Development of micro-UAV with integrated motion planning for open-cut mining surveillance

Small unmanned aerial vehicles called micro-UAVs are excellent examples of cyber-physical systems which interact with complex and dynamic environments. The success of this technology depends on smart avionics systems compensating for the physical limitations of small airframes, which have very limited on-board power. This paper presents development of micro-UAV for surveillance of open-cut mining sites that represent significant challenges due to difficult terrain and changing wind conditions. The real time aircraft control is integrated with motion planning based on Rapid-exploring Random Tree (RRT) methods which allow efficient handling of the wind factor. The main computational difficulty with RRT in real time motion planning is overcome by employing reduced forward model (RFM) of the aircraft. We also outline some strategies on integrating motion planning, control, and payload processors in reconfigurable hardware to optimise performance and power consumption. The micro-UAV development process is incremental and in large part based on simulations with hardware in the loop but gathering data from experimental flights is essential for accurate reduced forward models. We developed the avionics and experimental vehicle and used it in surveillance missions over mining sites to validate our approach.