UAV Navigation and Management System Based

on the Spectral Portrait of Terrain

Dmytro S. Komarchuk Natalia А. Pasichnyk
Sergey A. Shvorov
National University of Life and National University of Life and
National University of Life and
Environmental Sciences of Ukraine Environmental Sciences of Ukraine
Environmental Sciences of Ukraine
Department of Automation Department of Agricultural Chemistry
Department of Automation
and Robotic Systems and Quality of Plant Products
and Robotic Systems
Kyiv, Ukraine Kyiv, Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine
dmitruyk@gmail.com n.pasichnyk@nubip.edu.ua
sosdok@i.ua
Yurii A. Gunchenko Svitlana D. Kuznichenko
Oleksiy A. Opryshko
Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National Odessa State Environmental University
National University of Life and
University Department of Information
Environmental Sciences of Ukraine
Department of the System Software Technologies
Department of Automation
and Technologies of Distance Learning Odessa, Ukraine
and Robotic Systems
Odessa, Ukraine skuznichenko@gmail.com
Kyiv, Ukraine
7996445@mail.ru
ozon.kiev@gmail.com

Abstract—The paper is devoted to research on unmanned introducing errors for civilian ranges. In addition, the means
aerial vehicle navigation using spatial-spectral portraits of the of the EW can distort the signals of the satellite navigation
terrain. Such navigation is relevant in the event of failure of system – GPS spoofing. Since these technologies are widely
global positioning system receivers and other navigation available, counterfeit strategies are being developed to
equipment, but its implementation requires the solution of a neutralize them, namely, the search for counteraction
number of methodological issues. In particular, the effect of strategies in [1] and in [2], fixing the start of the cyber
illumination changes on the spectral characteristics of objects attack in [3] and so on. However, in the case of terrorist
should be taken into account. The borrowing of satellite acts, it is quite probable that the power and purpose of the
solutions using optical patterns is inadequate for low-flying EW will lead to a deviation of several dozens or even
unmanned aerial vehicles and it is more promising to use the hundreds of meters, which eliminates the benefits of UAVs
service data from the meter display of the spectral sensory
before the manned vehicle.
equipment of the unmanned aerial vehicle. In this research, an
existing method for correction of illumination changes based A possible solution to protect against terrorist groups is
on the value of LightValue for different cameras in laboratory to use navigation on the basis of spatial-spectral portraits of
and field conditions is considered. It has been experimentally the terrain when the UAV focuses on preloaded landmark
established that the dependencies between LightValue and the libraries on the terrain. In the case of using a small number
intensities of color constituents in different cameras are of reference points or landmarks, they can be falsified or
individual in nature. For the correction due to changes in destroyed, but when using a large number of objects, taking
natural light, it is suggested to use experimentally obtained into account only their geometry, and their spectral portrait,
dependences for specific brands of the sensory equipment. their falsification is essentially complicated. For this reason,
When organizing navigation systems for spectral portraits of
spatial-spectral navigation is one of the priority areas for the
the terrain, it is recommended to use objects with the most
stable optical changes in terms of illumination.
development of UAV control in the event of failure of
navigation equipment and the use of EW equipment by
Keywords—unmanned aerial vehicle, spectral portraits, terrorist groups.
correction of illumination When using the most widespread and cheap spectral
sensors in the optical range, the effect of the illumination
I. INTRODUCTION state on the spectral indices of the objects should be taken
The emergence of widespread access to robotized into account. Based on these considerations, the purpose of
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) creates fundamentally the research is to develop a methodological approach for
new challenges for the failure of navigation equipment. The correction for illumination to determine the optical range of
cost of sufficiently advanced copters, capable of flying a spectral portraits of objects.
few kilometers to the destination, is at least 3–4 times
smaller than that of manned military vehicles. The above II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
gives the opportunity to organize a terrorist group even an Traditionally, measurements of spectral indicators of
effective cyber attack on the navigation and control system objects in conditions of variable illumination can be
of several UAVs. In addition, available solutions for arranged with the use of artificial illumination. In article [4]
managing the UAV flight by the operator over the radio describes the successful experience of using the Raptor
channel can be relatively easily blocked by electronic ACS-225LR Active Spectral Sensor installed on a light-jet
warfare (EW) by organizing electromagnetic interference to airplane that illuminated terrestrial objects with powerful
the control channel. The use of satellite positioning devices light diodes. Taking into account the significant limitations
such as global positioning system (GPS) or global on power and carrying capacity of non-specialized and most
navigation satellite system (GNSS) to navigate the UAV is widespread UAVs, the expediency of using additional light
more secure. However, in the event of an attack on small sources on them today is of little promise.
objects, problems with accuracy of positioning may be
encountered. In addition, when constructing satellite For spectral monitoring, the focus on purely sunny
navigation systems, designers introduced the possibility of illumination has been worked out for satellite platforms
68 978-1-5386-5870-3/18/$31.00 c 2018 IEEE
since the 70's. In article [5] proposed a radio frequency exposure in the range ev = -2.0 ... 2.0. The processing of the
correction method based on the use of reference standards results was carried out using the software environment
for terrestrial objects with known and stable parameters, provided in [16]. The obtained results are shown in Fig. 2.
such as deep water bodies. In article [6] show the creation of
a network of ground stations for measurements, on the basis According to the results of experimental data processing,
it was found that the nature of the dependence on the
of which it is possible to calibrate satellite data for spectral
monitoring. Similar decisions on the use of optical patterns cameras is uneven. For a sample of gray, the determination
coefficient (R2) for the iPhone 5s, FC200, and s660 cameras
have been proposed for UAVs. In article [7] demonstrate
was 0.957, 0.931, and 0.989 respectively, when linearly
high accuracy of measurements and reproducibility of
results when using 3 artificial patterns. In article [8] 6 approximating. For exponential dependence – 0.989, 0.996
and 0.996, respectively. For maize, by analogy, the linear
colored patterns that were made of tarpaulin were used to
improve accuracy. In this case, to ensure sufficient accuracy dependence of R2 was 0.993, 0.989 and 0.989, respectively,
of measurements from the side of the airplane (hang glider), for the exponential one – 0.92, 0.991 and 0.986 respectively.
the dimensions of the patterns were several meters. Despite
the sufficient accuracy and reproducibility of the results, the
presence of a sufficient number of natural or artificial
spectral patterns in real conditions is doubtful.
The possible fixation of the illumination change for the
UAV is the use of an additional anti-aircraft sensor, such as
the LightSensor for the MicaSenseRedEdge camera,
presented in [9] and in [10]. Hardware fixation of
illumination will not require terrain patterns, but will
increase the cost of UAV. In addition, such an approach will
be relevant only in conditions of uniform illumination.
However, in the presence of clouds, unacceptably
significant errors are possible. An alternative to a
specialized sensor is the ability to calibrate the data from the
built-in exposure meter of the main touch-sensitive Fig. 1. A sample of an optical pattern with a wheat.
equipment proposed in [11]. The technique for using the
standard digital camera exposure meter was developed in 260
240
[12] for the Canon A460 camera with regard to white Pattern gray (60%)
220
balance adjustment options for field surveying. iPhone 5s
200
Mathematical equations for light variations were presented FC200
Red component intensity, c.u.

180 s550
in [13], where the calculation of the intensity of the color Corn
160
component was based on the LightValue value for the iPhone 5s
140
DJIPhantom 3PHANTOM VISIONFC200 UAV Native FC200
120 s550
Camera. The authors experimentally established the linear
100
nature of the dependence of the intensity of color 80
components on the value of LightValue for a certain range. 60
However, it is unclear whether such a pattern of dependence 40
is maintained for other camera models. That is, taking into 20
account the illumination changes directly in the field by 0
using the official data of the digital camera exposure meter 10 12 14 16
is possible, however, it needs to be checked or adapted to Light Value, c.u.
other sensory equipment models.
Fig. 2. Dependence of the intensity of the red color component on the
value of LightValue for various models of digital cameras.
III. METHODS OF EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
AND RESULTS OBTAINED
Thus, it can be proved that the nature of the dependence
The research was carried out in laboratory conditions is to a certain extent determined by the object of monitoring.
and directly at the experimental field station. In laboratories, For an artificial pattern, it is more precisely described by a
along with digital cameras, developed for the UAV nonlinear dependence, which makes it difficult to calibrate
(FC200), smartphones (AppleiPhone 5s and Lenovo s660) in different illuminations according to the methodology
were also observed. The choice of smartphones for research proposed in [13]. It is established that the character of the
is due to the fact that in [14], [15], the possibility of using above dependence will be individual for each model of the
such equipment as a control module in the manufacture of camera, which should be taken into account when used for
assembly of the UAV, even in living conditions, is shown. spatial spectral navigation. It was suggested that more
precise correction for illumination changes can be done for
Studies on determining the dependence of component
practical purposes, having obtained an experimental
color intensity on LightValue were conducted on a gray
dependence for objects in field conditions.
color pattern example (69% saturation), printed by a laser
printer on white office paper and wheat samples placed on Experimental research in field conditions was conducted
the pattern (Fig. 1). at the experimental station of the Department of
Agrochemistry and Plant Production Quality of NULES of
Camera setup options: “white balance”– clear weather.
Ukraine, where the wheat field was analyzed with sections
The change in LightValue value was made by correction of

2018 IEEE 5th International Conference on Methods and Systems of Navigation and Motion Control (MSNMC) 69
with different mineral nutrition status and unformed road When using a calibration method with an additional anti-
(Fig. 3). Before studies, during 3 days, there was no aircraft sensor, in which the luxmeter was used, the
precipitation on the site and the road was air-dried. nonlinearity of the dependence is also observed. Thus, the
difference in mineral nutrition has the greatest impact on the
Experiments were conducted on 17.05.24 from 15 to 21 intensity of color constituents in the range of illumination of
o’clock. The illumination thus ranged from 41500 to 500
1000–20000 lux (Fig. 5).
lux. At measurements, the luxmeter was placed horizontally
without a random shadow due to the influence of clouds. In It was established that for the objects under consideration
the presence of clouds during the surveying, the uniformity the smallest influence of illumination was recorded for the
of the illumination of all objects in the frame was visually area of the wheat field without artificial fertilization, and the
evaluated, uneven illumination was not allowed. As objects maximum for the unformed road, which is very important to
of research, the unformed road and two plots of winter consider not only for the navigation of the UAV, but also to
wheat crops were on the vegetative growth stage (0 – solve problems of route planning, control and navigation of
background, 1 – a normalized dose of mineral fertilizers was unmanned aerial vehicles combines and other unmanned
artificially introduced). vehicles using data from UAVs [17].

150

140

Color component intensity, c.u.

130

120 R_road
R_0
110 R_1
G_road
100 G_0
G_1
90

80

70
0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000

Sun lighting, lk
Fig. 5. Dependence of the intensity of the color components of the objects
on the value of sunlight.
Fig. 3. Experimental station of the department of agrochemistry and
quality of plant products NULES17.05.24, UAV flight height is 100 m.
Thus, when constructing a navigation system based on
the use of spatial-spectral portraits it is advisable to focus on
The obtained results regarding the dependence of the
objects with stable characteristics.
intensity of the components of the color of objects on the
value of LightValue are shown in Fig. 4. In general terms the method of solving the navigation
problem can be divided into several stages:
The results of the research showed that at the beginning
of the vegetative growth stage, in presence of clouds or 1) Automated preparation of area maps with the
evening light (LightValue in the range of 6–11), in the case allocation of the spatial-spectral portraits of objects: To do
of surveying without correction of exposure (ev = 0), the this UAV makes a test flight (or a series of flights) across
dependence of the intensity of the color components on the
the territory and all objects that it "sees" are stored on its
level of mineral nutrition (nitrogen content) of the plants is
expressed maximally. map. This task involves the study of well-known algorithms
of computer vision:
150
a) Preparing images algorithms, including algorithms
that can "blur", change the contrast, brightness and other
140
photography elements.
Color component intensity, c.u.

130
b) Selecting objects algorithms in a photo. From them
120 R_road you can take those that determine the contours in the images
110
R_0 of spatial-spectral portraits of objects.
R_1
G_road 2) Formation of the database of objects: In this part, it
100 G_0
G_1 is necessary to explore and implement storage algorithms
90
for spatial-spectral portraits of objects and geodata, which
80 are used in various geographic information systems.
70
3) Creating a module that generates a routing task in
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 terms of spatial-spectral portraits of objects that stores a
Light Value, c.u. UAV card.
Fig. 4. Dependence of the red and green components of the color of the IV. CONCLUSION
unformed road and winter wheat fields on the value of LightValue where:
road is the unformed road; 0 is the without artificial fertilization; 1 is the It has been experimentally confirmed that, when
normalized dose. changing the illumination, the calibration of spectral data

70 2018 IEEE 5th International Conference on Methods and Systems of Navigation and Motion Control (MSNMC)
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2018 IEEE 5th International Conference on Methods and Systems of Navigation and Motion Control (MSNMC) 71