UAV As REMOTE SENSING

Burhanuddin Bhavnagarwala, Ghulame Mustafa

[email protected]; [email protected]

M.H. SABOO SIDDIK POLYTECHNIC

Abstract -As an important means of obtaining spatial data, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing has such advantages as
real-time, flexible, high-resolution, cost-effective etc, and it can gather information in dangerous environments without risk to flight crews.
Because UAV remote sensing is a powerful supplement of space borne remote sensing and airborne remote sensing, it has enormous
potential and bright prospect. In this paper, the compositions and key technologies of UAV remote sensing system are presented, and the
applications such as land use, land supervision, flood disasters, meteorology disasters, geological disasters, forest fire disasters as well as
surveying and mapping are summarized. In the end, we predict the main direction of studying on UAV remote sensing in the future.

Keywords – aircraft, remote sensing, remotely operated vehicles, application, remote sensing, research, unmanned aerial vehicle, airborne
remote sensing, Communication system control, Control systems, Costs, Image analysis, Information analysis, Meteorology Remote
sensing, Sensor systems, Unmanned aerial vehicles, spatial data, unmanned aerial vehicle and remote sensing

I. INTRODUCTION. by experienced staff. In this qualitative method the assessment of plant

health is often based on number, size and condition of plant leafs.
Recent progress in the development of miniature flight control, Agronomical researchers and companies are in permanent search for
propulsion and light-weight airframe technologies on the one hand and new methods and procedures helping them to economize their field
the continuing trend towards miniature imaging sensors on the other, tests while maintaining or even improving the quality and reliability of
bear the potential for creating a new generation of light-weight airborne today's field test procedures. Optical satellite-based remote sensing is
remote sensing platforms offering very high spatial resolution and an successfully used in supporting large scale field tests. However, the
unparalleled operational flexibility. While the development of prevailing small test plots with sizes around one square meter and the
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technologies was and still is driven need for short and reliable revisit periods require new solutions. There
by military applications, civilian applications are rapidly catching up is an abundance of literature on reflective optical remote sensing in
and are encompassing fields such as disaster monitoring, fire detection, agriculture, aiming at relating spectral reflectance properties of plants
pipeline inspection, site inspection, real-time monitoring, traffic and soils to their agronomic and biophysical properties. Very
monitoring, mapping, cultural heritage, movie production, and comprehensive and valuable literature reviews include on remote
increasingly forestry and agriculture. In agronomical research new sensing in crop management and on remote sensing for agro ecosystem
substances and products such as herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or modeling. The majority of operational procedures for estimating plant
fertilizers are tested on field test sites. Today, these field tests include properties make use of the distinct dissimilarities in reflectance
labour-intensive typically weekly visual inspections of leaf properties properties between the visible and NIR wavelengths. A vegetation
index (VI), computed as differences, ratios or linear combinations of them much like today’s RC model airplanes which many people fly as a
reflected light in the visible and NIR wavebands, provides a very hobby. It is interesting to note that the government considers all aircraft
simple and elegant method for representing these dissimilarities and are UAVs, if they are unmanned and used by a government or business.
also used in this study.
After the invention of the integrated circuit, engineers were able to
build sophisticated UAVs, using electronic autopilots. It was at this
stage of development that UAVs became widely used in military
applications. UAVs could be deployed, fly themselves to a target
location, and either attack the location with weapons, or survey it with
cameras and other sensor equipment.

Modern UAVs are controlled with both autopilots, and human

controllers in ground stations. This allows them to fly long,
uneventfully flights under their own control, and fly under the
command of a human pilot during complicated phases of the mission.

Fig.1 General technique of mapping.

II. WHAT IS UAV? Fig.2 Multi-rotor drone

The term UAV is an abbreviation of Unmanned Aerial vehicle,

meaning aerial vehicles which operate without a human pilot. UAVs
are commonly used in both the military and police forces in situations
where the risk of sending a human piloted aircraft is unacceptable, or
the situation makes using a manned aircraft impractical.

One of the predecessors of today’s fully autonomous UAVs were the

“aerial torpedoes”, designed and built during World War One. These
were primitive UAVs, relying on mechanical gyroscopes to maintain
straight and level flight, and flying until they ran out of fuel. They
would then fall from the sky and deliver and explosive payload.

More advanced UAVs used radio technology for guidance, allowing

Fig.3 Fixed wing
them to fly missions and return. They were constantly controlled by a
human pilot, and were not capable of flying themselves. This made
III. TYPES OF UAV appear green because chlorophyll in the leaves absorbs much of the
incident light in the VIS wavelengths, particularly the blue and red,
UAV’s are basically classified into 2 types according to the while the green color is reflected. Therefore, light reflected by the
construction, namely: leaves depends on the amount and various types of leaf pigments. For
example, a green leaf with high chlorophyll content exhibits higher
1. Fixed Wing [airplane]
reflectance in the near-infrared (NIR) and green wavelengths than in
2. Multi-rotor [drones] the red wavelength. In contrast, a water-stressed leaf has low
reflectance in the non visible wavelengths from about 750 to 1100 nm.
There are many different types of UAVs, designed for different
Measuring the difference in reflected light at various wavelengths of
purposes. The US air force is one of the most prominent users of UAV
the EM spectrum makes it possible to distinguish vegetation from soil,
technology, and classifies UAVs by dividing them into tiers. To get a
green and senescent vegetation, vegetation species and thus the
general idea of the different types of UAVs used, here is an abbreviated
difference between a healthy and unhealthy leaf. Remote Sensing
version with specification:
consisting of: object’s illumination, light reflection and/or absorption,
and light transmission through the atmosphere Characteristics of remote
 Micro UAVs – small, extremely portable units.
sensors Remote sensors differ in their sensitivity to various
 Low altitude, long endurance UAVs wavelengths, the size of the objects that can be “seen,” the frequency at

 High altitude, long endurance UAVs employing a which data is collected, and the ability to distinguish differences in EM

conventional design. energy.

 High altitude, long endurance UAVs using a low observable A pixel is the smallest possible feature or area that a sensor can record
design.
as an individual unit. The pixel size depends on the distance between
the sensor and the target, as well as on the sensor’s viewing angle, or
IV. UAV AS REMOTE SENSING
instantaneous field of view (IFOV). The IFOV determines the area on
the Earth’s surface that is visible from a given altitude at one particular
A] In health index estimation of crops using NIR..
moment in time. Only large features are visible from a low-resolution
image (large pixel size), which has less object discrimination. In
Advances in technology have made it possible to use instruments called
contrast, a fine- or high-resolution image (small pixel size) shows small
remote sensors to collect data from and about objects without having to
to large objects.
make any physical contact with those objects. In agriculture, remote
sensors are commonly used to gather data about plants and soil. They
are placed above the object, or target, to collect data that is often
otherwise undetectable. In addition, sensors can collect data from large
areas very quickly with relatively short collection intervals, thus
reducing the amount of time spent manually collecting data. This
technology is facilitating growers’ adoption of more precise agricultural
strategies, which optimize input decisions for the best time, place, and
amount.

In growing plants, the amount of reflected light at specific wavelengths

is sometimes associated with chlorophyll content or plant health. Plants
 Fig. 4 Analysis of crops. After preparing base maps on 1: 50,000 scale, reconnaissance field
survey was conducted to develop interpretation key. Based upon the
standard image characteristics, the visual interpretation of satellite data
was carried out. The reserve forest boundaries were transferred to base
maps from forest stock maps and topo-sheets (1:25,000) scale for
density mapping. These were also used as an ancillary data for
interpretation work and verification of details.

IRS film positives of April 1992 season were used for further
modification of preliminary interpreted maps. Ground truth was
conducted in the ambiguous areas. Modifications were made on
interpreted maps keeping in view the ground truth details and a photo
interpretation key was finalized.

Fig.5 Imaging of agriculture.

Density Analysis

The density mapping is under taken only in reserve forest areas.

Efficient and sustainable management of forest resources calls for
assessment of quality and quantity. Density mapping is one of the
methods to know the quality. This has two components i.e. ground
density and crown density. In present study, crown density mapping
have been carried out. The crown density comprises of percent canopy
cover with respect to ground area exposed. As per UNESCO
classification based upon crown cover, reserve forests have been
categorized into three classes as under:

If Crown cover is > 40% Dense/closed forest

If Crown cover is >10% and < 40% Open forest
If Crown cover is < 10% Degraded forest

When the coverage of trees is 40%, the distance between two trees
crown equals the mean radius of the tree crown. Density estimation in
Fig. 6 Imaging of forest cover. forest studies, using remotely sensed data have been done considering
tonal variation. Moreover the magnitude of tone and texture differ from
B] Estimation of forest cover and height of the vegetation forest type to forest type and within a forest type. While assessing
density, due attention was given for cause/effect relationship involved
Using the laser light equivalent of radar, lidar instruments accurately in produced and observed tone and texture. These density classes were
estimate such important forest structural characteristics as canopy verified in the field and detailed photo interpretation key was prepared.
heights, stand volume, basal area, and above-ground biomass. And
because sub canopy vegetation height is a function of species
composition, climate, and site quality, the results can be used for land
cover classification, habitat mapping, and forest wildlife management.
Final mapping was carried out considering all these details. SensorWebs are equally relevant to other disasters, including
volcanoes, fires and dust storms — they just need different satellite
data, depending on what variables are monitored.

The volcano sensorWeb for example, uses MODIS and AVHRR to

detect volcanic activity based on thermal alerts. It looks for locations
that are hot and different to the surrounding area (but not bright). Alerts
then trigger observations from NASA's Hyperion satellite sensor, which
is highly sensitive in thermal
infrared.

Fig.7 Height estimation.

C] Flood monitoring

Satellites can also warn of floods, and inform response and recovery
efforts.

Satellites such as the Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission can

measure and map rainfall, helping forecast heavy rains and floods. A
team of 51 organizations from 18 countries — delivers remote sensing
data via the Internet as easy-to-interpret information for both early
warning and flood damage assessment across Asia.

Fig. 8 Imaging of flooded area.

It uses the Dartmouth Flood Observatory's (DFO's) River Watch flood
detection and measurement system, based on AMSR-E data, to map
D] Highway inspection
flood hazards and warn disaster managers and residents in flood-prone
areas when rivers are likely to burst their banks.
The researchers conducted a literature review to identify current
technologies suitable for inventory data collection. These included:
NASA also uses DFO analyses for river basins across the world in its
flood sensorWeb. The sensorWeb's role is to automatically alert
• LiDAR laser scanning systems.
disaster managers and government agencies to impending floods.
• Aerial photography from an airplane, helicopter or unmanned aerial
It detects anomalies in river discharges and volumes from the DFO's vehicle.
Active Atlas of Large Floods. This triggers requests to satellites such as
• Satellite imagery.
MODIS for high-resolution data over the area of interest. These are
then immediately processed and forwarded to scientists and local
• Mobile imaging (pictures of the roadway typically taken every 50
interested partners. [3]
feet from a vehicle driving at highway speeds).

• Manual data collection.

A pilot project evaluated the cost of manual data collection, mobile applications have considered how best to quantify burn severity,
imaging, mobile (ground-level) LiDAR and helicopter LiDAR on a potential fuel levels, and the rate of forest resource recovery following
176-mile route that included several road classifications. The burn. More recently, wildfire remote sensing applications have
researchers used each technology to collect data for a separate section considered active or real-time technology applications that include
of the route, and used all technologies in a 5-mile control section to implications for not only mapping burn impacts, but also
compare the results. detecting wildfires shortly after ignition and tracking the rate
of wildfire spread across a landscape. A review of traditional remote
. Mobile imaging produced high-resolution data quickly, although the
sensing applications are presented in this paper to quantify fire impacts,
asset extraction software had difficulty capturing measurements of
tracking vegetation recovery, establishing fuel conditions, and fire
movable areas because they lacked clearly defined boundaries. Mobile
detection and monitoring in forested landscapes. Our review includes
imaging was by far the least expensive technology in the pilot project,
previous research results that have been published within the last ten
with a cost of $369 per trunk line mile. Based on potential economies
years, as well as previous results that were frequently cited or
of scale, the vendor estimated a statewide cost of $89 per mile.
that provided unique or novel examples of remote sensing applications

LiDAR can create three-dimensional models of any surface within a to forest fire research. In addition, recent examples of active and real-

line of sight of the LiDAR instrument. While useful for some time remote sensing techniques for monitoring elements related
to monitoring fire ignition and behavior are discussed and followed by
applications, such as design surveys, this level of detail is more than is
necessary to develop an inventory of the assets defined in this study. a brief investigation on potential applications of unmanned aerial

Manual data collection was found to be effective, and was the preferred systems (UAS’s) for remote sensing activities related to forest

method to collect data on assets such as culverts that are not visible fire management.

from the roadway. This method requires minimal equipment other than Fire detection and monitoring can involve various activities. Detection
activities can seek to identify historical evidence of forest fire
a handheld GPS device, can effectively target small sections of
roadway, and allows for close inspection of an asset. However, manual occurrences that might be evidenced by vegetative regrowth or fire

data collection is time-consuming, introduces the possibility of human scars on the landscape. Detection can also imply that it is
the identification of a fire outbreak that is of interest. Being able to
error, and can expose DOT staff to a potentially hazardous traffic
environment. identify that a forest fire is occurring has traditionally been
accomplished by posting fire observers in prominent locations where
E] Sensing hotspots. they are able to view a large portion of the landscape. More
recent approaches have examined whether remote sensing technologies
Fire is a regular occurrence in forested landscapes throughout the
such as LiDAR might be able to identify smoke plumes and alert fire
world. Millions of hectares of forest burn annually in fire-adapted
officials that an area might necessitate closer inspection.
ecosystems in large areas of Africa south of the equator, central Asia,
Fires are detected both thermally and/or optically, depending upon the
southern South America, Australia, and many areas of the boreal forest
satellite capabilities.
in Russia and Canada
Typically, fire fighters search for hotspots on foot or with help from
The Global Burned Area Product derived from a satellite
helicopters fitted with thermal cameras, which can cost up to $5000 a
remote sensing system (SPOT Vegetation) was perhaps the first
day.
important step towards obtaining prototype baseline data on the extent
of global wildland fires .Researchers have investigated a variety of Ben Litchfield and Kelvin Barnsdale under a Rural Fire Research
remote sensing applications to quantify wildfire impacts in forests with Programme jointly funded by UC and Scion has constructed a quad
varying degrees of success. Traditional wildfire remote sensing
copter UAV fitted with infrared thermal cameras and a GPS that he "We have already asked for permissions from the government
says is able to quickly and cost effectively locate and map hotspots. departments for going ahead with the project. It will cut down survey
time, which earlier had to be done manually, requiring manpower and
According to Litchfield, the quad copter is fitted with a gyroscopically weeks to complete. Drones can complete such surveys in at least half
stabilized high-end thermal camera and GPS equipment and a small on- the time. They would be used to capture contours of coal blocks and
board computer that stores each image captured by the thermal camera would capture 3D data that can now be fed into analytical software
along with its matching GPS coordinate. The UAV flies at about 30 easily," said a senior official involved with the project.
meters high and has a flight time of about 10-15 minutes, which allows
it to cover about 4 kilometers in one flight. It can also be deployed day Deploying drones isn't as expensive as manually collecting such data,
or night. the official said. Each drone costs a few lakh rupees and the entire
project cost would be a few crore rupees.
The team continues to test the drone in varying conditions including
wind while also working to extend battery life and therefore flight time. "Drones can also be used to replace data captured by satellites in terrain
Litchfield hopes to test the UAV in a live situation sometime this year. where data is not very clear. Being at such heights, satellites do not
always capture data that can be useful - drones can replace them," he
said. Such data would be used to generate geological reports, which
need to be submitted to the government before exploration is initiated
in any block. Capturing data electronically would help streamline the
data and it would be more organised than manual operations.

Coal India also plans to use drones to assess the level of coal stocks at
its yards to help determine how much has been liquidated or added.
It is high time that Coal India uses technology to improve its production
efficiencies. The use of drones for determining viability of a reserve or
mine will avoid needless destruction of forest and wildlife, not to
mention displacement of people. It will reduce the time that Coal India
Fig. 9 Hotspot imaging spends as a developer to secure environmental clearances ahead of
conducting exploratory drilling. It will also help improve the company's
F] Coal mines inspection. return on investment in terms of money, time, and human resources.
Together, it can pave the way for more efficient and effective resource
Coal India plans to start using drones to conduct aerial surveys of management.
blocks that come up for exploration and to assess the extent of greenery
restored after mines are closed, helping it to cut costs and save time. VI] REMOTE SENSING IN INDIA

The company has approached the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Following the successful demonstration flights of Bhaskhar and
civil aviation department to go ahead with the drone project, which Bhaskara-2 satellites launched in 1979 and 1981, respectively, India
involves using remote-controlled aerial vehicles fitted with high- began to develop the indigenous Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite
resolution cameras and gadgets that can capture pictures and collect program to support the national economy in the areas of agriculture,
data of vast areas from 300 metres to 500 metres above the ground. water resources, forestry and ecology, geology, water sheds, marine
fisheries and coastal management.
Towards this end, India established the National Natural Resources real-estate hunting. Mobile phones provide a ubiquitous distribution
Management System (NNRMS) for which the Department of platform for location-based information, even in developing nations.
Space (DOS) is the nodal agency, providing operational remote
At the same time, much of the more traditional government Earth
sensing data services Data from the IRS satellites is received and
information infrastructure in the United States, including its
disseminated by several countries all over the world. With the advent of
sophisticated weather satellite system, is at risk from budget cuts and
high-resolution satellites new applications in the areas of urban sprawl,
political decisions. Prominent among the potential losses are critical
infrastructure planning and other large scale applications for mapping
climate monitoring measurements.
have been initiated.

The IRS system is the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites What new capabilities will arise during the next decade? A substantial
for civilian use in operation today in the world, with 12 operational thrust is doing things faster and cheaper rather than bigger and better.
satellites. All these are placed in polar Sun-synchronous orbit and The military is developing new techniques for building reconnaissance
provide data in a variety of spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. satellites that can be launched on short notice as needs arise. We will
Indian Remote Sensing Programme completed its 25 years of expand our use of non-visible portions of the spectrum (particularly
successful operations on March 17, 2013. infrared and microwave), increase the number of active sensors such as
lidar and radar, and improve our spatial and temporal sampling.

Particularly important will be new technologies for linking sensors

through wireless and traditional means into sensor networks. This will
V] FUTURE SCOPE
allow the information to be combined so as to support rapid decisions
Earth information is a foundation for the prosperity and security that
in complex situations. In addition, the output of one or several sensors
progressive societies seek. Urban planning, protection from natural
can be used to trigger observations from others, or even to rapidly
hazards, precision farming, climate treaty verification, efficient airline
reconfigure the other sensors so as to optimize observations of an event.
and ship routing, energy use optimization, and access to natural
resources all require reliable and detailed information about the Earth’s With the growing demand, novel sensor approaches are also likely to
dynamic environment. appear. One possibility is “interactive remote sensing,” such as farmers
genetically “tagging” their crops to enhance the remotely detectable
Aside from basic weather forecasts, this information has been
spectral signature for crop distress or optimal harvesting.
traditionally the domain of academic and professional specialists. The
raw observations were hard to come by, the tools for turning data into Policy efforts are underway to guide this future. In 2003, NOAA
knowledge were difficult to use, and the means for communicating spearheaded a global initiative called the Global Earth Observation
results were inefficient. System of Systems, or GEOSS, now a loose coalition of 66 nations
aimed at coordinating much of the world’s Earth observing activities.
All this has changed over the last decade due to technological advances GEOSS is focused on using the resources we have more effectively—a
in sensors, the computing capacity to combine and analyze sensor
worthy goal. Within the United States, the National Research Council
information, and the communications tools for sharing this knowledge.
report referred to earlier laid out a “decadal plan” for Earth observation
from space, including a set of 17 new missions to be launched during
As a result, mass-market consumer applications are emerging that will
the coming decade.
radically transform our use of Earth information over the next decade.
GPS-based devices are now widely employed for car navigation.
What will remote sensing be like a decade from now? The competing
Internet maps and virtual worlds (such as Google Earth and Microsoft
forces of increased business demand, limited government resources,
Virtual Earth) enable everything from education to vacation planning to
and advancing technological capability will play out over this time
period. The rapidly growing consumer needs will introduce a new and  Lentile, Leigh B.; Holden, Zachary A.; Smith, Alistair M. S.;
somewhat unpredictable factor. The future promises to be bright, but it Falkowski, Michael J.; Hudak, Andrew T.; Morgan, Penelope;
won’t happen on its own. Our community of professionals must work Lewis, Sarah A.; Gessler, Paul E.; Benson, Nate C.
diligently to ensure its success. (2006). "Remote sensing techniques to assess active fire
characteristics and post-fire effects". International Journal of
VI] CONCLUSION
Wildland Fire 3 (15): 319–345.doi:10.1071/WF05097.
Remote Sensing is the gathering of information concerning the earth’s  Lillesand, T. M.; R. W. Kiefer; J. W. Chipman (2003). Remote
surface that do not involve contact with the surface or object under sensing and image interpretation (5th ed.). Wiley. ISBN 0-471-
study. The techniques include- aerial photograph, multi-spectral and 15227-7.
infrared imagery and radar. With the help of remote sensing, we can  Richards, J. A.; X. Jia (2006). Remote sensing digital image
able to get accurate information about the earth’s surface including its analysis: an introduction (4th ed.). Springer. ISBN 3-540-25128-
components like- forest, landscape, water resources, oceans etc. This 6.
information helps the researchers to their research activities about the
 US Army FM series.
earth’s components concerning its sustainable management and
 US Army military intelligence museum, FT Huachuca, AZ
conservation and so on.
 Datla, R.U.; Rice, J.P.; Lykke, K.R.; Johnson, B.C.; Butler, J.J.;
In order for a sensor to collect and record energy reflected or emitted Xiong, X. (March–April 2011). "Best practice guidelines for pre-
from a target or surface, it must reside on a stable platform removed launch characterization and calibration of instruments for passive
from the target or surface being observed. Platforms for remote sensors optical remote sensing" (PDF). Journal of Research of the
may be situated on the ground, on an aircraft or balloon (or some other National Institute of Standards and Technology 116 (2): 612–
platform within the Earth's atmosphere), or on a spacecraft or satellite 646.doi:10.6028/jres.116.009.
outside of the Earth's atmosphere. Ground-based sensors are often used
 Begni G., Escadafal R., Fontannaz D. and Hong-Nga Nguyen A.-
to record detailed information about the surface which is compared
T. (2005). Remote sensing: a tool to monitor and assess
with information collected from aircraft or satellite sensors. In some
desertification. Les dossiers thématiques du CSFD. Issue 2. 44 pp.
cases, this can be used to better characterize the target which is being
 KUENZER, C. ZHANG, J., TETZLAFF, A., and S. DECH, 2013:
imaged by these other sensors, making it possible to better understand
Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing of Surface and underground
the information in the imagery.
Coal Fires. In (eds.) Kuenzer, C. and S. Dech 2013: Thermal
Infrared Remote Sensing – Sensors, Methods, Applications.
Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing Series, Volume 17,
VI] REFERENCES 572 pp., ISBN 978-94-007-6638-9, pp. 429–451

 Kuenzer, C. and S. Dech 2013: Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing

 Campbell, J. B. (2002). Introduction to remote sensing (3rd ed.).
– Sensors, Methods, Applications. Remote Sensing and Digital
The Guilford Press. ISBN 1-57230-640-8.
Image Processing Series, Volume 17, 572 pp., ISBN 978-94-007-
 Jensen, J. R. (2007). Remote sensing of the environment: an Earth 6638-9
resource perspective (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-188950-
 Lasaponara, R. and Masini N. 2012: Satellite Remote Sensing - A
8.
new tool for Archaeology. Remote Sensing and Digital Image
 Jensen, J. R. (2005). Digital Image Processing: a Remote Sensing Processing Series, Volume 16, 364 pp., ISBN 978-90-481-8801-7.
Perspective (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall.