BVLOS Operations of Fixed-Wing UAVs for the Collection of Volcanic Ash Above Fuego Volcano, Guatemala

Schellenberg, Ben; Richardson, Thomas; Clarke, R.J.; Watson, Matthew J.; Freer, Jim; Mcconville, Alex; Chigna, Gustavo

doi:10.2514/6.2020-2204

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Wind significantly impacts the maximum glide slope of the X8 UAV, exacerbated by wind speeds surrounding Fuego which regularly measure in excess of the UAV's ideal speed for minimum glide angle (Schellenberg et al, 2019(Schellenberg et al, , 2020Wood et al, 2018). Therefore it is critical to account for wind within the MSOAM.…”

Section: Glide Adjusted For Wind Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One particular area of field research already utilizing both fixed-wing and multirotor UAVs is environmental chemical sensing (Burgués & Marco, 2020). The University of Bristol (UoB) Flight Lab has been conducting long-range, high-altitude, fixed-wing UAV missions through volcanic plumes from Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala since 2017 (Schellenberg et al, 2019(Schellenberg et al, , 2020Wood et al, 2018). The UAV is used to collect volcanic plume samples and atmospheric measurements to help increase our understanding of volcanic ash dispersion with the ultimate aim to develop and integrate an autonomous UAV-based component into current volcano monitoring systems (U.S.G.S., n.d).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Generalizing minimum safe operating altitudes for fixed‐wing UAVs in real‐time

Milne,

McConville,

Richardson

et al. 2024

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper discusses a method of determining the minimum safe altitude of an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) at any point within a designated airspace by conducting a glide reachability analysis. Recently, fixed‐wing UAVs are more regularly deployed near population centers and in extreme environments, requiring increasingly robust emergency systems and planning. The long‐ranges and adverse terrain associated with monitoring the Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala by a team from the University of Bristol (UoB) increases the likelihood that motor failure would result in the aircraft being unable to Return To Home (RTH) and impossible to retrieve. A method for delineating a boundary representing the minimum safe altitude required for the aircraft to safely glide to the airfield in the event of a motor failure was developed within MATLAB, defined by the UAV's minimum glide angle in wind. This model was subsequently compared with flight data from UoB missions around Fuego to better improve its accuracy and analyze the limitations of the missions.

show abstract

Section: Glide Adjusted For Wind Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalizing minimum safe operating altitudes for fixed‐wing UAVs in real‐time

Milne,

McConville,

Richardson

et al. 2024

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The costs associated with the powered and unpowered flight sections for an SUAV have different ratios. A conservative ratio was estimated using the current drawn logs from a University of Bristol Flight Lab modified Skywalker X8 [53,54] to be as much as 10:1 powered to unpowered, meaning the savings in a fully soaring flight could be as much as 90%. The issue with this estimate is that a flight with 100% soaring behavior was only seen in the gulls on days with thermals, where the overall flight time and distance would increase to account for the thermaling sections of flight and would reduce the overall savings by some amount.…”

Section: Energy Savingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bird Velocity Optimization as Inspiration for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Urban Environments

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These problems can be overcome through the use of UASs as they can offer highresolution sampling at varying positions and times, which is something not feasible through many of the conventional approaches to sensing. Schellenberg et al (2019) and Schellenberg et al (2020) used a fixed-wing aircraft to carry out volcanic plume sampling flights multiple times over an operating range of 9 km and at an altitude of above 4000 m, showing the capacity for these vehicles to be useful in data gathering at greater ranges and in circumstances that would be considered too dangerous for a manned aircraft. McGonigle et al (2008) showed the capacity for UASs to be used for remote gas monitoring in hazardous conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-altitude vertical wind profile estimation using multirotor vehicles

McConville

Richardson

2023

Front. Robot. AI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Capturing vertical profiles of the atmosphere and measuring wind conditions can be of significant value for weather forecasting and pollution monitoring however, collecting such data can be limited by current approaches using balloon-based radiosondes and expensive ground-based sensors. Multirotor vehicles can be significantly affected by the local wind conditions, and due to their under-actuated nature, the response to the flow is visible in the changes in the orientation. From these changes in orientation, wind speed and direction estimates can be determined, allowing accurate estimation with no additional sensors. In this work, we expand on and improve this method of wind speed and direction estimation and incorporate corrections for climbing flight to improve estimation during vertical profiling. These corrections were validated against sonic anemometer data before being used to gather vertical profiles of the wind conditions around Volcan De Fuego in Guatemala up to altitudes of 3000 m Above Ground Level (AGL). From the results of this work, we show we can improve the accuracy of multirotor wind estimation in vertical profiling through our improved model and some of the practical limitations of radiosondes that can be overcome through the use of UAS in this application.

show abstract

BVLOS Operations of Fixed-Wing UAVs for the Collection of Volcanic Ash Above Fuego Volcano, Guatemala

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

Generalizing minimum safe operating altitudes for fixed‐wing UAVs in real‐time

Generalizing minimum safe operating altitudes for fixed‐wing UAVs in real‐time

Bird Velocity Optimization as Inspiration for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Urban Environments

High-altitude vertical wind profile estimation using multirotor vehicles

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About