Experimental Investigation of Communication Performance of Drones Used for Autonomous Car Track Tests

Melih Yildiz,Burcu Bilgiç,Utku Kale,Dániel Rohács

doi:10.3390/su13105602

Melih Yildiz, Burcu Bilgiç + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105602

Copy DOI

Abstract

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) represent an emerging and disruptive technology that provides a great opportunity for future transport not only to have a positive social and environmental impact but also traffic safety. AV use in daily life has been extensively studied in the literature in various dimensions, however; it is time for AVs to go further which is another technological aspect of communication. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technology is an emerging issue that is expected to be a mutual part of AVs and transportation safety in the near future. V2V is widely discussed by its deployment possibilities not only by means of communication, even to be used as an energy transfer medium. ZalaZONE Proving Ground is a 265-hectare high-tech test track for conventional, electric as well as connected, assisted, and automated vehicles. This paper investigates the use of drones for tracking the cars on the test track. The drones are planned to work as an uplink for the data collected by the onboard sensors of the car. The car is expected to communicate with the drone which is flying in coordination. For the communication 868 MHz is selected to be used between the car and the drone. The test is performed to simulate different flight altitudes of drones. The signal strength of the communication is analyzed, and a model is developed which can be used for the future planning of the test track applications.

Highlights

IntroductionUnmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are of great interest because of their wide range of application fields
Published: 17 May 2021Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are of great interest because of their wide range of application fields
The test height is taken into account in calibration calculations for the change of distance surface reflections by the following equation [31]: h≥D

Summary

Introduction

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are of great interest because of their wide range of application fields. Drones are UAVs that are equipped with sensors and communication devices. Besides their wide area of use, drones can improve vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity by cooperating with vehicles and collecting information. Drones can be used to cooperate in air-to-ground communication and to assist communication infrastructure where it is not available, or connectivity is poor [1]. The focus on drone integration studies is given to improving network connectivity, enhancing information collection ability, and intra-networking issues [3], a small number of studies proposed using drones in VANET networks. Using drones for communication relay between vehicleto-vehicle (V2V) communications to decrease the average end-to-end packet delivery delay is studied [4]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion