USE OF MULTI MINIATURE UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVs) FOR SHORT RECONNAISSANCE AND INTELLIGENCE GATHERING MISSIONS FOR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)/ rotor copter technology, which had been earlier limited to the defence domain, has steadily started its entry into every facet of life, due to its enormous use. Out of those uses, the noticeable ones are for supplying groceries and medicines during emergency times (e.g., during COVID-19), precision agriculture, anti-pest spraying in large fields, wildlife detection in forests, powerline monitoring, surveying, monitoring large construction work, counting the number of orchards and announcement in public. Apart from all the aforementioned usages, a rotor UAV’s use in the field of reconnaissance and passing real-time information have also been executed, but, at very few places. Out of the ibid uses, the conclusions drawn out, regarding the uses of a rotor UAV in reconnaissance for passing real-time information have not been significant, as no field trials have been conducted. Moreover, the uses of a rotor UAV in higher altitudinal locations are rarely executed and therefore still pose a tough challenge in the research community. Given the above, the present research aimed at the use of a rotor UAV for reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering missions for situational awareness. To achieve this aim, the first step has been to analyze all the uses of a rotor UAV presently possible till now. Post analyzing all the usages possible, various problems associated with the quad/ hexacopter technology have been examined in detail. After examining various uses and problems, a quadcopter and a hexacopter have been developed after assembling various hardware parts and programming and calibrating them through requisite software tools. The practical aspects of developing the quad/ hexacopter provided many dividends in understanding the rotor-copter technology in greater detail. The quadcopter and hexacopter so developed have been provided Artificial Intelligence (AI) by programming in Python language so that the camera of the hexacopter automatically detects the objects for which it is trained. It has been observed that a miniature rotor UAV of at least 2 Kg is very useful for reconnaissance due to its various advantages viz., small form factor, less costly hardware parts, fast assembly, and easy-to-transport capability.