A Small UAV for Immediate Hazard Map Generation

Abstract

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system providing quick response imagery for natural disaster assessment was developed. A prototype UAV and on-board software using a GPS navigation system were developed for this purpose. The flight performance was evaluated by 6DOF simulations and rigorous flight tests. In the proposed system, collected images by an on-board digital camera is transmitted in real-time to a spatial temporal GIS to share the information. The usability of the small UAV system was qualified by a flight experiment in a city-wide emergency evacuation drill.