High performance airborne laser scanner for routine mapping of terrain from UAS's

With the growth of oil and gas recovery from shale deposits, technologies for cost-effective aerial mapping and monitoring of topography around critical infrastructure, such as well pads, roads, and pipeline corridors, are of increasing importance for design, maintenance and safety. Remote monitoring is needed to identify, in real-time, topographical changes arising from erosion, stream sedimentation, or other surface activities that require mitigation. Digital terrain mapping from manned aircraft is routinely done using laser range finding, i.e. airborne laser scanners. The cost of acquiring and operating these systems is large, however, particularly with manned platforms. The overall objective of the Phase I program is to develop a conceptual design for an unmanned aerial system-based laser scanner for aerial mapping that preserves the performance of larger systems flown on manned aircraft but that is small enough to be deployed on midsize unmanned aerial systems. This will enable more economical digital terrain mapping than manned systems. The overall approach to the design is to utilize state-of- the-art laser designs to create a highly compact laser transmitter and combine it with a nonmechanical beam scanner. In the Phase I program, we will develop a baseline design for a flight-worthy, compact sensor with the precision and accuracy required for digital terrain mapping and that will be deployable on a midsize unmanned aircraft system. The design will consist of a CAD model resulting from evaluation of several system trades. In the Phase II program, we will fabricate, test, and field demonstrate a prototype sensor. The proposed unmanned aerial system-based laser scanner payload will enable digital terrain mapping and monitoring of high value infrastructure sites such as distribution pipeline corridors more economically than possible now. The basic sensor platform will be adaptable to other applications requiring precise and accurate terrain mapping such as disaster response, bathymetry, and glacial melting in the Arctic.