WP5-05
LPWAN for identification, tracking, and emergency messages
| ID | WP5-05 |
| Contributor | TEKNE |
| Levels | System functions |
| Require | LoRaWAN network, LoRa transceivers |
| Provide | Drone monitoring and commands |
| Input | Commands |
| Output | Vehicle position and status, command messages |
| Building block | Intelligent Vehicle System Monitoring - U-Space Capabilities — Identification |
| Input Interface | LoRa messages, MQTT, HTTP |
| Output Interface | LoRa messages, MQTT, HTTP |
| TRL | 5 |
| Tasks | T5.2 |
| Use Case | UC5 - Agriculture |
| Demonstrator | D1 - Crop monitoring |
| Contact | c.tiere@tekne.it |
Description
Based on LoRaWAN. Drones communicates on LoRa links with one or more (for a wider range of operations) Gateways installed in the field or carried by vehicles with more computing and communication resources, e.g. a rover. The Gateway connects to the Server through Internet. The Server manages the network, stores the data received from the vehicles, generates the messages to be sent to the vehicles, allows authorized user to retrieve vehicles data and to transmit data (commands) to the vehicles in two ways: it is an MQTT Broker to which MQTT Subscribers connect; it is an HTTP Server that offers an Internet page with a map on which the vehicles are shown and with alphanumeric fields for data input/output.
Usage Example
The component WP5-05-TEK “LPWAN for identification, tracking, and emergency messages” is experimented in the demonstrator D1 “Crop monitoring” of the use case UC5 “Agriculture”.
The UAV collaborates with the UGV. When the vehicles are far apart during a mission that spans a large agricultural field, a coordination centre connected through a medium-range communication link is needed. The LPWAN provides the link for monitoring the UAV and the UGV and for commands directed to the former. The Gateway ‘B’ on the UGV enlarges the UGV connectivity with respect to the Gateway ‘A’. The Network Server stores and made available the data on MQTT interface and a dynamic internet page shows a quick view of the status of the vehicles. The TEKNE component WP4-18 (work package WP4) complements the UAV–UGV cooperation: it uses Ultra-Wideband distance measurement for positioning the UAV so that the pad mounted on the UGV enters the field of view of the landing guidance video camera. This is used when the UAV is commanded to re-join the UGV that in the meantime moved: the UGV navigates using the GPS, and then does a fine positioning using WP4-18. The Gateway is a Raspberry Pi with the LoRa transmitter/receiver iC880A that can receive up to eight LoRa packets simultaneously using different spreading factors on multiple channels. The LoRa board on the UAV is STMicroelectronics B-L072Z-LRWAN1. The Spreading Factor 7 with bandwidth 125 kHz was used on the 868.0 MHz European frequency. The UAV was between 20 m and 40 m high.
Improvements
Multi channel UAV identification and tracking system, low resource (power, weight, cost), UAV integrated in open source IoT system.