Unmanned Vehicle Land, Air and Water for Surveillance

The objective of this work is to develop a cost effective unmanned ground vehicle which would carry out surveillance and tracking missions in fortress area. The developed system is equipped with a high frequency GPS module and Auto pilot controller, which enabled the user to define the mission path. Live status of the system's current position, speed, battery status etc. can be viewed from the ground station. If necessary, the unmanned vehicle would be switched over from manual mode to autonomous mode. The system is equipped with a down facing optical flow sensor and forward facing SONAR sensor for obstacle avoidance. It is also equipped with a high end wireless, infrared camera for capture and transmission of video under low light conditions. The vehicle is pre-programmed to return to base in case of communication breakdown, thereby minimizing the chances of system loss. Surveillance is critical for military, law enforcement, and search and rescue operations. In the past, stealth aircraft and helicopters were used for these types of missions. Recently however, unmanned vehicles (UVs) have grown in popularity and are an excellent resource that can be utilized for surveillance missions. Since this is a common capability of UV, this project will create a surveillance that is autonomous, inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to manufacture. The unmanned vehicle is designed as a tricopter that houses one camera with a wireless transmission system that provides live feed from the cameras to the ground station. It is also intended to be able to carry a payload for future developments. Though not all of the goals is fully realized by the project's conclusion due to stability and networking complications, the UV met size and cost standards, and could successfully localize its position with GPS and IMU sensors. Additionally, its controls are understood through simulation and testing.