An Aerial Vision Platform for Acquiring Situational Awareness

Abstract

In times of disaster acquiring aerial images is challenging. Runways may be crippled thus denying conventional aircraft in the area from taking o#. Also the time required to schedule a satellite fly-by may delay first response e#orts. Man backpackable aerial robots can be carried close to the disaster site and flown to capture aerial images. This paper integrates mechatronics, intelligent sensing, and mechanism synthesis in a teleoperable kite-mounted camera. Rapidly deployable, transportable by foot, easy to fly and a#ordable, our system can quickly acquire, process and distribute aerial images. Image mosaicing, edge detection, 3D reconstruction and geo-referencing resulting from images acquired by our aerial platform are also presented.