Winter Wheat Crop Height Estimation Using Small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS)

Deploying the small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) for data collection of high-resolution images is a big potential in determining crop physiological parameters. The advantage of using sUAS technology is the ability to acquire a high-resolution orthophoto and a 3D Model which is highly suitable for plant height monitoring. Plant height estimation has a big impact in the growth and development of wheat because it is essential for obtaining biomass, which is a factor for higher crop yield. Plant height is an indicator of high yield estimation and it correlates to biomass, nitrogen content, and other plant growth parameters. The study is aimed to determine an accurate height of wheat using the sUAS generated Digital Surface Model (DSM). A high-resolution imagery between 1.0 - 1.2 cm/pixel was obtained from a 35 m altitude with area coverage of 1.01 hectares. The DSM and orthophoto were generated from the sUAS, and the computed wheat heights were derived from the difference of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and DSM data. Field measurement using steel tape was done for ground truth. The sUAS-based wheat height data were evaluated using the ground truth of 66 wheat-rows by applying correlation and linear regression analysis. Datasets were collected from three different flight campaigns (March 2018-May 2018). The sUAS-based wheat height data were significantly correlated, obtaining the result of R2 = 0.988, R2 = 0.996 and R2 = 0.944 for the month of March, April and May 2018 respectively. The significance of linear regression results was also validated by computing for the p-value. The p-value results were 0.00064, 0.0000824 and 0.0058 respectively. The main concern is the lodging of winter wheat, especially during the month of April which affects the recording of the plant’s height. Because some of the wheat plants are now lying on the ground, so measurements are done vertically. Nonetheless, the results showed that sUAS technology is highly suitable for many agricultural applications.

Online Multi-Object Tracking Under Moving Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platform Based on Object Detection and Feature Extraction Network

In order to solve the problem of small object size and low detection accuracy under the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)platform,the object detection algorithm based on deep aggregation network and high-resolution fusion module is studied.Furthermore,a joint network of object detection and feature extraction is studied to construct a real-time multi-object tracking algorithm.For the problem of object association failure caused by UAV movement,image registration is applied to multi-object tracking and a camera motion discrimination model is proposed to improve the speed of the multi-object tracking algorithm.The simulation results show that the algorithm proposed in this study can improve the accuracy of multi-object tracking under the UAV platform,and effectively solve the problem of association failure caused by UAV movement.

Small objects detection in UAV aerial images based on improved Faster R-CNN

In order to solve the problem of small objects detection in unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)aerial images with complex background,a general detection method for multi-scale small objects based on Faster region-based convolutional neural network(Faster R-CNN)is proposed.The bird’s nest on the high-voltage tower is taken as the research object.Firstly,we use the improved convolutional neural network ResNet101 to extract object features,and then use multi-scale sliding windows to obtain the object region proposals on the convolution feature maps with different resolutions.Finally,a deconvolution operation is added to further enhance the selected feature map with higher resolution,and then it taken as a feature mapping layer of the region proposals passing to the object detection sub-network.The detection results of the bird’s nest in UAV aerial images show that the proposed method can precisely detect small objects in aerial images.

Bearing-only Visual SLAM for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in GPS-denied Environments

This paper presents a hierarchical simultaneous localization and mapping（SLAM） system for a small unmanned aerial vehicle（UAV） using the output of an inertial measurement unit（IMU） and the bearing-only observations from an onboard monocular camera.A homography based approach is used to calculate the motion of the vehicle in 6 degrees of freedom by image feature match.This visual measurement is fused with the inertial outputs by an indirect extended Kalman filter（EKF） for attitude and velocity estimation.Then,another EKF is employed to estimate the position of the vehicle and the locations of the features in the map.Both simulations and experiments are carried out to test the performance of the proposed system.The result of the comparison with the referential global positioning system/inertial navigation system（GPS/INS） navigation indicates that the proposed SLAM can provide reliable and stable state estimation for small UAVs in GPS-denied environments.

Two-layer formation-containment fault-tolerant control of fixed-wing UAV swarm for dynamic target tracking

This paper tackles the formation-containment control problem of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)swarm with model uncertainties for dynamic target tracking in three-dimensional space in the faulty case of UAVs’actuator and sensor.The fixed-wing UAV swarm under consideration is organized as a“multi-leader-multi-follower”structure,in which only several leaders can obtain the dynamic target information while others only receive the neighbors’information through the communication network.To simultaneously realize the formation,containment,and dynamic target tracking,a two-layer control framework is adopted to decouple the problem into two subproblems:reference trajectory generation and trajectory tracking.In the upper layer,a distributed finite-time estimator(DFTE)is proposed to generate each UAV’s reference trajectory in accordance with the control objective.Subsequently,a distributed composite robust fault-tolerant trajectory tracking controller is developed in the lower layer,where a novel adaptive extended super-twisting(AESTW)algorithm with a finite-time extended state observer(FTESO)is involved in solving the robust trajectory tracking control problem under model uncertainties,actuator,and sensor faults.The proposed controller simultaneously guarantees rapidness and enhances the system’s robustness with fewer chattering effects.Finally,corresponding simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and competitiveness of the proposed two-layer fault-tolerant cooperative control scheme.

Radio Controlled “3D Aerobatic Airplanes” as Basis for Fixed-Wing UAVs with VTOL Capability

There are fundamental performance compromises between rotary-wing and fixed-wing UAVs. The general solution to address this well-known problem is the design of a platform with some degree of reconfigurable airframes. For critical missions (civilian or military), it is imperative that mechanical complexity is kept to a minimum to help achieve mission success. This work proposes that the tried-and-true radio controlled (RC) aerobatic airplanes can be implemented as basis for fixed-wing UAVs having both speed and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities. These powerful and highly maneuverable airplanes have non-rotatable nacelles, yet capable of deep stall maneuvers. The power requirements for VTOL and level flight of an aerobatic RC airplane are evaluated and they are compared to those of a RC helicopter of similar flying weight. This work provides quantitative validation that commercially available RC aerobatic airplanes can serve as platform to build VTOL capable fixed-wing UAVs that are agile, cost effective, reliable and easy maintenance.

Improved Weighted Local Contrast Method for Infrared Small Target Detection

In order to address the problem of high false alarm rate and low probabilities of infrared small target detection in complex low-altitude background,an infrared small target detection method based on improved weighted local contrast is proposed in this paper.First,the ratio information between the target and local background is utilized as an enhancement factor.The local contrast is calculated by incorporating the heterogeneity between the target and local background.Then,a local product weighted method is designed based on the spatial dissimilarity between target and background to further enhance target while suppressing background.Finally,the location of target is obtained by adaptive threshold segmentation.As experimental results demonstrate,the method shows superior performance in several evaluation metrics compared with six existing algorithms on different datasets containing targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV).

Adaptive cropping shallow attention network for defect detection of bridge girder steel using unmanned aerial vehicle images

Bridges are an important part of railway infrastructure and need regular inspection and maintenance.Using unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)technology to inspect railway infrastructure is an active research issue.However,due to the large size of UAV images,flight distance,and height changes,the object scale changes dramatically.At the same time,the elements of interest in railway bridges,such as bolts and corrosion,are small and dense objects,and the sample data set is seriously unbalanced,posing great challenges to the accurate detection of defects.In this paper,an adaptive cropping shallow attention network(ACSANet)is proposed,which includes an adaptive cropping strategy for large UAV images and a shallow attention network for small object detection in limited samples.To enhance the accuracy and generalization of the model,the shallow attention network model integrates a coordinate attention(CA)mechanism module and an alpha intersection over union(α-IOU)loss function,and then carries out defect detection on the bolts,steel surfaces,and railings of railway bridges.The test results show that the ACSANet model outperforms the YOLOv5s model using adaptive cropping strategy in terms of the total mAP(an evaluation index)and missing bolt mAP by 5%and 30%,respectively.Also,compared with the YOLOv5s model that adopts the common cropping strategy,the total mAP and missing bolt mAP are improved by 10%and 60%,respectively.Compared with the YOLOv5s model without any cropping strategy,the total mAP and missing bolt mAP are improved by 40%and 67%,respectively.

Affine formation tracking control of unmanned aerial vehicles

The affine formation tracking problem for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)is considered in this paper,where fixed-wing UAVs are modeled as unicycle-type agents with asymmetrical speed constraints.A group of UAVs are required to generate and track a time-varying target formation obtained by affinely transforming a nominal formation.To handle this problem,a distributed control law based on stress matrix is proposed under the leader-follower control scheme.It is proved,theoretically,that followers can converge to the desired positions and achieve affine transformations while tracking diverse trajectories.Furthermore,a saturated control strategy is proposed to meet the speed constraints of fixed-wing UAVs,and numerical simulations are executed to verify the effectiveness of our proposed affine formation tracking control strategy in improving maneuverability.

Gradient Descent Algorithm for Small UAV Parameter Estimation System

A gradient descent algorithm with adjustable parameter for attitude estimation is developed,aiming at the attitude measurement for small unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)in real-time flight conditions.The accelerometer and magnetometer are introduced to construct an error equation with the gyros,thus the drifting characteristics of gyroscope can be compensated by solving the error equation utilized by the gradient descent algorithm.Performance of the presented algorithm is evaluated using a self-proposed micro-electro-mechanical system(MEMS)based attitude heading reference system which is mounted on a tri-axis turntable.The on-ground,turntable and flight experiments indicate that the estimation attitude has a good accuracy.Also,the presented system is compared with an open-source flight control system which runs extended Kalman filter(EKF),and the results show that the attitude control system using the gradient descent method can estimate the attitudes for UAV effectively.

MFE-YOLOX:无人机航拍下密集小目标检测算法

针对无人机航拍时物体尺度变化大,检测目标大多较小且物体较密集的问题,提出一种混合特征增强结构(mix feature enhancement, MFE)方法。通过在超分辨率方法中加入注意力机制以增强小目标信息提取,利用一种新的特征层融合计算方法,加强不同特征层间的融合效率,提高了中小型目标的检测精度;设计了尾端感受野扩大层以扩大尾端特征层感受野,使检测头可接收丰富的物体信息来定位并区分密集物体。实验在数据集VisDrone2021的测试集上进行测试,MFE-YOLOX网络的AP50结果为47.78%,在参数量、计算量与原网络相近的情况下精度提高了9.43个百分点。

基于上下文信息与特征细化的无人机小目标检测算法

无人机航拍图像中的目标检测是近年来研究的热点,针对无人机视角下目标小而密集、背景复杂导致检测精度低的问题,提出一种基于上下文信息与特征细化的无人机小目标检测算法。通过上下文特征增强模块,利用多尺度扩张卷积捕获与周围区域像素点的潜在关系,为网络补充上下文信息,并根据不同尺度的特征层自适应生成各层级特征图的输出权重,动态优化特征图表达能力;由于不同特征图细粒度不同,使用特征细化模块来抑制特征融合中冲突信息的干扰,防止小目标特征淹没在冲突信息中;设计了一种带权重的损失函数,加快模型收敛速度,进一步提高小目标检测精度。在VisDrone2021数据集进行大量实验表明,改进后的模型较基准模型mAP50提高8.4个百分点,mAP50:95提高5.9个百分点,FPS为42,有效提高了无人机航拍图像中小目标的检测精度。

高阶深度可分离无人机图像小目标检测算法

当前无人机图像中存在小目标数量众多、背景复杂的特点,目标检测中易造成漏检误检率较高的问题,针对这些问题,提出一种高阶深度可分离无人机图像小目标检测算法.首先,结合CSPNet结构与ConvMixer网络,深度可分离卷积核,获取梯度结合信息,并引入递归门控卷积C3模块,提升模型的高阶空间交互能力,增强网络对小目标的敏感度;其次,检测头采用两个头部进行解耦,分别输出特征图分类和位置信息,加快模型收敛速度;最后,使用边框损失函数EIoU,提高检测框精准度.在VisDrone2019数据集上的实验结果表明,该模型检测精度达到了35.1%,模型漏检率和误检率有明显下降,能够有效地应用于无人机图像小目标检测任务.在DOTA 1.0数据集和HRSID数据集上进行模型泛化能力测试,实验结果表明,该模型具有良好的鲁棒性.

基于改进YOLOv5s的无人机小目标检测算法

为了解决传统目标检测算法对无人机(UAV)航拍小目标存在错漏检严重的问题,提出基于YOLOv5的无人机小目标检测算法FDB-YOLO.在YOLOv5的基础上增加小目标检测层,优化特征融合网络,充分利用网络浅层小目标细粒信息,提升网络感知能力;提出损失函数FPIoU,通过充分利用锚框的几何性质,采用四点位置偏置约束函数,优化锚框定位,加快损失函数收敛速度;采用结合注意力机制的动态目标检测头(DyHead),通过增加尺度、空间、任务感知提升算法检测能力;在特征提取部分引入双级路由注意力机制(BRA),通过有选择性地对相关区域进行计算,过滤无关区域,提升模型的检测精确度.实验证明,在VisDrone2019数据集上,本算法与YOLOv5s目标检测算法相比,精确率提升了3.7个百分点,召回率提升了5.1个百分点,mAP50增加了5.8个百分点,mAP_(50∶95)增加3.4个百分点,并且相比当前主流算法而言都有更加优秀的表现.

基于低空视觉的直升机旋翼轴心轨迹测量法

为满足直升机飞行状态旋翼轴心轨迹测量需求,提出了一种基于低空双目视觉的轴心轨迹测量方法。首先,针对高速旋转体的小量测量,基于立体视觉测量原理设计构建了以无人机为低空移动平台的旋翼轴心轨迹视觉测量系统。其次,针对动-动测量环境条件,提出了地面标定与空中动态实时标定联合的测量系统标定方法。然后,基于空间几何关系,论述了旋翼轴心静态估计与动态轨迹测量方法;最后,进行了测量系统地面精度验证试验与直升机地面开车状态的旋翼轴心轨迹测量试验。试验结果表明,该方法准确可靠,点间距离精度优于1‰,可实现轴心轨迹的非接触精确测量,还可推广应用于其他动态小量测量任务。

从飞行汽车看低空经济新业态

近年来,我国低空经济呈现蓬勃发展态势,相关政策密集出台,企业也作出了积极响应,行业发展确定性进一步增强,相关产业取得长足发展,特别是无人机领域处于世界先进水平,但我国低空经济整体水平与欧美发达国家相比仍有一定差距。通用航空、无人机、飞行汽车是低空经济的主要产业领域,特别是近年出现的飞行汽车被视为低空经济发展的新引擎。在飞行汽车研发方面,国内外均尚处于起步阶段,我国在若干局部技术上领先,但并未形成明显优势。未来,需推动飞行汽车品质和关键技术的不断突破,同时,也要加紧筹划和完善配套的法律法规、基础设施、行业标准、运行环境及监管政策以推动城市空中交通(UAM)体系的建设和低空经济的整体发展。

改进YOLOv5s的无人机视角下小目标检测算法

针对无人机飞行时与目标距离较远,被拍摄的目标大小有明显的差异且存在被物体遮挡等问题,提出一种基于YOLOv5s的无人机视角下小目标检测改进算法BD-YOLO。在特征融合网络中采用双层路由注意力(bi-level routing attention,BRA),其以动态稀疏的方式过滤特征图中最不相关的特征,保留部分重要区域特征,从而提高模型特征提取的能力;由于特征图经过多次下采样后会丢失大量位置信息和特征信息,因此采用一种结合注意力机制的动态目标检测头DyHead(dynamic head),该检测头通过尺度感知、空间感知和任务感知的三者统一,以实现更强的特征表达能力;使用Focal-EIoU损失函数,来解决YOLOv5s中CIoU Loss计算回归结果不准确的问题,从而提高模型对小型目标的检测精度。实验结果表明,在VisDrone2019-DET数据集上,BD-YOLO模型较YOLOv5s模型在平均精度(mAP@0.5)指标上提高了0.062,对比其他主流模型对于小目标的检测都有更好的效果。

基于改进YOLOX的无人机航拍图像小目标检测算法

在无人机上运用目标检测技术具有广泛的应用前景,但和自然拍摄的图像不同,无人机航拍的图像更加复杂,且大多数为小目标。而现有的检测算法缺乏对小目标的特征提取能力,从而导致严重的误检和漏检问题。针对上述问题,提出一种基于YOLOX框架的高效的无人机小目标检测算法。首先,在特征融合网络中增加一层检测微小目标的特征融合结构,通过利用浅层特征图中丰富的位置信息和轮廓信息来加强网络对小目标的识别能力;同时,为了防止额外参数的增加,将减少头网络中的一层卷积层并缩减其通道数。其次,提出一种通道-空间注意力机制模块(Channel Spatial Attention Module,CSAM),利用最优的权重分配使网络聚焦于特征图中小目标密集的区域。最后,提出一种带位置引导的标签分配策略(LB-SimOTA),根据每个预测框和真实框的交并比(IOU)的大小,分别配以不同的权重,以改善网络中整体预测框的质量。在小目标居多的数据集VisDrone2019上的实验结果表明,文中提出的算法和YOLOX-S相比,针对车和人的检测精度提升了8.63%,检测速度FPS也可达到86,因此更适合在无人机对地面小目标检测的场景下部署。

基于改进YOLOv4的低慢小无人机实时探测算法

针对低慢小无人机探测任务中精度不高、在嵌入式平台上部署实时性能差的问题,提出了一种基于改进YOLOv4的小型无人机目标检测算法。通过增加浅层特征图、改进锚框、增强小目标,提高网络对小目标的检测性能,通过稀疏训练和模型修剪,大大缩短了模型运行时间。在1080Ti上平均精度(mAP)达到85.8%,帧率(FPS)达75 frame/s,实现了网络轻量化。该模型部署在Xavier边缘计算平台上,可实现60 frame/s的无人机目标检测速度。实验结果表明:与YOLOv4和YOLOv4-tiny相比,该算法实现了运行速度和检测精度的平衡,能够有效解决嵌入式平台上的无人机目标检测问题。

面向无人机视角下小目标检测的YOLOv8s改进模型

从无人机视角进行目标检测,面临图像目标小、分布密集、类别不均衡等难点,且由于无人机的硬件条件限制了模型的规模,导致模型的准确率偏低。提出一种融合多种注意力机制的YOLOv8s改进模型,在骨干网络中引入感受野注意力卷积和CBAM(concentration-based attention module)注意力机制改进卷积模块,解决注意力权重参数在感受野特征中共享问题的同时,在通道和空间维度加上注意力权重,增强特征提取能力;通过引入大型可分离卷积注意力思想,改造空间金字塔池化层,增加不同层级特征间的信息交融;优化颈部结构,增加具有丰富小目标语义信息的特征层;使用inner-IoU损失函数的思想改进MPDIoU(minimum point distance based IoU)函数,以innerMPDIoU代替原损失函数,提升对困难样本的学习能力。实验结果表明,改进后的YOLOv8s模型在VisDrone数据集上mAP、P、R分别提升了16.1%、9.3%、14.9%,性能超过YOLOv8m,可以有效应用于无人机平台上的目标检测任务。