Development of an sUAS-Mounted Texel Camera

Team

Currently, there is growth in the demand for scientifically accurate terrain maps of the earth. One method to acquire these maps is fusing digital imagery and LiDAR sensor data to create a Textured Digital Elevation Map (TDEM). Due to current LiDAR capability and availability, obtaining accurate terrain maps can be greater than $100,000.
A proposed solution is to build a sensor package that is adaptable to small, unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), called a Texel Camera, made of inexpensive commercial off the shelf (COTS) sensors.
The applications of this data are valuable in agricultural surveying, department of transportation, military, and low-cost 3D mapping.

The Texel Camera is composed of three main sensors: LiDAR, digital camera, and an Inertial Navigation System.
During flight, the field of view (FOV) of the Texel Camera is 40° in the horizontal direction and 15.8° in the vertical direction.
Data from the three sensors is acquired at 10 frames per second and stored in an on-board solid-state drive to create a texel swath.

Development of the Texel Camera involved four main design challenges: mechanical structure design, sensor calibration, data acquisition, and sUAS integration.
A rigid structure aluminum structure prevents relative motion between sensors and the ability to adapt to commercial fixed-wing and rotorcraft aerial systems.
Software design for data acquisition of the three sensors allows a capture rate of 10 swaths per second.

The Texel Camera has been assembled and calibrated on the mechanical structure for integration with an sUAS.
Future work involves flight testing during the summer of 2019 to determine the accuracy of the system and make modifications and improvements.