1st: a Fully Autonomous UAV Aimed at Monitoring Environmental Risks

This paper presents the mini-UAV named 1st (autonomous Flyer for Integration of Remote Sensing Technologies and guidance, navigation, and control aimed at monitoring environmental risk) that is under development at Department of Space Science and Engineering of University of Naples “Federico II”. The project aims at developing an autonomous system capable of performing airborne surveillance and autonomous flight. Its airframe is based on a RC-model, a reproduction of the Dornier™ DO27™ by VMAR™. The main issue of the system is the integration of Remote Sensing and Autonomous Navigation hardware. Its architecture requires the development of both hardware and software. The core of the flight control system is based on a miniature, low-cost robotic vehicle sensor suite and a low-power, small-size, Linux single board computer, both produced by Crossbow Technology™. In addition, a radio modem RM is adopted to connect the onboard computer to GCS that is installed on a PC laptop. System navigation and control logic is fully reported in the paper. Several operating modes are implemented and can be selected online by ground staff. The remote sensing payload is based on an integrated, multi-band sensor that includes a thermal imager and a hyperspectral sensor in VNIR band. It is aimed at applications of natural disasters monitoring, in particular forest fires. Auxiliary units are envisaged: on-board CPU for instrument operation control, payload data acquisition, storage, and processing, as well as data exchange with GNC units; radio-transceiver for real-time payload data/telemetry downlink and command uplink. These activities are being carried out within concurrent, coordinated projects that are contributing to different sections of the system. A campaign of flight tests will support the development of the system.