IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - March 2018 - 50

By Narayan Panigrahi and Sabitra Sankalp Panigrahi

his article describes the essential requirements of a geographical information
system (GIS), which can visualize, analyze, and measure the spatial data acquired
by a drone. The article further delves into the specific algorithms useful for building
a GIS system that will be computationally efficient and have a small memory footprint. The GIS needs to be specifically designed for a size-, weight-, and power
(SWAP)-constrained system that will operate in the air for a long duration to acquire spatial
data without any conventional power supply. Thus, the custom-built GIS needs to employ
frequently used computing methods that provide optimal memory and power usage as well.

THE DRONE-GIS COMBINATION
The drone and the GIS are two different systems, and they perform useful functions independently. Of late, there is a great demand for the efficient processing of spatiotemporal data
acquired by a drone through a GIS. The integrated drone-GIS system leverages the real-time
capability of spatial data acquisition by the drone and visualization and processing by the GIS
(Figure 1). A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operated without a ground pilot,
which carries a sensor capable of capturing the spatiotemporal information pertaining to its
instantaneous field of view (IFOV) continuously [1], [2]. A drone can carry a thermal, optical,
or microwave sensor as a payload that acquires the continuous picture through its sensor array
and communicates it to a base station, which analyzes the data. Sometimes the parameters for
the aerial navigation of the platform and maneuvering of the sensor are computed from the
images, which contain six degrees of freedom [3].
By definition, a GIS is an information system processing spatial data for visualization,
analysis, and measurement of spatiotemporal information [4], [5]. The GIS, which is part of
the base station, continuously processes, analyzes, and visualizes the spatiotemporal data
acquired by the drone. The cycle of spatial data acquisition, processing, computing, and tracking of objects by a drone-GIS combination is depicted by the block diagram in Figure 2.

SERVICES PROVIDED BY A DRONE-GIS
The application domain of systems designed using a drone-GIS combination is emerging.
Applications include navigation, communication, geointelligence, patrolling, and disaster
management. These applications are popular because of the ability to capture, process, and compute real-time, nascent spatiotemporal data acquired through the aerial platform. This ability
provides many essential services to the user community, including the following:

Processing Data Acquired
by a Drone Using a GIS
Designing a size-, weight-, and power-constrained system.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2017.2714718
Date of publication: 8 February 2018

50 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

march 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - March 2018