Are flight paths of nocturnal songbird migrants influenced by local coastlines at a peninsula？

By recording nocturnally migrating passerines with tracking radar we have investigated how coastlines affect the migrants＇ flight paths. Birds could use coastlines as an orientation aid or as a reference cue to compensate for wind drift while mi- grating. However, on the small scale of Falsterbo Peninsula in southern Sweden, we found very little effect of coastlines on migrants flight paths, irrespective of altitude. We tracked 2 930 migrants in three autumn and two spring seasons, at altitudes from 60 up to 3 000 meters. We compared tracks of migrants flying in three different areas, which correspond to the three main coastlines, and can demonstrate that the orientation of the tracks did not differ in a way consistent with the coastlines between the areas in autumn, and showed only a slight effect in spring. This is in accordance with earlier infrared device monitoring in Falsterbo, but contrary to earlier visual observations. It supports the view of nocturnally migrating passerines as mainly broad-front migrants. Even though the coastlines on the scale of the peninsula affected the flight paths very little, it is possible that the coastline has an effect on a larger regional scale, by migrants avoiding long sea crossings and thereby being funneled towards the peninsula, but this remains to be investigated [Current Zoology 60 （5）： 660-669, 2014].

Comparison between Google Earth KML Data and RTK Data on a Flight Planning Simulated to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Microdrone MD4-1000

The UAVs （unmanned aerial vehicles） and the use of graphical data files of extension KML （keyhole markup language） have become popular nowadays. The KML files are associated to the Google Earth applications. Developed by Microdrone company for planning, overflight simulation and data flight analysis, the program mdCockpit was used in this experiment. The UAV Microdrone＇s flight path was programmed in two ways： using geo referenced images from Google Earth and entering points coordinates into the program. These points have had their geographical decimal coordinates collected by GPS （global positioning system） （RTK （real time kinematic）） method. The aim here is to describe a way of evaluating the difference between the alternatives of flight planning. A flight path, defined a route with 22 points, was also simulated in the program mdCockpit. The points were collected and saved, while the images captured by the program went automatically forming a georeferenced mosaic. A comparison between the differences of coordinates to each point was made by choosing on the images and also by a RTK positioning. The result was up to 14.20 m to a 100 m flight height. There is a significant change of position and this can result in unwanted over flights in locations or even jeopardizing the safety of air activity.

Futuristic Flight Path

ZAM BIA＇S third largest city Ndola, headquarters of the country＇s famed copper-mining region known as the Copperbelt, has long wished for a modern air- port. Now the wish is to materialize with a $500-mil- lion facility on the drawing board. The project is being developed by the Aviation Industry Corp. of China （AVIC）, a company involved in the production of military aircraft and information and communications technology products as well as construction of commercial airports. The artistic impressions of the airport developed by AVIC include a terminal, aircraft and other vehicle parking spaces, and a hotel. At the time of writing this, the Zambian Government was looking for over $500 million so that construction could begin on the 2,000-hectare site in a forest reserve west of the city.

Study of Multi-objective Fuzzy Optimization for Path Planning

During path planning, it is necessary to satisfy the requirements of multiple objectives. Multi-objective synthesis is based on the need of flight mission and subjectivity inclination of decision-maker. The decision-maker, however, has illegibility for under- standing the requirements of multiple objectives and the subjectivity inclination. It is important to develop a reasonable cost performance index for describing the illegibility of the decision-maker in multi-objective path planning. Based on Voronoi dia- gram method for the path planning, this paper studies the synthesis method of the multi-objective cost performance index. Ac- cording to the application of the cost performance index to the path planning based on Voronoi diagram method, this paper ana- lyzes the cost performance index which has been referred to at present. The analysis shows the insufficiency of the cost per- formance index at present, i.e., it is difficult to synthesize sub-objective flmctions because of the great disparity of the sub-objective fimctions. Thus, a new approach is developed to optimize the cost performance index with the multi-objective fuzzy optimization strategy, and an improved performance index is established, which could coordinate the weight conflict of the sub-objective functions. Finally, the experimental result shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach.