Autonomous observation of multiple USVs from UAV while prioritizing camera tilt and yaw over UAV motion

Abstract

This paper proposes a scheme for observing cooperative Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV), using a rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with camera movements (tilt and yaw) prioritized over UAV movements. Most of the current researches consider a fixed-wing type UAV for surveillance of multiple moving targets (MMT), whose functionality is limited to just UAV movements. Experiments in simulation are conducted and verified that, prioritizing camera movements increased the number of times each USV is visited (on an average by 5.68 times more), decreased the percentage of the duration that the UAV is not observing any USV (on an average by 19.8%) and increased the efficiency by decreasing the distance traveled by the UAV (on an average by 747 pixels) for the six test cases. Autonomous repositioning of the UAV at regular intervals to observe USVs during a disaster scenario will provide the operator with better situational awareness. Using a rotorcraft over a fixed-wing type UAV provides the operator with a flexibility of observing the target for the required duration by hovering and freedom of unrestricted movements, which help improve the efficiency of target observation.