航空航天工程学杂志
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Small Object Detection Capabilities Enabled by Employing sUAS Integrated with Modern Sensors

Oleg A Yakimenko

Manned aircraft have been widely used to detect objects/anomalies on the ground using daytime and nighttime sensors. The introduction and development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) allowed transitioning of this dull and often dirty and dangerous task on to them. Further development and miniaturization of UAS and their sensors provide these small UAS (sUAS) with almost the same capabilities as those of the larger drones. Indeed, the flight duration and potential coverage of sUAS are much more modest compared to the larger systems. However, an opportunity to fly at very low altitudes creates a unique niche. This paper presents a brief summary of recent research activities conducted to explore feasibility of several new applications of sUAS equipped with modern small single-spectrum and multi-spectral sensors to detect and possibly classify relatively small (down to several centimeters) objects. The goal of the paper is to encourage further exploration of these and other promising applications for a growing fleet of small robotic aircraft.