Measurement for drones

The course aims to present the measurement technologies used in a drone, both for flight control and for the payload. In a first part, the drone architecture will be presented and the different sensors for flight control will be described, including inertial and navigation sensors. Some details about data fusion algorithms will be also given. Then the sensors used as payload will be studied, including LIDARs, visual cameras and thermal cameras. Some details about ultrasound and light sensors for automatic take-off and landing will be also given. A third part of the course will show how to collect data from the drone sensors to a ground control station and how to write a program that connects to the drone to get monitoring data. A last part of the course will deal with image acquisition and 3D reconstruction by aerial photogrammetry.

The course will contain practical experiences on data acquisition from navigation sensors and LIDAR, development of monitoring software and 3D reconstruction by aerial photogrammetry.