UAV-Based Sensor Web Monitoring System

An unmanned aerial vehicle- (UAV-) based monitoring system is developed as an intermediate system between aerial survey and ground survey. All the measurement tools are mounted on the UAV to acquire detailed information from low altitudes which is different from a satellite or a plane. The monitoring is carried out from the sky, but the spatial and temporal resolutions are freely selected near the ground. In this study, the data is easily acquired with safety and mobility by the utilization of a sensor web. A sensor web is a type of sensor network which is well suited for environmental monitoring. Sensor nodes are spatially distributed and wirelessly communicate with each other. In this study, the UAV-based system is considered as a mobile sensor node. This study proposes a combination of UAV-based monitoring with a ubiquitous sensor network. 1. Introduction To obtain both the wide-area coverage of remote sensors and the high levels of detail and accuracy of ground surveying, at a low cost, an unmanned aerial vehicle- (UAV-) based monitoring system is developed. The UAV resembles a helicopter and all the measurement tools are mounted under it to acquire detailed information from low altitudes, unlike high-altitude systems in satellites or airplanes. The survey is conducted from the sky, but the resolution and accuracy are equal to those of ground surveying. Moreover, the UAV can acquire data easily as well as safely, for example, data from pollution monitoring, forest fire detection, and disaster monitoring [1]. On the other hand, a sensor web is a group or system of sensors, which connect together using a communication infrastructure to exchange information. It consists of multiple sensor stations which can be called sensor nodes. All sensor nodes can link or synchronize data among each other or the main station so that it acts as a network which is deployed in the area where monitoring is wanted and data, such as weather and environmental information, is collected. The main station is usually installed in rural areas or disaster sites [2]. Recently, much UAV research has been conducted with the existing UAV system which is designed to work as a standalone system [3]; thus making it difficult to be interoperable with other ground monitoring stations. This is where a sensor network can come into play. However, field sensor nodes currently in implementation by the sensor network support only fixed-position sensors that is not flexible enough for some field operations, such as adhoc node or mobile node [4]. In this study, a sensor web is applied for