Not Responding

Create an app that will enable small drone operators to know more about specific weather parameters, local terrain and no fly zones within a five-mile radius of their GPS location.

Our project is a web app that gives drone operators information about the weather, the terrain and no fly zones, telemetry, and a live camera feed. The drone will have ultrasound sensors to check for obstacles, and a GPS transmitter and an accelerometer to alert the user if the drone is moving unexpectedly, which would probably be due to wind.

We connected four ultrasound sensors and an accelerometer to an Arduino Nano to test the obstacle and unexpected movement detection (code: https://github.com/wolfgarr/SpaceApps/). This device does not transmit anything, but has an LED for each ultrasound sensor, a piezo buzzer that goes off when an ultrasound sensor detects a distance short enough, and another buzzer that goes off when the accelerometer detects a high acceleration, which shows that the sensors work as intended. We used an Android tablet with the app IP Webcam to test the camera feed.

Gallery of prototype: http://imgur.com/a/rCfu4

Current weather conditions at the position of the drone and at four points around it are downloaded from Weather Underground and displayed on the map provided by Google Maps in the app (https://github.com/son-la/NasaSpaceAppChallenge2016-NotResponding/). Weather conditions for the current position are also displayed in an overlay. The app can use both the street map and the satellite map. The no fly zones in Finland were given in a format that was hard to use, so we defined our own arbitrary no fly zone for testing purposes. This prototype does not use real GPS positions, but drone movement and data transmission can be simulated by sending movement data from another app (found in the same git repository) to the main app. If the test position is in a no-fly zone, the app shows a notification.

The finished project would be a module that could be attached to any drone. This module would perform all the functions of the Android tablet and the Arduino device and also have a GPS transmitter, a humidity sensor, a pressure sensor and a temperature sensor to provide accurate position, velocity and weather data. The camera would be capable of recording 3D and infrared imagery to give better terrain information and work in all light conditions. The image would be processed by the app to detect obstacles such as trees and water. The module would use laser image mapping. The standard model would use spot measuring, and more expensive models would have a rotating scanner.

The drone module and the app would connect to a server that other drones also connect to, which would give users the positions of other drones so that they could avoid crashing into them. The server would have the web app, but other clients could also be made. The module would also be capable of peer-to-peer communication with other drones in case the connection to the server is lost. Drones would use TCAS and ADS-B to get the position of airplanes. They could also have an ADS-B transmitter to transmit their location to airplanes, but that would be expensive. The server would have an API to make it easy for developers to develop their own client programs.

The drone module and the app would connect to a server that other drones also connect to, which would give users the positions of other drones so that they could avoid crashing into them. The server would have the web app, but other client programs could also be made. The module would also be capable of peer-to-peer communication with other drones in case the connection to the server is lost. Drones would use TCAS and ADS-B to get the position of airplanes. They could also have an ADS-B transmitter to transmit their location to airplanes, but that would be expensive. The server would have an API to make it easy for developers to develop their own client programs.

The app would let users plan their flight before flying to let them know if they would enter no-fly zones or areas with bad weather or obstacles. Its user interface would be highly customizable. The user could specify which server to connect to. Both the server and the client would be open-source.

The drone module and the app would connect to a server that other drones also connect to, which would give users the positions of other drones so that they could avoid crashing into them. The server would have the web app, but other client programs could also be made. The module would also be capable of peer-to-peer communication with other drones in case the connection to the server is lost. Drones would use TCAS and ADS-B to get the position of airplanes. They could also have an ADS-B transmitter to transmit their location to airplanes, but that would be expensive. The server would have an API to make it easy for developers to develop their own client programs.

Google Maps (http://google.com/maps/)

Weather Underground (http://wunderground.com/)

IP Webcam (http://ip-webcam.appspot.com/)