Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Platform for Integrated Smart City Applications

This project primarily targets the development and integration of UAV systems as mobile information-gathering tools and service dispatch systems within an integrated smart city application platform. Based on unmanned aerial systems (UAS), we will develop, test and validate a new model for smart city applications. The UAVs will interoperate with other devices and with humans in the loop to deliver various smart city services.

The concept of smart city, in a broad sense, relates to the extensive use of information technology to manage urban resources and provide better services, including public transportation, healthcare, e-governance, entertainment and e-commerce. For the purpose of this project, we will limit the scope of this concept to those aspects that make use of integrated sensors, networked devices, automated systems, and data analytics tools for collecting and analyzing information to improve various processes and services in urban areas (e.g., waste management, safety and security, logistics, disaster response and emergency management). 

Recently, because of their mobility and versatility, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used to provide on-demand information for the management of various services. They can also serve as tools to directly perform important tasks at specific places as needed in a timely and cost-effective manner. 

 

Project aim and objectives

The project aims to develop and validate a smart city enabling platform that integrates unmanned aerial systems, stationary sensory components, a backend analytics engine and a user interface into a unified framework to provide essential capabilities required for modern smart city applications.  The project will focus on three main objectives. Specifically, they are to:

  • develop a conceptual framework for smart city implementation
  • develop unique, multi-purpose UAVs with advanced perception and AI capabilities such as object detection and tracking, mission planning, autonomous navigation, localization and mapping.
  • realize an intelligent and interactive system control interface in the form of an intuitive graphics user interface (GUI) and a backend analytics engine that focuses on ease of use and modularity

Read more about the project: http://www.dynamic-iq.com/node/1