PRE2015 3 Groep1

Group members

• Indy Hoeks - 0911750
• Aaron Steinbusch - 0903892
• Valery Visser - 0847109
• Goos Wetzer - 0902160
• Viktor van Wijk - 0905890
• René Zaal - 0810911

Introduction

A drone assisting security. This sounds like a well known subject. But what about a drone that flies through a building and detects changes in time? In this way, it is able to detect suspicious activities in corners or difficult spots. These spots would be blind spots for regular surveillance cameras. The prejudice of our flying security drones is that they can cover large buildings, with less cameras. The drone can notice suspicious movements and if it does, the drone can warn security, which then can check whether there is actually something wrong. This can be done by looking at the footage the drone sends. In the meantime, the drone will follow the person or object that triggered the alarm, and record what it sees to help recognize the perpetrator, should he/she escape. If a drone gets taken down, the alarm will go off automatically. If drones are used as surveillance cameras or guards, less actual security guards will have to be hired. Therefore, the costs for the security will go down. Another prejudice is the fact the drone can be used if stationairy cameras are not an option. For example on building sites where a lot of stuff is stolen or on open areas where it is simply impossible to mount a fixed camera. The drone could also be used for secondary uses during the day: The company could use it to make pictures or videos. However, this will not be the aim of this project. A drone’s movement could also become predictable after a while. Therefore, the route the drone will take have to be completely random, but it should not be completely random because this could lead to situations where there are a lot of drones in one area and none in another area, which makes other areas vulnerable. Using a path that looks random will prevent thieves from predicting how long the drone is away or where it will be at a given moment. The user can select points where the drone should check. Those points will correspondent with rooms, hallways, or important objects.

General information (voeg references toe)

A drone is a type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). As the name implies, it is a vehicle that can operate in the air, without any person operating it in the vehicle itself. There are two types of UAVs: Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs): these are UAVs that are remotely controlled by its operator from a distance. Because of this, the person who controls the airplane makes the decision how the vehicle behaves. On the other hand, we have a drone. It is an unmanned vehicle that operates almost completely autonomous; The drone gets a target from a controller, and then performs the actions completely autonomously.

Different types of UAVs

Micro- and mini-UAVs

These UAVs are the smallest type of them all. They can only fly up to a maximum of 300 metres and are about the size of an average adult hand. Because they are so small, they can maneuver in smaller and more complex areas than all the other types of UAVs. These are especially designed for urban environments and housings.

Tactical UAVs

These fly up to a height of between 3 kilometres and 8 kilometres and can communicate and be operated over a distance of 3000 kilometres and can function for a maximum period of 40 hours. These type of UAVs are used by military force, and can even be equipped with missiles.

Strategic UAV

These can fly up to a maximum of 20 kilometers, have a flight period of about 30 hours. These type of drones are also used by military force.

Rules

UAVs can be equipped with many kinds of technologies, such as cameras, sensors, microphones and other communicating devices. And because these vehicles have these abilities, there needs to be rules made about what is appropriate and what not when using a certain type of drone. One of these themes for the rules is privacy. For example: in what type of situations can these drones be deployed in and what not? Depending on the drones capabilities, which ways are appropriate or not appropriate to act on autonomously for the drone and its situation, it should also be clear who should be held responsible for the drones actions, if the drones acts in an inappropriate way.

Another example is from the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC). This party has called for federal agencies to regulate and control the proliferation of these machines that are used for purposes of surveillance; especially in the area of hacking drones and other UAVs. To protect drones from being hacked, EPIC came up with certain ideas such as to circumvent encryption codes within drone surveillance software and the ability to manipulate hardware to gain access to drone surveillance data.

All these types of rules and approaches should be made before any type of droid is officially released to the public. There should not only be certain rules that should hold for all different types of droids in general (like a droid should not do harm to anybody), but also specific rules for robots that have certain properties. Like for example: when a drone has a camera installed on it, it should not be able to publicly expose the footage it takes, because that would violate the aspect of someone’s privacy.

Sound

A drone for our use must be as silent as possible, otherwise you can hear it approaching. While the technology for drones is rapidly evolving, physics demands certain limits in their use. One of the things that determines the efficiency of a patrolling drone is the sound it produces. After all, if a perpetrator does not hear the drone, the chance that he/she gets caught increases drastically. While the possibilities for indoor drones are limited in type and size, for outdoor applications such as industrial sites and estates the possibilities are unbounded. The general rule is: the bigger the propellers, the lower the tonal distribution. Often the sound pressure produced is similar if not the same, but at lower tones in the sound spectrum, the noise quickly becomes inaudible at a reasonable distance. For inside applications the most quiet applications are balloon based, but those solutions are not quick enough for keeping track of a perpetrator. This means that the largest possible quadro- or octocopter becomes the design for indoors. Since there are no size constraints for outdoors, the easiest solution available is having a large durable drone patrolling high in the sky.

State of the art

Needless to say, the different types of UAVs can be implemented using different technologies.

Floaters

The main piece of technology consists of the equipped camera and the rest is just a balloon with some propellers to keep or place it in position. Except for the camera, this type of drone has not advanced much in the past decades. Due to the balloon based concept, these drones are stable, inexpensive, inaudible, energy efficient, durable, can cover huge tracts of land, but must be tethered and sometimes be reeled in when stronger winds occur.

Planes

These are the most used type of drones in governmental and military parties. For example, the MQ-9 Reaper keeps the borders of the UK in check. As far as half a century ago, the military used drones of this kind for reconnaissance. Nowadays the kinds of drones we are looking for when it comes to surveying large areas, are of the plane persuasion. These planes fly at several kilometers high and have special cameras onboard for making sharp, detailed images from a large distance. They are suited for patrolling large areas (they are even deployed for forests and national borders) and can chase targets through open areas. They will however quickly lose a target inside a building since they are not able to turn quickly enough to navigate inside buildings.

Quadcopters and octocopters

There is but a small difference between the two, octocopters are a bit more stable and are more redundant, most octocopters can land safely when one of the propellers breaks. These types of drones have ruled the consumer market lately and are rapidly becoming more affordable. These drones are often incapable of flying very high or fast, but are exceptionally suited for usage inside buildings. Because they are airborne, they can easily navigate stairs and blockages that would stem most other robots in their navigation. Their ability to change direction quickly and make precise movements is helpful in quickly and safely navigating the corridors of a building. These type of drones are obviously the best choice for indoor surveillance.