From highways in the sky, to ‘eye‑ways' in our homes

That’s exactly what Dubai’s Roads and Transportation Agency hopes to offer before the Summer of 2017.

While the dream of everyone owning a flying car remains a dream (at least for now), those with a hankering for personal flight can fuel that dream with the latest global phenomenon; drones.

Perhaps it is because mankind has always had a desire to match the freedom of birds that we’re so preoccupied with flight, it has certainly been at the heart of human innovation for a long time.

In a relatively short time, drones have evolved from simple toys to sophisticated tools. While actual predictions vary, most market analysts that offer insights into this area agree that the market for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, as they should be referred to) will grow from a multi‑million US Dollar market today to a market worth multiple billions by the early 2020s.

These figures are expected to be dominated by three application areas; industrial (predominantly utility mapping), package delivery, and agricultural inspection.

All of the applications are enabled and reliant on data provisioned by systems including the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System); two of the three are all about imaging, while the third (package delivery) will also rely heavily on image sensors and machine vision.

This kind of growth will further drive demand for smaller and better image systems, which is already having a beneficial effect on subsidiary drone applications. Are you ready for your ‘dronie’? It’s going to be the next big thing in social media sharing; selfies from the air.

High performance cameras are now smaller, lighter and more easily embedded into drones. As a result, airborne surveillance cameras will become more commonplace within a short period of time, supplementing and in some cases supplanting the more familiar fixed‑position CCTV cameras we see today.

Using drones in public spaces is becoming commonplace, but the market for home surveillance is perhaps less obvious. There is already a wide number of home surveillance solutions that make use of fixed‑position HD cameras connected to a WiFi network or using cellular connectivity, allowing people to monitor their homes, belongings and even pets while they’re away from home.

The possibility of taking this to the next stage and making home surveillance cameras airborne is far from science fiction. A number of innovative start‑ups are already targeting exactly this application space.

One of them, Sunflower Labs, is now enlisting early adopters into its beta programme, to put its system through its paces before wide scale availability. Its team comprises robotics and aerospace engineers with experience in safety‑critical applications and collision avoidance technology, all of which has helped it develop the Sunflower Home Awareness System.

What makes Sunflower’s approach so innovative is its use of multiple sensors. Taking inspiration from its name (or perhaps it’s the other way around), it uses proximity sensors disguised as regular garden lights, that are ‘planted’ in the grounds of a property and powered by integrated solar cells.

Each light contains multiple sensors to detect movement and vibrations in the ground. The system uses the input from the sensors to detect intrusion, in a network of (typically) four ‘sunflowers’. Built‑in intelligence reduces the number of false alarms but once movement is detected it can alert the home owner through a smart phone app.

While that may not sound particularly ground breaking, the really smart part of the system comes next. Once an alert has been raised the owner can select, via the app, to ‘take a look’ at whatever triggered the alert.

By simply touching an icon on the screen, the system deploys an autonomous camera drone, which flies to the point of interest and relays the scene back to the app. The system ensures the drone is always pointing towards the property, so there’s no problem with invading other people’s privacy from the drone’s camera.

The really clever and innovative part of this system is its autonomy. The drone flies itself around the property, the home owner doesn’t need to take control or master the art of drone flying in order to use it. The drone has its own docking station, which also recharges its batteries when not in use, making it truly autonomous.

Key to this autonomy is the high level of navigational control between the drone and its base station, provided by modules that integrate GNSS receivers augmented with Real‑Time Kinematics (RTKN) technology. Developed specifically for the navigation systems found in today’s autonomous devices are solutions such as the u‑blox NEO‑M8P modules, enabling centimetre‑level positioning.

The robust and secure wireless communication link between the drone and its base ensures the drone always knows where it is in relation to the base, with an accuracy that guarantees it will be able to navigate its way around a property and return safely back to its base station.

With this kind of innovation now emerging in home surveillance systems, it won’t be long before we can literally keep an eye on our homes and valuables from anywhere in the world.

Guest blog courtesy of u-blox.