the look-out for case studies — stories of how you, our readers, used PNT or GNSS equipment, or applied related technologies, to solve a problem. Each month in our Market Watch and Updates sections, I try to include a few case studies. We always provide news about new products or company and industry announcements, but it’s the case studies that often “bring it home” to our readers.
We’ve taken a look at thermal mapping at the South Pole and a one-man survey project on a remote tropical island, using both a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and a receiver on a pole. We also share how lifeguards can use UAVs to save people who are drowning. Previously, we discussed how avalanches were being mapped and how a state transportation department was making the move to tablets for 3D mapping. We showed how UAVs could speed cell-tower recovery after floods.
So, tell us what you’re up to. We want to hear about it. With pictures. Email me at [email protected].
A: For UAV simulation, a record-and-playback system is obviously less applicable, as the user is more interested in defining system operability within a range of parameters rather than in any generalized case. A high-dynamic user performance is required, but users should look at a simulator’s static performance first to ensure high accuracy. Interference, both intentional and unintentional, is the main challenge. At least two RF outputs are required to facilitate development of differential and RTK algorithms and to simulate multiple antennas.
A: Safety and compliance to existing regulations are the key factors for UAVs. To evaluate them in harsh environments, the GNSS simulator should push the UAV’s navigation system to the limits. The simulator should allow for creation of complex scenarios with drastic changes in satellite constellations, signal/frequency diversity and signal quality. The simulation of multipath signals and interference should account for relative dynamics between the UAV and the environment. Importing six-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) complex trajectories is another important factor to consider.
A: The UAS simulator must support realistic flight profiles with the ability to integrate autopilot controllers. Affordable simulators need to support closed-loop simulation so the guidance logic will have an impact on the simulated signals. Another critical aspect to consider is the ability to integrate the threat signals enabling counter-UAS testing. We must have a simulation capable of supporting all signals present in the environment — PNT, threats and communications.
Assessing the health of an entire industry is not an easy task, but talking with industry leaders and looking for examples of growth and investment can help.
Our “State of the UAS/UAV Industry” inquiries have lead to discussions with General Atomics, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), Aeryon Labs and SensoFusion. SensoFusion might be a little well less known that the others, but we felt the need to include the views of an anti-drone system supplier to counterbalance the industry’s perception of itself.
Discussions included questions around the following issues:
The level of maturity of common technologies in use on UAV platforms and systems?
The level of maturity of integration of those technologies?
A sketch portrait of the industry?
Rough numbers or percentage of small players versus large ones?
The rate of consolidation of companies (has it happened or has it yet to happen?)
The financial underpinnings of the market — does it have real “legs” or will it be like the first Internet boom/bust?
If we start with a top-level overview of the industry, as a whole we find that on the commercial side it’s an industry trying to figure out what it is and who its customers might be. But there is also a well-established military part of the industry that is quite mature. A large number of multi-rotor UAV suppliers use simple handheld controllers, all aimed at different applications where they are seeking a niche. The FAA’s release of regulations last year for use of small unmanned vehicle systems (sUAS) has provided a real boost to many more commercial pay-for-service ways these vehicles are now being used.
Multi-rotor UAVs are being put to use in surveying, filmmaking, newsgathering, real estate, crop and pipeline inspection, firefighting, law enforcement, security, search and rescue, and disaster monitoring and relief, just to mention a few applications. And, of course, home/hobby flying your own drone in your backyard or open areas has fueled the Chinese DJI drone manufacturers’ growth significantly. While the FAA requires registration of these private drones, it has not prevented an increase in commercial passenger aircraft pilot reports of UAV incursions into controlled airspace, which appear to be on the increase.
Then there are small, medium and large fixed-wing UAVs that appear to have been mostly developed for and used by the military. Hand-launched surveillance drones for small groups of ground troops; mid-sized, longer range surveillance drones finding applications in commercial inspection; and the bigger General Atomics Predator type aircraft which have become the U.S. military’s search and destroy long-range vehicle, which can carry significant ordinance. At the top end, we have UAVs like Global Hawk which are used for very high altitude, long-endurance surveillance. Not forgetting target drones like the Northrup Grumman BQM-74E, which earns its living pretending to be an enemy anti-ship cruise missile for the U.S. Navy.
Global Hawk (Photo: USAF)
BQM-74E target drone.
Commercial Growth Anticipated
Brian Wynne, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), believes for the commercial segment that, “The UAS industry is primed for incredible growth. UAS are being used in all 50 states by industries like real estate, agriculture and the oil and gas industry for more than 40 different types of business applications, including aerial photography, emergency management and utility inspection.”
More than 500,000 people have registered their UAVs with the FAA in the U.S., and around 20,000 of those are looking to start commercial operations. AUVSI expects more than 100,000 jobs will be created when UAS are integrated into and allowed to operate in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS).
However, Wynne went on to comment, “This this can only happen if the government puts in place a true, holistic plan for full UAS integration that includes flights over people, as well as beyond line-of-sight operations, access to higher altitudes and platforms above 55 pounds.” AUVSI estimates that in the first decade after full UAS integration into the NAS, these commercial operations could generate more than $82 billion is economic impact.
Even before the FAA’s release of formal regulations (known as Part 107) for use of sUAS in June last year, more than 5,500 businesses received approval to fly for commercial purposes. AUVSI published a report that analyzed these applications — the analysis provides an overview of the developing commercial UAS industry in the U.S.
AUVSI analysis of initial UAS applications.
Over 90 percent of these businesses make less than $1 million in annual revenue and have fewer than 10 employees. This also provides an indication that the engine behind this growth comes from small, independent business.
Nevertheless, big organizations such as CNN are also exploring visual line-of-sight operations over people and safely using UAS for newsgathering in populated areas. PrecisionHawk is testing extended visual line-of-sight operations in rural areas, aimed at precision agriculture, and BNSF Railway is testing beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations, in rural and isolated areas, for the inspection of rail system infrastructure. These tests are being conducted as part of the FAA’s Pathfinder Program.
More recently, anti-drone systems have joined the party to help defend against unwanted UAV incursions into secure areas already protected by conventional systems like radar, acoustic and optical detection systems. Secure areas include such places as prisons, government buildings/facilities, utility companies (including nuclear power stations) and airports. Sensofusion in Finland is one such company, with its Airfence anti-drone system — one of three anti-drone systems tested last November by the FAA at Denver airport. The other systems were supplied by CACI International and Liteye Systems.
Kaveh Mahdavi, VP of Operations for Sensofusion, thinks that, relatively speaking, the UAV industry is quite mature — what’s still being developed are systems to enable autonomous drone flight. The regulations published so far only address ground-pilot-controlled operations, even though BVLOS testing is progressing well.
Anti-Drone Systems
On the other hand, the maturity level of anti-drone systems range from proven to embryonic. As many as 50 companies with different technical solutions are vying to succeed in this new segment. But as the UAV segment continues to grow, so does the need for detection and prevention of drone incursions.
These systems employ three basic technologies: radar, optical and RF. Radar and optical need direct line of sight and cannot see “over the horizon.” That makes them quite short-range, and detection and defense has to be exceptionally quick to prevent unwanted UAV flying visits. Whereas, the Airfence RF system is omnidirectional and can even detect UAS preparing for take off up to six miles away, as demonstrated at the Denver airport.
So, intrusion warnings at a geo-fence distance of, say, 3-4 miles can be generated, and automatic defense/prevention is readily achieved. For instance, some utility companies want to have detection, warnings and control of intruder drones within a mile of their facilities.
Mahdavi went on to describe how Airfence uses a library of drone control RF signatures for all known UAS, with new signatures being added on a regular basis. They can detect, intercept and directly take control of the offending vehicle. During the Denver tests, Airfence initially only detected one third of the target UAVs, but the RF signatures of all targets were acquired. Then, using remote engineering updates to the library, by day three all were detected. With lower prices, consumer drones are becoming a real threat for these sensitive areas.
The anti-drone industry will no doubt face considerable consolidation over the next couple of years, but Mahdavi feels that Sensofusion is well placed with significant military and government business, which is funding their growth without external investment. “Securing the right contracts with the right customers,” as he says, has well positioned the company for now and the future.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), makers of the well-known Predator, Reaper and other Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) drone systems, has been in this business for almost 25 years. GA considers its products to be proven, mature and resilient for the military and government markets that demand them to be so. The company uses “best of breed” in-house products and technology across the range of air and ground systems that make up its highly successful drone systems.
In an effort to align with European customer interest, GA-ASI has been investing in a “certifiable” version of the Predator-B, recently named SkyGuardian. A derivative for marine applications will be known as the SeaGuardian.
SeaGuardian.
SkyGuardian.
Just as military transport aircraft want to transit through civilian airspace and, in order to do so, have been equipping with certified navigation systems for a number of years, military drone operators want to be compatible with Europe’s high-density commercial flight regulations and to operate within existing air-traffic control corridors. To arrive in time for these European programs, GA-ASI has invested to get ahead of the market. This has entailed assessment of all on-board and ground components, and has led to upgrades and re-designs where necessary.
“Nevertheless, on existing product lines, there is a large degree of commonality across common systems on multiple platforms,” said Mike Cannon, VP of international programs. Common systems include datalinks, power avionics, de-icing systems, and some airframe components.
GA-ASI has developed and integrated its own flight control system in its aircraft for more than 20 years. This has proven to be a key element of the success for the Predator family of products. Because all these systems have been flying for so long, they have been proven and become very reliable, dependable elements of the company’s unmanned systems.
Having said that, Hughes Network Systems has just announced that its Defense and Intelligence and Systems Division (DISD) has been selected by GA-ASI to provide satellite communications on the “Type-Certifiable” Predator B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) system. Working with GA-ASI, Hughes will customize the aircraft’s satellite communications system with modified Hughes HM series modems. The advanced modems will enable a significant increase in data transfer rates, using an enhanced waveform that ensures resilient and secure communications when operating in challenging environments.
So, its very difficult for new start-up companies to enter this top level segment of the UAV market — its very expensive to develop, demonstrate and prove large airframes, control systems and avionics that customers can rely on. GA-ASI has a unique position alongside major suppliers such as Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and Lockheed Martin — however, Chinese UAS are beginning to show up in the marketplace, apparently as a result of significant, focused investment.
Nevertheless, with an enviable position as a major supplier of platforms used in multiple applications, with sufficient internal resources to fund their initial vehicle developments, GA-ASI has secured a large number of programs with multiple follow-on orders and funding for increasingly more capable derivative UAS. As the company now looks towards the “certifiable” segment using another internally funded product launch, it is again reinforcing its leadership position in its chosen unmanned market segment.
Small UAS by Aeryon Labs
Meanwhile, the world of small unmanned air vehicles (sUAS) continues to thrive, given the release of FAA regulations last year, and many commercial applications are blossoming, using increasingly capable small multi-rotor drones. David Kroetsch, CEO and co-founder of Aeryon Labs in Ontario, Canada, thinks that the sUAS segment is maturing from an early adoption phase into providing utility to a growing number of organizations. Aeryon is an established player in the sUAS market and has been around for more than 10 years, so it has also had time to prove its platforms and internal systems. Aeryon also built its own flight-control hardware and software, which enables the company to gain substantial power savings and get longer endurance from how it automatically manages rotor speeds.
“The quad platform has been around since 1938, so the concept is hardly new; however, over the last decade, Aeryon Labs has substantially matured and ruggedized our platform, the Aeryon SkyRanger sUAS,” said Kroetsch. Their focus is on not only on the UAV platform, but also on supplying complete systems that meet the various needs of their customers. With electro-optical and thermal-imaging camera payloads and an on-board georeferencing data collection/processing system, Aeryon provides integrated solutions for customers, such as AeryonLive Video and Telemetry and AeryonLive Fleet Management using real-time software tools.
Aeryon SkyRanger sUAV.
AeryonLive tools.
For the oil and gas industry, providing compatibility for off-line flight planning software inputs and importing compatible aerial imagery into existing GIS systems is a significant feature for these customers. The SkyRanger UAS has benefited from many years of use in the field, and has been designed with modularity and ease of use with snap-on/off parts that make operating in bad weather a lot easier.
Aeryon’s business is currently 50%military, 25% oil and gas and 25% public safety (such as rapid traffic accident data gathering). Other entrants to these segments might find it easy to put together an unmanned system from parts bought on the internet; what comes considerably harder is proving reliability and interoperability with existing customer systems. Actually, to develop an industrial-grade UAV takes lots of investment and requires experience gathered over many years. Customers have learned how to differentiate between those dabbling in the market and those with serious capabilities.
Consolidation is inevitable in this market segment — perhaps within the next six months, certainly over the next two years — just because there are so many companies trying. Investment is getting harder to find for these start-ups and it may be too late for most, as the leaders are already well established.
“It’s essential to pick a niche within the increasingly competitive UAV industry,” Kroetsch said. “This is why Aeryon chose early on to focus on enterprise-level offerings in commercial, public safety and military.”
Recall what happened to 3D Robotics. Even though 3D Robotics raised many millions in funding, its Solo quadrotor fell from grace, perhaps due to continuing design issues and being higher priced compared to rapidly declining DJI Phantom 3 prices. “‘Competition and consolidation look to be very similar to that which happened with digital cameras,” Kroetsch said.
For Aeryon, being Canadian appears to be an advantage right now, as U.S. export regulations seem to be handicapping U.S. drone manufacturers. Aeryon sells in 35-40 countries because its product does not contain military-restricted components and only uses commercial parts. Canadian regulations for drone system exports do not prohibit world–wide sales for such products, while U.S. regulations can be difficult for U.S. suppliers to negotiate.
Nevertheless, unexpected hurdles to adoption still exist, such as company policies related to health and safety, union restrictions, and potential internal clashes on responsibility for implementation. But with 100% test, and a hardened design for tough environments, Aeryon sees itself well positioned to grow in its chosen industrial sector.
Conclusion
This has been a brief and incomplete overview of the UAV/UAS industry — a first try, if you will. Nevertheless, it’s a summary that we can use a benchmark for where we are right now, and a departure point for future growth.
We have quite mature capability in both large and small UAS, with integration focused on flight-control and navigation systems. The larger UAS enjoy a relatively mature market with established suppliers of lower numbers of expensive systems, while the sUAS segment is larger, younger and less expensive, with not as many barriers to entry.
Nevertheless, there are mature industrial segments with harder, more integrated requirements that make it hard for new entrants to climb the steps into more difficult commercial operations. The recreational segment is dominated by DJI, and it remains strong with well-performing, easy-to-operate drones.
Because of the ease of access to smaller drones, despite FAA and other countries’ regulations, people seem to want to penetrate secure facilities such as utilities, airports, military bases, prisons and other government locations. Therefore, anti-drone systems using optical, radar and RF are becoming available, and facilities are being equipped to prevent unwanted drone incursions.
AUVSI xPONENTIAL
I’ll be roving the show floor at the upcoming AUVSI xPONENTIAL show in Dallas, and I welcome your added insight, from all corners of the UAV industry, for a continuation of this assessment in an upcoming Professional OEM & UAV e-newsletter column (subscribe free at gpsworld.com/subscribe).
Crisp orthophotos map 300 acres with sUAS flying over 14,000 feet
Overcoming the challenges of mapping terrain in difficult conditions at altitudes exceeding 14,000 feet using a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), Black Swift Technologies demonstrated that a sUAS can successfully be deployed at extreme altitudes.
Black Swift Technologies (BST), a specialized engineering firm based in Boulder, Colorado, was able to obtain geo-referenced digital aerial images with detailed actionable information, obtained cost-effectively without concern for a surveyor’s well being or equipment malfunctions.
Using BST’s SwiftTrainer, a turnkey sUAS flight system designed specifically for GIS mapping applications, BST captured millions of data points in a fully autonomous flight over Colorado’s Mount Evans. The geotagged images were easily integrated into processing software, resulting in an accurate 3D orthomosaic (a highly detailed map in true scale).
“Surveyors have been using sUAS in place of more expensive manned aerial missions for quite some time now,” said Jack Elston, Ph.D., CEO of Black Swift Technologies. “Being able to demonstrate that a sUAS can be an effective and accurate mapping platform in areas inaccessible to vehicles or at extreme altitudes solidifies the added value surveyors can offer their clients.”
Using BST’s own Mission Planning Software, surveyors can program the SwiftTrainer in minutes to calculate the area under review and then begin collecting data for immediate analysis and decision making. Leveraging an intuitive tab-driven interface, flight planning is simple and easy to accomplish. Mission monitoring and mapping is all done from a handheld Android Tablet loaded with BST’s SwiftTab software. Intuitive gesture-based controls enable users to confidently deploy their SwiftTrainer with minimal training while being able to collect data over geography that is topically diverse with confidence.
Unlike other sUAS offerings that cobble together hardware and software from a variety of sources to assemble their solutions, BST’s aerospace and software engineers designed the hardware, flight management system, and essential software from the ground up. This unified, fully integrated approach ensures that users have the right airframe and sensor suite to address their specific application requirements without compromise.
Canadian UAVs and Lockheed Martin CDL Systems have completed their first Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) inspections for pipelines, well sites and power lines using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The inspections were completed using the Transport Canada Compliant Lockheed Martin Indago 2 at the Foremost Testing Range.
Wellhead inspected Beyond Visual Line of Sight. (Photo: CNW Group/Canadian UAVs)
Canadian UAVs seeks to provide its customers with innovative technology to ensure safe and economic data acquisition for oil and gas and other industrial assets.
At the UAV Testing Facility in Foremost, Alberta, Canadian UAVs successfully performed multiple BVLOS operations to inspect several pipelines, wellheads and powerlines. This demonstration leverages Canadian UAVs’ solutions to provide BVLOS operations for its customers while maintaining strict manned aviation safety best practices.
“It’s a milestone our team has been working towards for years,” said Sean Greenwood, president of Canadian UAVs Inc. “Going BVLOS has technically been solved for some time with regards to powerful communications links and autopilot hardware. Canadian UAVs has been focused on creating an end-to-end paradigm in coordination with Transport Canada to conduct these operations outside of Restricted Military Airspace where our customers have a substantial regulatory and logistical needs to acquire actionable data. Due to our in-house combined military and commercial, manned and unmanned aviation backgrounds, the most advanced Lockheed Martin unmanned aircraft systems and a constant drive to evolve our aerial solutions, we have been able to demonstrate today the most logical operating structure for BVLOS on the market.”
Indago 2 UAV from Lockheed Martin.
“We are pleased that Canadian UAVs has selected our Indago 2 aircraft system with mobile ground control station as a solution for their commercial enterprise,” said John Molberg, business development lead for Lockheed Martin CDL Systems. “Our systems routinely fly beyond line of sight for our military customers, and that has allowed us to gain compliance status with Transport Canada for use in commercial airspace.
“This flight achievement is a bellwether for Canadian UAVs, Lockheed Martin and Foremost Test Range, while also showcasing the leadership provided by Unmanned Systems Canada and Transport Canada for the safe use of unmanned systems in Canadian airspace,” Molberg said.
“The ability to use BVLOS for UAV inspection and survey purposes would considerably increase safety, economic, and environmental considerations,” saidBeau Chaitan, environmental and regulatory engineer at MEG Energy. “As many of the assets and areas we are interested in surveying are located in regions of dense muskeg and access is significantly limited. Using traditional techniques on the ground for performing integrity inspections on remote sites or conducting reclamation monitoring would require the construction of either winter ice roads, or extensive summer access.
Wellhead inspected Beyond Visual Line of Sight. (Photo: CNW Group/Canadian UAVs)
“This is not only an expensive exercise, but it’s also environmentally disruptive, as it creates numerous linear disturbances that potentially affect wildlife. BVLOS with a UAV is an improvement over performing inspections and monitoring with a manned helicopter, as it is safer from a worker exposure point-of-view.
“Additionally, helicopter use has been known to scare off wildlife, which is counterproductive to the activity of conducting wildlife monitoring in remote areas. As oil sands operators continue to collaborate on regional initiatives, the ability to employ BLVOS with a UAV further enhances the possibilities to cooperate on environmental and regulatory activities.”
For more information, visit our website: canadianuavs.ca.
3DroneMapping completed a project under tight time and space constraints — surveying a tiny tropical island without disturbing guests.
The 15-hectare island three kilometers from the Zanzibar coast is isolated from the rest of the world. Surrounded by coral reefs and sandbars, the island is home to an exclusive resort, but its limited space is threatened by erosion from changing currents.
Developers are concerned that proposed structures will be washed out to sea in a few years. Because no plans or maps of the island have ever been drawn or surveyed, they felt it was important to provide scale and dimension to architects for a master plan.
Images courtesy of Luke Wijnberg.
The survey needed to include existing structures, pathways, major trees, visible services, high-tide marks, levels and contours. It needed to be done in a tight timespan, before the island closed for renovations in three months. Also, the survey could not disturb any guests.
Using a custom-built multi-rotor drone with a high-resolution camera allowed 3DroneMapping to obtain images with good detail but taken far enough from guests to not bother them. Control points were located strategically, in places not visible to the public.
Images courtesy of Luke Wijnberg.
Luke Wijnberg, CEO of 3DroneMapping, conducted the survey with the L1 Reach by Emlid. “Such a survey could not have been possible without drones and Reach kit,” Wijnberg wrote in a blog. “Using this technology kept the pricing low for the customer, kept time on the ground and disturbance to guests to a minimum and provided a very quick turnabout time.”
Images courtesy of Luke Wijnberg.
After fieldwork was completed, the photogrammetric process was a fairly simple affair with 600 images collected and control added to the model. A high over and sidelap was required to obtain ground strikes between the vegetation.
The ground strikes were then extracted from the dense point cloud using specialized 3D point cloud editing and classification software. Other features were exported to a CAD program.
All files were handed to the client via an online GIS platform with AutoCAD files for the master planners.
Microdrones collaborated last summer with the DLRG Horneburg/Altes Land e.V. (German Lifeguard Association) to simulate a mission to rescue a drowning swimmer, demonstrating the life-saving potential of UAVs.
Crowds watched from the banks of the Elbe River as a UAV flew to the person in distress and dropped a compact rescue device called RESTUBE, which automatically inflated. The swimmer was able to grab onto the RESTUBE and float until he could be reached by a lifeguard and brought to safety.
The UAV used in the rescue was the microdrones md4-1000. The quadcopter drone features specially developed motors, carbon fiber housing, efficient batteries, and an integrated GPS system that allow the UAV to fly and stay in position in strong winds over the water.
For the simulation, the md4-1000 was equipped with an imaging camera that streamed live to the specially trained lifeguard operating the drone, allowing him to easily see the precise location to drop the RESTUBE flotation device.
“An adult drowns in approximately 60 seconds and a child in only 30,” said Christopher Fuhrhop, founder and CEO of RESTUBE. “By combining UAVs and RESTUBE flotation devices, we arE able to buy the drowning person valuable time that could very well mean the difference between life and death.”
Other safety possibilities for quadcopters include locating people using thermal imaging cameras and collecting data on the condition of leaking and burst banks on hard-to-reach embankments.
