Design and Implementation of an Intelligent Portable Aerial Surveillance System (IPASS)

This paper presents the design and implementation of a light-weight, inexpensive, and one-man operable UAV for short range surveillance. The UAV design weighs less than five pounds, fits inside a cubic foot of volume when unassembled, distinguishes a human at a one-hundred foot range, displays image data at a rate of at least one image every five seconds, and is radio controlled. The system is comprised of an integrated propulsion system, an electronics box housing three cameras and two microcontrollers, and a ground station incorporating a graphical user interface for the human-in-the-loop. The design and preliminary results demonstrate a prototype system for the advancement of man-portable aerial surveillance systems. We present our work-in-progress and preliminary results on systems integration, communications and image stitching using the on-board cameras.