Drone Video Platform—Collision Avoidance, Situational Awareness, and Communications
- Mission Support and Test Services, LLC (MSTS), North Las Vegas, NV (United States)
- Remote Sensing Lab. (RSL), Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
- H3D Inc., Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
Small unmanned aerial systems are ideal for delivering sensors into areas that are inaccessible or too dangerous for human entry or manned aircraft over-flights. The systems can fly low and slow for enhanced sensitivity and in tight spaces where ordinary aircraft could never fit. We have configured and flown sensor payloads for radiation, chemical, and optical detection on small fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. All the sensor packages provide telemetry, GPS coordinates, LIDAR distance ranging, and absolute time of day to microsecond accuracy. Payload weights range from less than 1 kg up to 5.5 kg. Currently, communications are over 2.4 GHz and 915 MHz radios, as well as over 4G LTE cellular data links. Real-time data feeds from the sensor payloads to web browser clients anywhere in the world are possible via a virtual EC2 server on the Amazon AWS cloud. In FY 2019, the Nevada National Security Site teamed with Virginia Tech, H3D Corp., and Unmanned Systems, Inc. to accomplish the four flight missions described in this report. A large part of this year’s mission goals were to demonstrate the ability to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
- Research Organization:
- Mission Support and Test Services, LLC (MSTS), North Las Vegas, NV (United States); Remote Sensing Lab. (RSL), Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV (United States); H3D Inc., Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- NA0003624
- OSTI ID:
- 1722924
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/NV/03624-0819; STIP WF - 20695430; TRN: US2205049
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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