Abstract
Aim: The aim of the article is to present the state of the art on threats to UAVs posed by sudden changes of weather conditions, involving in particular storms and hail. Identifying such threats is likely to facilitate the development of hardware and software solutions aimed at improving the safety of the UAV missions.
Introduction: Severe weather phenomena strongly affect the safety of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions. The article describes in detail the implementation concept of atmospheric discharge and precipitation images using wireless Internet connections for an exemplary mobile application for multi-rotor flight control. The concept was developed to reduce risks associated with flights in storm and precipitation areas, and to maximise the performance of electric multi-rotor UAVs with a maximum take-off mass of no more than 25 kg. This is dealt with in the introductory section and in three substantive sections. UAV capabilities are discussed in the first section, while the second one analyses specific weather conditions which merit particular attention when constructing new UAVs, and the third one outlines some of the solutions employed in UAV steering systems control apps. A number of concluding remarks are presented in the end.
Conclusions: The analysis of usefulness has proven electric UAVs suitability for professional missions. However, these vehicles display a number of limitations, one of the most important being their high sensitivity to weather conditions. With no hermetically sealed hatch, on-board equipment is exposed to penetrating damp caused by various types of precipitation, including drizzle, rain and snow. These can cause a short-circuit and equipment damage, while hailstones can result in UAV mechanical damage. Severe turbulences and strong ascending or descending air currents, which are likely to occur during low-altitude flights, pose a threat of UAV’s collision with overground objects. Using more resistant composite materials in the construction of hermetic UAVs could increase the application range of these vehicles. The wide range of possible uses of UAVs encourages further investigations aimed at ensuring their best possible working conditions.
Keywords: weather radar, atmospheric discharge, precipitation, UAV
Type of article: review article