GIST Research Team Develops Drone Technology That Automatically Lands on Moving Vehicles

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced on the 31st that Professor Lee Jong-ho's research team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has developed drone technology that can autonomously land by following a moving vehicle equipped with a hemispherical infrared marker.

Infrared (IR) light has a longer wavelength than red visible light and is used in military fields for target detection and tracking.

With this research achievement, it is expected to be utilized in future unmanned mobility industries such as drone delivery through collaboration between unmanned aerial vehicles like drones and ground vehicles.

Cooperation between drones flying in the sky and vehicles moving on the ground can greatly expand the scope of missions previously performed separately.

In particular, since it is difficult to create a wide landing space on a vehicle, accurately detecting the narrow landing spot on a moving vehicle and landing the drone stably is important.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is convenient to use but not precise enough to land a drone in a narrow space.

Recent studies have focused on marking landing spots on vehicles and using sensors to detect the marker’s location to land drones on the marker. However, recognition rates drop significantly when the drone views the marker at an angle, and it is difficult to detect the marker’s location if it is obscured by foreign substances.

The research team produced a hemispherical LED marker by arranging infrared LEDs in a three-dimensional hemispherical shape to widen the detection range.

An infrared camera installed on a two-axis gimbal that allows rotation detects infrared light emitted from the marker, guiding the drone to the landing spot while tracking the marker and enabling automatic landing.

The developed hemispherical infrared marker has the advantage of lowering production costs by using commercial LED components.

The LEDs used in the hemispherical infrared marker emit light in the infrared range (wavelength: 940nm) with relatively high transmittance, allowing the drone’s infrared camera to detect the marker even when it is covered by foreign substances such as leaves or plastic in real-world environments, enabling stable landing.

Additionally, by using a heat sink and cooling fan made of metal materials with high thermal conductivity, heat generated when using multiple LEDs can be effectively dissipated, allowing for long-term use.

Professor Lee Jong-ho said, “The hemispherical infrared marker developed in this research enables automatic landing of unmanned aerial vehicles such as drones on ground vehicles, and it is expected to be utilized in the unmanned aerial vehicle industry, including drone delivery through collaboration between unmanned aerial vehicles and ground vehicles.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.