The Russian company Wheelies (part of the ITG corporation) has tested the technology of autonomous drone flights over water surfaces, according to Dmitry Kuzma, the company's CEO.
This development enables the detection of pollution, the recording of oil spills, and the continuous monitoring of the condition of rivers, lakes, and marine areas in a fully automatic mode.
Monitoring water resources is one of the most challenging tasks, as maintaining a stable flight altitude over moving waves is very difficult. The use of LiDARs becomes ineffective over water due to signal scattering. Visual odometry also faces difficulties due to glare on the water surface and the absence of stable landmarks.
To solve these problems, Wheelies specialists used adaptive PID controllers. These mechanisms allow the drone to instantly respond to changes in wave levels and automatically adjust the flight path, which reduces the load on the operator and increases the safety of missions. During the tests, the drone, controlled via the Wheelies platform, successfully maintained altitude and course even without a GPS signal, relying on the visual odometry method.
The adaptive height control system ensures stable operation of drones in marine conditions. It is important for us that the technology proves its effectiveness not only in laboratory tests but also in real water areas. We see such solutions as the basis for a whole class of environmental and research missions — from monitoring the state of waters to rapid response to emergency spills.
Although the tests were conducted in calm conditions, the algorithms are already ready for use in waves up to 4 points. The system can also be integrated with unmanned boats — the drone can automatically follow the vessel, patrol the water area, or return to base without constant control.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that the development of UAVs and microelectronics based on the new cluster will be carried out in Sevastopol.
