Contributions to Image Transmission in Icing Conditions on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

In terms of manned aircraft, pilots usually detect icing conditions by visual cues or by means of ice detector systems. If one of these cues is seen by the crew or systems detect icing conditions, they have to apply the evasive procedure as defined within the aircraft flight manual (AFM). However, as regards unmanned aircraft, there are not pilots on board and, consequently, nobody can act immediately when icing conditions occur. This article aims to propose new techniques of sending information to ground which make possible to know the aircraft performance correctly in icing conditions. For this goal, three contributions have been developed for the unmanned aircraft Milano. Since icing conditions are characterized quantitatively by the droplet size, the liquid water content, and the total air temperature, when these parameters are between certain limits ice formation on aircraft may occur. As a result of these contributions, in that moment, high-quality images of the wing leading edge, tail leading edge and meteorological probes will be captured and sent to ground making possible that remote pilots or artificial intelligent (AI) systems can follow the appropriate procedures, avoid encounters with severe icing conditions and perform real-time decision making. What is more, as information security is becoming an inseparable part of data communication, it is proposed how to embed relevant information within an image. Among the improvements included are image compression techniques and steganography methods.