Friday, July 8, 2005

Invisanet - 3rd place @ WESC 2005


Project name: Invisanet
Contest: WESC 2005
Award: 3rd place
Alpha Team: Anca Mihaela Hamuraru, Alin-Iulian Lazar, Florin Dinu si Cosmin Nicolae Stan
Mentor: Nicolae Tapus, Vlad Panait
(raport)

In the news:



Abstract:
Aerial reconnaissance has long been a field of engineering research. However, even powerful and accurate systems such as those based on satellite photography are flawed by their latency, cost and availability. Common commercially-available satellite imaging products offer data that is usually several months old and has an acceptable level of detail only for some locations [1]. Real time satellite surveillance is expensive and normally available only to military personnel for national security purposes [2]. There are situations when people need a fast and convenient way to obtain real time aerial images of the surrounding territory, on a small or medium scale, for such purposes as helping people in danger in crisis situations or for industrial applications.
Invisanet (Intelligent Visualisation Aerial Network) is a system that gathers and intelligently interprets bird’s eye views of nearby terrains. It uses a network of aerial units flying at a relatively low altitude that are able to take pictures of the terrain and send them to a ground station for processing and dissemination. The images are automatically adjoined in a broader view based on their relative position and orientation. Users provided with mobile devices can send requests to the system to visualise the incoming images in real time or to indicate areas to be explored. The system elaborates plans and trajectories to cover those areas and instructs the airborne units to follow them accordingly using motion control commands and GPS-based positioning feedback. Advanced services such as pattern recognition inside the incoming images are also provided to the users.
Invisanet is lightweight and cost-effective. It is made up of easy to deploy components:
Airborne Units (AUs) – they are primarily floating helium blimps equipped with an embedded photo camera module, navigational and positioning mechanisms and wireless communication equipment; they are responsible for data gathering.
Communication, Information and Control Coordinator (CIC) – a highly portable unit located on the ground that is built using an eBox II device; it receives data from the AUs, processes it and sends it to system users or accepts requests from the users and envisions plans to accomplish them.
Portable Devices (PDs) – they are provided to system users and consist of mobile platforms; they are used to connect to the CIC and request data or provide control commands for the AUs.
Thus, Invisanet comes with a novel approach to aerial imaging, making it more responsive, accessible and flexible. Its fast response time is critical in certain applications such as search-rescue missions and crisis response in floods or in an otherwise inaccessible territory. As dynamic data is fed into the system users can focus their exploration on certain areas of interest in real time. The ability to use Invisanet to monitor ongoing events makes it suitable for dealing with environmental issues such as cleaning oil spills or for crowd control and security surveillance. Versatility is also an important issue in the design of Invisanet: the system not only gathers raw data but also processes it in order to be mapped alongside geographical positioning information. Furthermore, application-specific processing algorithms are applied in order to obtain pattern or area matching.
Invisanet introduces an innovative approach to aerial imaging that can bring many benefits to fields such as industry, agriculture or the protection of people and of the environment. Its users can thus transcend their field of view, gain a new perspective on the local situation and ultimately expand their horizon.