Improving Accuracy of Ground Targets Determination by Unmanned Aerial Systems

Abstract

The practice of using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) shows that the accuracy of determining by them the coordinates of a ground targets (GTC) is often insufficient. However, the quantitative assessment of the degrees of influence of the individual components involved in this process was not performed yet. To assess the degree of influence on the accuracy of the GTC determination the camera geometric factors and the flight control application screen parameters have been took into account. The relative location of the camera and the on-surface target at the moment of such determining was analized. To solve the problem posed the specific values of the partial derivatives of GTC with respect to most influensable arguments were assessed and after that they were compared with the accuracy of the geo-positioning. By this method was assessed the sensitivity measure for the inaccuracy of determining the angular position of the camera, and the influence of inaccuracy of specifying by the operator the target’s location on the flight control application screen. This may give the UAS’s developer the guidances concerning which UAS component may be most promising in terms of improving the accuracy of GTC determination. The made calculations show that at this stage of the UAS development to improve the accuracy of the operational GTC determination worth to focus on improving the camera angular coordinates accuracy at the moment of the target detection.