Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An Overview of the “Volcan Project”: An UAS for Exploration of Volcanic Environments

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the Volcan Project, whose goal is the realization of an autonomous aerial system able to perform aerial surveillance of volcanic areas and to analyze the composition of gases inside volcanic plumes. There are increasing experimental evidences that measuring the chemical composition of volcanic gases can contribute to forecast volcanic eruptions. However, in situ gas sampling is a difficult operation and often exposes scientists to significant risks. At this aim, an Unmanned Aircraft System equipped with remote sensing technologies, able to sense the plume in the proximity of the crater, has been developed. In this paper, the aerial platform will be presented, together with the problems related to the flight in a hard scenario like the volcanic one and the tests performed with the aim of finding the right configuration for the vehicle. The developed autonomous navigation system and the sensors unit for gas analysis will be introduced; at the end, several experimental results will be described.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ramanathan, V., et al.: Warming trends in Asia amplified by brown cloud solar absorption. Nature 448, 575–579 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ramanathan, V., Roberts, G., Corrigan, C., Ramana, M. V., Nguyen, H.: Maldives AUAV Campaign (MAC): observing aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions simultaneously from three stacked autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (AUAVs). Available at: http://www-abc-asia.ucsd.edu/MAC/MAC_proposal_FINAL_2005July05.pdf (2005)

  3. Holland, G.H., et al.: The aerosonde robotic aircraft: a new paradigm for environmental observations. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 82, 889–901 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Valero, F.P.J., Pope, S.K., Ellingson, R.G., Strawa, A.W., Vitko, J. Jr.: Determination of clear-sky radiative flux profiles, heating rates, and optical depths using unmanned aerospace vehicles as a platform. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. 13, 1024–1030 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bland, G., Coronado, P., Miles, T., Bretthauer, J.P.: The AEROS Project experiments with small electric powered UAVs for earth science. In: Proceedings of Infotech@Aerospace. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 26–29 Sep. 2005, Arlington, VA, USA

  6. NASA—Ames Research Center, Earth Science Division. Available at: http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/

  7. NASA—Dryden Flight Research Center. Available at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/research/ESCD/index.html

  8. Saggiani, G., et al.: A UAV system for observing volcanoes and natural hazards. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (2007)

  9. Patterson, M.C.L., et al. Volcano surveillance by ACR Silver Fox. Infotech@Aerospace, 26–29 September 2005, Arlington, VA

  10. The ROBOVOLC project homepage. Available at: http://www.robovolc.diees.unict.it

  11. Muscato, G., Caltabiano, D., Guccione, S., Longo, D., Coltelli, M., Cristaldi, A., Pecora, E., Sacco, V., Sim, P., Virk, G.S., Briole, P., Semerano, A., White, T.: ROBOVOLC: a robot for volcano exploration – result of first test campaign. Ind. Robot Int. 30(3), 231–242 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Caltabiano, D., Muscato, G.: A robotic system for volcano exploration. In: Kordic, V., Lazinica, A., Merdan, M. (eds.) Cutting Edge Robotics. Advanced Robotic Systems Scientific Book, pp. 499–519. Pro Literatur, Germany, ISBN:3-86611-038-3 (2005)

  13. Service Robots Group – Università di Catania. Available at: http://www.robotic.diees.unict.it/

  14. Aiuppa, A., Federico, C., Paonita, A., Pecoraino, G., Valenza, M.: S, Cl and F degassing as an indicator of volcanic dynamics: the 2001 eruption of Mount Etna. Geophys. Res. Lett. 29(11), 1559 (2002). doi:10.1029/2002GL015032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Symonds, R., Rose, W.I., Bluth, G.J.S., Gerlach, T.M.: Volcanic-gas studies: methods, results and applications. In: Carroll, M.R., Halloway, J.R. (eds.) Volatiles in Magmas. Reviews in Mineralogy, vol. 30, pp. 1–66. Mineralogical Society of America, Chantilly, VA (1994)

  16. Stix, J., Gaonac’h, H.: Gas, plume and thermal monitoring. In: Sigurdsson, H. (ed.) Encyclopædia of Volcanoes, pp. 1141–1164. Academic, New York (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Astuti, G., Longo, D., Melita, D., Muscato, G., Orlando, A.: Hardware in the loop tuning for a volcanic gas sampling UAV. In: Valavanis, K.P. (ed.) Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, State of the Art and the Road to Autonomy. Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering, vol. 33. Springer, New York, ISBN:978-1-4020-6113-4 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Astuti, G., Longo, D., Melita, C.D., Muscato, G., Orlando, A.: HIL tuning of UAV for exploration of risky environments. In: Proceedings of the IARP Workshop HUDEM’08 Robotics for Risky Environments and Humanitarian De-Mining. Il Cairo, Egypt, 28–30 March (2008)

  19. Longo, D., Melita, D., Muscato, G., Sessa, S.: A mixed terrestrial aerial robotic platform for volcanic and industrial surveillance. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics 2007. Rome (Italy), 27–29 September (2007)

  20. Caltabiano, D., Muscato, G., Orlando, A., Federico, C., Giudice, G., Guerrieri, S.: Architecture of a UAV for volcanic gas sampling. In: Proceedings of the ETFA2005 10th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation. Catania, Italy, 19–22 September (2005)

  21. The Aerosonde Robotic Aircraft homepage. Available at: http://www.aerosonde.com/

  22. Graupner homepage. Available at: http://www.graupner.de/

  23. X-Plane simulator by Laminar Research homepage. Available at: http://www.x-plane.com/

  24. Brown, R.G., Hwang, P.Y.C.: Introduction to Random Signals and Applied Kalman Filtering. Wiley, New York (1992)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Diebel, J.: Representing Attitude: Euler Angles, Unit Quaternions, and Rotation Vectors. Stanford University, Stanford, CA

  26. Kim, A., Golnaraghi, M.F.: A quaternion-based orientation estimation algorithm using an inertial measurement unit. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Position Location and Navigation Symposium, 2004 (2004)

  27. Gebre-Egziabher, D., et al.: A gyro-free quaternion-based attitude determination system suitablefor implementation using low cost sensors. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Position Location and Navigation Symposium 2000 (2000)

  28. Jang, J.S., Liccardo, D.: Small UAV Automation Using MEMS. IEEE A&E Systems Magazine, pp. 30–34. May (2007)

  29. Jang, J.S., Liccardo, D.: Automation of small UAVs using a low cost MEMS sensor and embedded computing platform. In: 25th Digital Avionics Systems Conference. 15 October (2006)

  30. Eldredge, A.M.: Improved state estimation for miniature air vehicles. Master’s degree thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University, December (2006)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica e dei Sistemi (DIEES), Università degli Studi di Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania, Italy

    G. Astuti, G. Giudice, D. Longo, C. D. Melita, G. Muscato & A. Orlando

Authors
  1. G. Astuti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. G. Giudice
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. Longo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. C. D. Melita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. G. Muscato
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. A. Orlando
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Muscato.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Astuti, G., Giudice, G., Longo, D. et al. An Overview of the “Volcan Project”: An UAS for Exploration of Volcanic Environments. J Intell Robot Syst 54, 471–494 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-008-9275-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-008-9275-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation