Advanced Surface Movement and Obstacle Detection Using Thermal Camera for UAVs

The paper presents the work on integrating an Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control system with thermal imaging based obstacle detection and warning system. The aim is to enable in the future UAS to operate cooperatively with manned aircraft and enable autonomous taxiing of UAVs in busy and complex airport hubs. The A-SMGCS system was based on Frankfurt airport map in Germany, while the thermal imaging used to develop the vehicle detection algorithm were taken at Cranfield airport in the UK.