The University of Salamanca designed a robotic helicopter that captures thermal images.
It study the energy efficiency and structural damage to buildings and also allows to reconstruct three-dimensional monuments.
A multidisciplinary team from the University Of Salamanca (USAL), composed by surveyors, physicists, mathematicians and industrial and mining engineers are working from Ávila developing a research project with innovative applications in the world of engineering and heritage.
The project is a Robotic Air System (SAR) called ‘oktokopter’-eight arms or propellers and eight engines- that can fly without a pilot and, given its small size and remote operation, reach difficult corners to man, capturing images which can then be converted in 3D for different applications.
These include the inspection of large bridges, quarries and everything related with the heritage -elevations, profiles and sections-. To this we have to add the possibility, currently under development, for studies of energy efficiency in buildings from a thermal camera or measure water stress in plants. The latter case may be of interest to winegrowers.
This research project, which currently only has application in universities is being developed from the Information Technology for Heritage Documentation research group (TIDOP), led by a researcher at the University of Salamanca, Diego González Aguilera, doctor of the Engineering Geodesy and Cartography photogrammetry. With him, the industrial engineer Jesús Fernández Hernández, associate of USAL, and other younger researchers like Pablo Rodríguez Gonzálvez and Juan Mancera Taboada professor also found.
Both Fernández Hernández and González Aguilera agree that what is new is that this USAL team gives “one step” trying, through the research, to “add value to the platform.”
SAVE COSTS AND RISKS
This project promoted by the University of Salamanca, which is still under development, is an improvement from the point of view of research, but also in cost savings, as well as the possible reduction of accidents, being able to act in dangerous and inaccessible places.
Research efforts are being made in different directions. One is the development of tools and software to expand the operational and navigational capabilities of these platforms. Thus, it is intended to improve not only how to control the device, but to improve their positioning.
Another original feature is intended to include by the TIDOP group is derived from research into new low-cost sensors that enable the three-dimensional location of the 3D location with greater precision.
DAMAGE IN BUILDINGS AND VINEYARDS
This section is where we are studying the possibility of including a thermal camera that has the ability to detect other data almost imperceptible to the naked eye as structural damage and energy efficiency studies. This issue can be very interesting to detect the energy efficiency in buildings and even find heat loss in some of them, when this situation occurs.
The development of this application is being made in collaboration with the University of Castilla-La Mancha, like NDVI camera system that can measure water stress in plants. This system incorporated to the ‘oktokopter’ could be very interesting for the winemakers of the community and who would be able to monitor whether their vineyards need more water or, on the contrary, their abundance. This infrared camera would be used with different wavelength.
3D MONUMENTS
Another innovation that the USAL team intends to introduce to the aerial robotic system is “the implementation of 3D simulators that allow planning, study and simulation of 3-dimensional environments, facilitating flight plans and making the flight of these platforms semiautonomous “, says Diego González Aguilera.
Furthermore, this system allows the reconstruction of 3D environments, from aerial photographs taken from aerial robotic platforms and from the ground. So you can take photos for spherical 360-degree photos. The project is intended to include the possibility that, prior to the departure of the ship, design a flight plan to the virtual machine to do photos for use in the posterior and simulated reproduction of buildings, monuments, quarrying and infrastructure in 3D.
The objectives of this line of research are to use artificially intelligent algorithms to model and study the impact of wolves in the province of Ávila. Using spatial data, statistical Geographical Information System (GIS) approaches and Machine/Deep Learning, we hope to provide a new perspective to the study of wolf activities and attacks on local livestock. 
The advantages of artificially intelligent algorithms are multiple. These algorithms provide a new means of predicting when and where the next attack is most likely to occur. Likewise, additional research may be able to highlight which animals are more likely to be attacked. This data could be of great benefit to local agricultural communities, thus helping protect their assets and help alleviate tension that could better protect the wolf from danger of extinction.
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