Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (mUAVs) have the potential to be a great asset to Wilderness Search and Rescue groups by providing a bird's eye view of the search area. These vehicles can carry a variety of sensors to better understand the world below. This paper proposes using both Infrared (IR) and Visible Spectrum cameras on a mUAV for Wilderness Search and Rescue. It details a method for combining the color and heat information from these two cameras into a single fused display to reduce needed screen space for remote field use. To align the video frames for fusion, a method for simultaneously pre-calibrating the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the cameras and their mount using a single multi-spectral calibration rig is also presented. A user study conducted to validate the proposed image fusion methods showed no reduction in performance when detecting objects of interest in the single-screen fused display compared to a side-by-side display. Furthermore, the users' increased performance on a simultaneous auditory task showed that increased performance on a simultaneous auditory task showed that their cognitive load was reduced when using the fused display.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BGMYU2/oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-2786 |
| Date | 20 March 2009 |
| Creators | Rasmussen, Nathan D. |
| Publisher | BYU ScholarsArchive |
| Source Sets | Brigham Young University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ |
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