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Active Information Gathering for Avalanche Monitoring using Long Endurance UAVs
This project aims to develop active information gathering methods for long endurance UAVs for avalanche monitoring applications. Given that the region of interest is large, conventional coverage based methods are not suited to gather information within a limited time frame. Moreover, monitoring terrain in an alpine environment is a challenging problem due to the large altitude variations and the high wind that the vehicle can encounter. We aim to solve this problem by planning vehicle trajectories to optimize the amount of information that the vehicle can gather while operating safely in alpine environments.
Snow avalanches kill, on average, 22 people per year in the Swiss Alps alone. This makes them the most deadly natural hazard, responsible for more than one third of all natural hazard fatalities. The main source of information on avalanche hazard in Switzerland for authorities, safety personnel of ski resorts and traffic lines, as well as the public, is the avalanche bulletin of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. However, spatially continuous, near real-time information on avalanche activity, which would be key information for the bulletin, is not available today due to the remoteness of many alpine regions. Information provided by the observer network is highly incomplete. Optical satellite imagery with high spatial resolution on the other hand, is inflexible because it only covers selected areas on request, is very costly, often obstructed by high cloud cover and is generally limited in temporal resolution to days between repeat observations.
Snow avalanches kill, on average, 22 people per year in the Swiss Alps alone. This makes them the most deadly natural hazard, responsible for more than one third of all natural hazard fatalities. The main source of information on avalanche hazard in Switzerland for authorities, safety personnel of ski resorts and traffic lines, as well as the public, is the avalanche bulletin of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. However, spatially continuous, near real-time information on avalanche activity, which would be key information for the bulletin, is not available today due to the remoteness of many alpine regions. Information provided by the observer network is highly incomplete. Optical satellite imagery with high spatial resolution on the other hand, is inflexible because it only covers selected areas on request, is very costly, often obstructed by high cloud cover and is generally limited in temporal resolution to days between repeat observations.
- Evaluation of information gathering methods for mapping
- Literature review on informative path planning / adaptive sensor planning methods
- Quantitative evaluations of baseline methods
- Software Integration
- Integration of proposed method to a photorealistic simulator
- - Experiments, evaluation, write-up
- Evaluation of information gathering methods for mapping - Literature review on informative path planning / adaptive sensor planning methods - Quantitative evaluations of baseline methods - Software Integration - Integration of proposed method to a photorealistic simulator - - Experiments, evaluation, write-up
- Highly motivated students
- Knowledge of C++ / Python is a plus
- Experience with PX4 / ROS is a plus
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- Highly motivated students - Knowledge of C++ / Python is a plus - Experience with PX4 / ROS is a plus -