IoT

Article
An Application of IoT in a Drone Inspection Service for
Environmental Control
Muriel Cabianca 1 , Maria Laura Clemente 1, * , Gianluca Gatto 2 , Carlo Impagliazzo 1 , Lidia Leoni 1 ,
Martino Masia 3, * and Riccardo Piras 3

1 CRS4, Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia, Loc. Piscina Manna Ed. 1,
09050 Pula, Italy
2 Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Via Marengo, 2,
09123 Cagliari, Italy
3 IT Euromedia, Sede Operativa, Via Luigi Galvani, 27/29, 09047 Selargius, Italy
* Correspondence: [email protected] (M.L.C.); [email protected] (M.M.)

Abstract: This paper presents an exploratory activity with a drone inspection service for environmen-
tal control. The aim of the service is to provide technical support to decision-makers in environmental
risk management. The proposed service uses IoT for the interaction between a mobile application, a
Smart City platform, and an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The mobile application allows the
users to report risky situations, such as fire ignition, spills of pollutants in water, or illegal dumping;
the user has only to specify the class of the event, while the geographical coordinates are automatically
taken from device-integrated GPS. The message sent from the mobile application arrives to a Smart
City platform, which shows all the received alerts on a 3D satellite map, to support decision-makers
in choosing where a drone inspection is required. From the Smart City platform, the message is sent
to the drone service operator; a CSV file defining the itinerary of the drone is automatically built and
Citation: Cabianca, M.; Clemente, shown through the platform; the drone starts the mission providing a video, which is used by the
M.L.; Gatto, G.; Impagliazzo, C.; decision-makers to understand whether the situation calls for immediate action. An experimental
Leoni, L.; Masia, M.; Piras, R. An activity in an open field was carried out to validate the whole chain, from the alert to the drone
Application of IoT in a Drone mission, enriched by a Smart City platform to enable a decision-maker to better manage the situation.
Inspection Service for Environmental
Control. IoT 2022, 3, 366–380. Keywords: environmental control; drone inspection; smart city platform; IoT; UAS
https://doi.org/10.3390/iot3030020

Academic Editors: Enrique Moguel,

Jaime Galán-Jiménez and
Choi Hyun-Ho 1. Introduction

Received: 16 March 2022

Environmental control of a vast rural territory is a challenging task, particularly during
Accepted: 26 August 2022
bad weather conditions, in rural and mountainous zones, or at sea. Too many alarms are
Published: 30 August 2022
received daily by all the law enforcement agencies, making it difficult to discern between
what is really dangerous and what is a false alarm or a hoax. Modern technologies can
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
help in this task in many ways. This paper presents an experimental activity based on the
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
combination of a Smart City platform, used as a decision support system, with a mobile
published maps and institutional affil-
application and a drone inspection service to support decision-makers in understanding
iations.
where an intervention is needed. Smart Cities make great use of the Internet of Things
(IoT) and open data to optimize, for instance, the flow of energy, services, and data; in
this context, even drones could be considered as sources of information. In the presented
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
activity, a Smart City platform is the control room of the system, providing completeness to
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. the service.
This article is an open access article An Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is an aircraft flying without a pilot on board and
distributed under the terms and including all the elements required to operate: the aircraft itself (technically the Unmanned
conditions of the Creative Commons Aerial Vehicle, in short, UAV), the ground control system, tools, such as one or more
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// cameras, sensors, a GPS, and all the related software. Henceforth it will be referred to as
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ a drone.
4.0/).

IoT 2022, 3, 366–380. https://doi.org/10.3390/iot3030020 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/iot

IoT 2022, 3 367

Drones have proved to be very effective in managing safety in public places thanks to
some of their characteristics:
• they are fast;
• they can reach considerable heights;
• they are equipped with cameras that return high definition images;
• they are cheaper and more effective than other airborne monitoring systems (e.g., helicopters).
These features make drones a valuable ally in security management, from surveillance
in contexts such as major events to logistical support for interventions in difficult-to-access
sites that have suffered natural disasters.
Thanks to the different types of sensors with which drones can be equipped, it is easy
to detect, for example:
• illegal dumping and abandonment of waste;
• spills of pollutants in water;
• fire ignition.
Drones are therefore greatly effective in cases where monitoring is particularly expen-
sive and/or difficult: they can provide live images and videos to operational centers and
promptly activate risk mitigation operations.
However, a drone has many limitations, the most important of which are summarized
below. It has a short flight time, which is about 15 to 25 min depending on the type of
drone. The batteries need to be frequently replaced in order to use the drones for a longer
period. Their endurance strongly depends on the type of drone: multirotor drones are
subject to greater energy consumption, while fixed-wing drones can last longer, having
better performance at the expense of maneuverability.
On rainy or windy days, it is difficult to fly a drone as the battery as well as the
electrical components are sensitive to moisture, and water droplets can cause malfunctions.
Moreover, a strong wind could interfere with the flight and even cause a crash.
Another issue is related to safety. In fact, there have been cases of drones injuring the
drone operator or other people, as described in many studies, such as, for instance, [1–4].
For this reason, not everyone takes well to seeing a drone flying over their surroundings,
and for this reason flying over people not involved or not informed is generally forbidden
or strictly restricted. Several countries regulate the use of drones in order to reduce the
chances of accidents. In fact, regulations are a major reason for the slow development of
drone usage; a significant limitation on drone operations is the requirement that they must
be conducted within view of an operator. It is possible to request proper authorizations,
but these are difficult to obtain.
Some drones, such as the one used for the presented activity, make it possible to
minimize safety issues during flight; for example, in case of signal loss, the drone can
automatically go back to the position recorded as “Return to Home”.
This paper presents a system based on drone inspection to optimize environmental
surveillance that has been integrated with an existing platform, dedicated to the manage-
ment of a Smart City. Starting from alerts sent by users through a mobile application, all
the alerts are collected by the Smart City platform, and shown in a 3D satellite view to a
decision-maker; the platform supports the decision-maker in choosing the alerts which
require a drone inspection; he/she must then select the alert and click the ‘send drone’
button. This request is sent by the Smart City platform to the drone operating room where
a mission is automatically planned through an algorithm properly developed for the pre-
sented activity, which outputs a CSV file defining the route and other parameters for the
drone mission.

Related Work
The use of drones with an on-board camera or sensors for terrain surveillance pur-
poses has become increasingly widespread. For instance, in manufacturing monitoring, an
interesting application is described in [5], which is a paper about the use of drone inspection
IoT 2022, 3 368

of power facilities and structures, dealing with common difficulties: flight stability, control
accuracy, and safety; in particular, it provides a detailed state of the art review dating back
to 2018, based on a selection of 27 papers where the use of drones allows safe outdoor and
indoor location inspection of difficult/hazardous areas, mentioning also application of
methodologies based on Artificial Intelligence, and 3D reconstructions; however, none of
the described applications uses a Smart City platform to make the results of drone inspec-
tions available on a map to be consulted by a decision-maker. In a more recent work [6], a
Geographic Information System is used coupled with drones for bridge inspections.
Drones can also help in early fire detection, as described in some recent works [7,8]
discussed below, which detail technical improvements in inspections, but do not involve the
use of a Smart City platform to manage the whole controlled area in a 3D map, integrating
all the information coming from other available sources. One of these studies is [7], where
forest fire surveillance is performed with live video streaming from a UAV through multiple
LTE Networks, based on Scalable Video Coding (SVC); the authors tested the proposed
forest fire surveillance system in Indonesia using a cheap set of lightweight devices for
high-quality video streaming, that allows firefighters to easily control a wide area. Another
experimental activity with a fire surveillance system based on drones is presented in [8];
in this case the system is based on magnetometer sensors, temperature sensors, and night
vision cameras on drones to notify the controller.
An example of drone-assisted IoT is presented in [9], which describes the design and
implementation of an online drone-based target detection system that performs online
data processing and autonomous navigation through an adaptive motion planner. The
paper also describes an experimental activity of the system at high altitude. Another
example of drone-based surveillance IoT for industrial security application is presented
in [10]; the work describes a system to allow authenticated users to login from any device,
anywhere, and view real-time video or images sent from drones. A similar work on drone
surveillance applied to smart cities is presented in [11], which focuses on the challenging
issue related to energy conservation in UAVs in order to enhance flight time, and provides
an interesting discussion of two case studies of the use of drones in the smart cities of
Singapore and India, only mentioning the importance of a control room to manage the
complete technical infrastructure.
A major survey of the potential techniques and applications of drone and IoT collabo-
ration is presented in [12], based on an analysis of recent and ongoing research activities
aimed at improving real-time applications for smart cities, including the generation of
high-resolution 3D maps; in particular, the focus of the study is on the measurement of the
smartness of the cities based on quality of life, healthcare, public safety, disaster manage-
ment, environmental aspects (such as energy efficiency, air quality, traffic monitoring, etc.),
and services; less importance is given to the visualization of all the information on a 3D
map in order to support decision-making.
In the activity described in [13], drones are used for detection and identification of
pollutants on the water surface, by pictures taken from a camera on the drone. Another
paper on this topic is [14], which provides an interesting state-of-the-art survey of drones
and sensor systems in relation to the petroleum industry, including functions such as
offshore oil spill detection, oil leakage detection, pipeline monitoring, gas emission sensing,
remote facility inspection, petroleum exploration (i.e., land surveying, geologic mapping,
and petroleum exploration), and other related environmental monitoring.
Some significant EU-funded projects involving the use of drones in environmental
control are described below.
5G!Drones [15] uses 5G to enhance drones and UAVs in many real-world applications,
such as: traffic management; public safety; situation awareness (equipping drones with
IoT devices, such as HD camera, gas sensors, humidity/temperature sensors, and devices
for remote environmental monitoring interacting with a large network of sensors on the
ground); connectivity during crowded events where cellular networks face an extremely
high demand for communication capacity.
IoT 2022, 3 369

ResponDrone [16], coordinated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR www.dlr.de,

accessed on 7 July 2022), describes a complete system to be used in emergency situations
to provide first responders with a system that manages multiple synchronized missions
of several drones. This project is particularly interesting because it involves a web-based
cloud technology in order to gather, store, and provide collected data to all stakeholders.
InterAct [17] is related to Arctic stations, dedicating a Work Package to the use of
drones, involving also issues of current legislation and UAV sensors suitable to operate in
the Arctic environment. In this project drones are used for climate change observations,
such as tracking glacier height, meteorological observations, etc.
Geo-SAFE [18], coordinated by the University of Greenwich, has the aim of developing
tools to support the response phase with resource optimization; this project also involves
drones to obtain high-resolution images.
AURORA-UAM [19] focuses on emergency-related applications, dealing also with the
integration of drones into the smart cities context.
The interest in the many possible applications of drones, in various situations in which
there is a need to face complex or prohibitive scenarios at low cost, is boosting innovation.
Some best practices reported below highlight this aspect.
A significant example dates to 2011, in Fukushima, Japan [20], when robotic aerial
vehicles were used to take videos and photos to get high-resolution information about
the damage.
Another interesting example is Tararua, New Zealand [21], which is considered a
Smart City because in 2018 it started using drones to capture images of flooding along rural
roads in order to achieve faster solutions.
A more recent application is in Singapore [22], where in 2021 a testing activity with
drones was started for inspections at six reservoirs. One of the aims of the service is to
enhance response time to the great number of alerts received daily, similarly to the activity
presented in this paper.
The aim of the presented activity is to integrate drone service management with a
Smart City platform in order to provide a holistic view of what is happening in the area;
the whole chain, starting from the alert sent through a mobile application and ending with
the inspection by a drone, requested by a decision maker, has been tested in an open field.

2. Materials and Methods

In this paper, a drone inspection service for environmental control is presented. The
system consists of three main parts (as shown in Figure 1) developed during the activity:
• a mobile application to report potentially dangerous events;
• a Smart City platform to collect and show all the alerts in a satellite 3D map, and send
the request of an inspection by drone;
• a system to manage the inspections made by a drone, including the definition of a CSV
file of the itinerary.
Each of these parts and their interactions are described in detail below.

2.1. The Mobile Application

The typical use case starts when an end user of the mobile application observes a risk
for the environment and reports it to a control room. The present release of the application
allows the reporting of the following environmental risks:
• fire ignition;
• spills of pollutants in water;
• illegal dumping;
• other (in this case a further textual message is required).
Figure 2 shows the mobile application.
IoT 2022, 33, FOR PEER REVIEW 5
370

Figure 1. The main parts of the proposed system: the mobile application, the smart city platform
which includes the application server (back end) and the web front end, and the system to plan and
manage the inspections made by a drone. * Image from flaticon.com, accessed on 7 July 2022.

2.1. The Mobile Application

The typical use case starts when an end user of the mobile application observes a
risk for the environment and reports it to a control room. The present release of the
application allows the reporting of the following environmental risks:
• fire ignition;
• spills of pollutants in water;
• illegal
Figuredumping; proposed system:
1. The main parts of the proposed system: the mobile application, the smart city platform
• other
which(in this case
includes the aapplication
further textual
server message
(back end)isand
required).
the web front end, and the system to plan and
manage
Figure
manage2 the inspections
shows
the madeapplication.
the mobile
inspections made by aa drone.
by drone. ** Image
Image from
from flaticon.com,
flaticon.com, accessed
accessed on
on 77 July
July 2022.
2022.

2.1. The Mobile Application

The typical use case starts when an end user of the mobile application observes a
risk for the environment and reports it to a control room. The present release of the
application allows the reporting of the following environmental risks:
• fire ignition;
• spills of pollutants in water;
• illegal dumping;
• other (in this case a further textual message is required).
Figure 2 shows the mobile application.

FigureFigure
2. Details of the mobile
2. Details application
of the mobile to report
application a dangerous
to report situation.
a dangerous situation.

Each alert message is in JSON format and also includes the geographical coordinates
of the mobile phone, along with the timestamp, and two unique identification strings: one
related to the device (“id”), and the other to the alert itself. An example of alert type ‘waste’,
in JSON format, is as follows:
{
“id”: “ae0af7284b27fd6c”,
“ts”: “17 February 2022 16:57:17”,
“id_event”: “ae0af7284b27fd6c17-Feb-2022 16:57:17”,
“lat”: 39.2686312,
Figure 2. Details of the mobile application to report a dangerous situation.
IoT 2022, 3 371

“lng”: 9.1757257,
“type”: “Waste”,
“msg”: ““
}

2.2. The Platform to Support the Decision Maker

The Smart City platform used in the presented activity was developed by CRS4 in
the context of the city of Cagliari to manage data acquisition, persistence, processing,
and presentation.
An ambitious infrastructure that can connect a vast territory and acquire large quanti-
ties of data in many different contexts necessarily requires the use of a modular approach
that deals with individual aspects, from data management to the presentation of the pro-
cessed information. In order to cope with the huge amount of data arriving from the
territory, the key points in the development of the platform are flexibility, stability, and
scalability. In this context, this platform covers a city but can easily be scaled to a larger area.
These requirements are achieved by following the strategies of openness and reusability
of the software in order to avoid technological lock-in, and thus extend its use to multiple
contexts. The purpose of the platform is twofold: in the background it deals with managing
the data that can be conveyed to the platform; at the front end it collects and presents to the
coordinator all the available information for decision-making support.

2.2.1. Benchmarking of the Smart City Platform

The data used for the loading tests refer to a real-world installation for a project
on the Smart City of Cagliari. In a single instance, without high availability or load
balancer systems, the incoming traffic was about 500 JSON blocks per second, each one
of about 10 KB; the traffic was acquired from the back end through a RESTFul API, which
is the slowest among those that the platform makes available, deliberately chosen to get
a perspective on the worst case scenario. The platform is modular, so it is horizontally
scalable throughout its stack.
As for the specific use case related to this document, the data traffic load required is
almost inconsiderable and therefore has little impact on an infrastructure already dedicated
to Smart Cities. In fact, the order of magnitude of a single message is about 5 kB, and
its impact is irrelevant because the actual flow requires 14 messages divided into: new
event incoming, flight request, 11 Points of Interest created to monitor the emergency scene,
end mission.

2.2.2. Technical Details of Data Ingestion and Front end

In the specific scenario linked to drones, the platform’s back end receives the stream
of alerts sent by means of the mobile application, through a rule chain implemented with
the open source IoT platform ThingsBoard [23] and shown in Figure 3. The approach used
was to manage information and communications as if they were data generated by IoT
IoT 2022, 3, FOR PEER REVIEW 7
sensors, and design the flow with a dedicated IoT platform to exploit their versatility and
robustness.

Figure3.
Figure 3. The
The ThingsBoard
ThingsBoardrule
rulechain
chainto
toreceive
receivealerts
alertsfrom
fromthe
themobile
mobileapplication.
application.

The platform’s front end is a powerful tool to support the decision-maker in the
selection of the alerts which require a drone inspection (see Figure 4).
IoT 2022, 3 372

Figure 3. The ThingsBoard rule chain to receive alerts from the mobile application.

The
The platform’s front end
platform’s front end is
is aa powerful
powerful tool
tool to
to support
support the
the decision-maker
decision-maker in
in the
the
selection of the alerts which require a drone inspection (see Figure 4).
selection of the alerts which require a drone inspection (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. The Smart City platform, with some alerts related to fire ignition and illegal dumping.
Figure 4. The Smart City platform, with some alerts related to fire ignition and illegal dumping.

In particular,
In particular, the
the front
front end
end of
of the
the platform
platform is
is made
made of
of the
the following:
following:
•• aa main
main menu,
menu, onon the
the top,
top, center;
center;
•• two sidebars, one on the
two sidebars, one on the left left and
and the
the other
other onon the
the right,
right, showing
showing analytical
analytical and
and
statistical information
statistical information about
about all
all the
the received
received requests;
requests;
•• a navigable 3D satellite map, in the center.
a navigable 3D satellite map, in the center.
Figure 44 shows
Figure shows different
different statistics
statistics regarding
regarding the the use
use casecase of
of drones.
drones. The The data
data shown
shown
in the sidebars refer to a time span that embraces the previous
in the sidebars refer to a time span that embraces the previous 30 days; however it 30 days; however it is
is
possible to modify the value of the time span parameter. In the left
possible to modify the value of the time span parameter. In the left bar it is possible to find bar it is possible to
find information
information ontypes
on the the types
of reportsof reports
and theirand cardinality;
their cardinality; the status
the status ID of theID reports
of the reports
is also
is also displayed
displayed makingmaking
it possible it possible to understand
to understand how many howof many
them are of them
new andare hownew many
and how are
many
still are still The
pending. pending.
bar onThe thebar onshows
right the right shows
a pie chartabased
pie chart based
on the on the cardinality
cardinality of the report of
the report
types and atypes
table and
withathe table
logwith
of thethe log ofand
reports thetheir
reports
status.andOn their
the status.
centralOn map, thedifferent
central
map, different geo-referenced
geo-referenced pins are shownpins are shown
to indicate to indicate
the points of thethe pointsthe
reports, of type
the reports,
of the iconthe
type of the icon matching with the type of report and the
matching with the type of report and the color with the progress of the request. color with the progress of the
request.
Whenever a message is sent through the mobile application, it is received by the Smart
Wheneverwhich
City platform, a message
worksisassent through
control room,the mobileallapplication,
showing the alerts in itthe is 3D
received
satellitebyview.
the
Smart
A proper City platform,
algorithm forwhich works as control
decision-making has not room, showing yet,
been developed all the
but alerts
from the in the
overall3D
view, shown
satellite view.inAFigure
proper 4, algorithm
the decision-maker is supportedhas
for decision-making in the
not careful analysis ofyet,
been developed all but
the
messages receivedview,
from the overall in order
shown to single out the
in Figure most
4, the dangerous ones
decision-maker is that call for in
supported anthe
inspection
careful
by drone. In order to do this, he/she simply has to select the
analysis of all the messages received in order to single out the most dangerous onesalert shown in the view, which
that
opens
call fortheanrelated widget
inspection (also called,
by drone. ‘infobox’);
In order the widgets
to do this, he/she simplyof all the
hasnew alertsthe
to select have an
alert
extra
shown button
in theto activate
view, which theopens
requestthefor a drone
related flight.(also
widget On called,
the map, the alertsthe
‘infobox’); arewidgets
shown of in
different colors, according to their status. Four progress statuses are possible:
• new requests, for which it is possible to select and eventually activate the alert mecha-
nism linked to the flight of the drone;
• mission requested (when the button has been clicked by the decision-maker);
• ongoing missions, showing the route of the drone;
• completed missions, after the drone completes its mission.
 map, the alerts are shown in different colors, according to their status. Four progress
statuses are possible:
• new requests, for which it is possible to select and eventually activate the alert
mechanism linked to the flight of the drone;
IoT 2022, 3 • mission requested (when the button has been clicked by the decision-maker); 373

• ongoing missions, showing the route of the drone;

• completed missions, after the drone completes its mission.
Figure 55 shows
Figure shows an
an example
example of
of aa selected
selected notification
notification on
on the
the 3D
3D satellite
satellite map,
map, with
with
the related widget where the button ‘send drone’ allows the decision-maker to ask
the related widget where the button ‘send drone’ allows the decision-maker to ask for for the
the
inspection by drone.
inspection by drone.

Figure 5. One of the new alerts (about illegal dumping) is selected on the 3D satellite map, along with
Figure 5. One of the new alerts (about illegal dumping) is selected on the 3D satellite map, along with
the widget where a button allows the decision-maker to require an inspection by drone.
the widget where a button allows the decision-maker to require an inspection by drone.

2.3.
2.3. Programming
Programming aa Mission
Mission
For
For the
the on
on field
field experimental
experimental activity,
activity, aa DJI
DJI Inspire
Inspire 22 drone
drone waswas used,
used, which
which can
can fly
fly
for 25 min and is able to take the required images images through
through the the DJI
DJI Zenmuse
Zenmuse x5s x5s optics.
optics.
According to the manufacturer, this is the first filmmaking drone in the world to
integrate an HD video transmission system, a 360 360°◦ rotating gimbal, and a 4K camera. This
model can detect obstacles up to 30 m ahead and 5 m above. above. When the drone operating
room receives a request for a new inspection by drone, the mission is planned and a CSV
file with the route is automatically built, starting from the coordinates of the place of the
original alert.
The algorithm to build the optimized route was designed and developed for the
presented application,
application, and and should
should be be explained
explainedin inmore
moredetail.
detail.InInfact,
fact,it itcan
canelaborate
elaboratea
a set
set ofof itineraries
itineraries forfor a fleet
a fleet ofof drones,
drones, to to inspect
inspect anan area
area which
which includes
includes several
several points
points of
of interest.
interest. In In this
this scenario,
scenario, thedrones
the dronesareareconsidered
consideredasasaa multi-agent
multi-agent system,
system, and and each
drone as a resource to be dynamically allocated to a sequence of tasks related to each of
the points of interest in the area. To do this, the area is split in sub-areas, called ‘equitable
partitions’,
partitions’, each
eachone oneincluding
includingonly onlyone
onepoint
pointof of
interest, following
interest, followingthe the
Voronoi
Voronoicriteria [24].
criteria
Each Each
[24]. dronedrone
is assigned a mission
is assigned made of made
a mission a sequence
of a of tasks minimizing
sequence two parameters:
of tasks minimizing two
the time fromthe
parameters: thetime
request
from to the
the mission
request andto thethe mission
sum of the anddistances
the sumtraveled
of the by all the
distances
drones involved.
traveled by all the Each itinerary
drones includes
involved. a circular
Each itinerary flight arounda acircular
includes point offlight
interest, where
around a
the radium of the circle is calculated as half the minimum diameter
point of interest, where the radium of the circle is calculated as half the minimum of that Voronoi cell. The
developedofalgorithm
diameter that Voronoi returns in output
cell. the set ofalgorithm
The developed itinerariesreturns
(one forin each
output drone)thedefined
set of
in a CSV file described in detail later in this paragraph. The presented experimental test
involved only one drone, and its itinerary was built with the described criteria, around the
only point of interest considered. But a further development will cover a greater area, with
more point of interests and an inspection by a fleet of drones.
The generated CSV file must be downloaded and imported on the “Litchi” plat-
form [25], a third-party software that allows mission planning and which integrates with
most of the drones on the market. In the CSV file, the coordinates of the points defining the
drone’s mission are listed; an example of a CSV file is shown in Figure 6.
 was built with the described criteria, around the only point of interest considered. But a
further development will cover a greater area, with more point of interests and an
inspection by a fleet of drones.
The generated CSV file must be downloaded and imported on the ‘‘Litchi’’ platform
[25], a third-party software that allows mission planning and which integrates with most
IoT 2022, 3 374
of the drones on the market. In the CSV file, the coordinates of the points defining the
drone’s mission are listed; an example of a CSV file is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. An example of a CSV file related to a mission.

Figure 6. An example of a CSV file related to a mission.

In the
In the file,
file, each
each row
row represents
represents aa waypoint
waypoint position
position and
and aa set
set of
of actions
actions to
to perform
perform
over it.
over it.
Apart from
Apart fromthethe obvious
obvious meaning
meaning of latitude,
of latitude, longitude,
longitude, and aaltitude,
and altitude, a brief
brief description
description
of of theparameters
the nontrivial nontrivial can
parameters
be givencan be given as follows:
as follows:
•• controls the
heading(deg) controls the starting
starting rotation
rotation of
of the
the aircraft;
aircraft;
•• curvesize(m) controls the curve angle of the UAV UAV passing
passing wayway points.
points. By default, it is
set to (=0.0);
•• rotationdir camera control parameter sets the UAV basic turn direction to right (0) or
left (1);
•• gimbalmode camera
gimbalmode cameracontrol
controlparameter;
parameter;0 0deactivates
deactivates thethe gimbal
gimbal control;
control; 1 activates
1 activates the
the gimbal
gimbal for focusing
for focusing POIs;
POIs; 2 activates
2 activates the the gimbal
gimbal for for focus
focus andand interpolates
interpolates a field
a field of
of view
view in an
in an angle
angle of gimbalpitchangle
of gimbalpitchangle
• gimbalpitchangle vertical angleangle ofof camera
camera +30
+30 deg. −90deg;
deg.−90 deg;
• actiontypeX (with X from 0 to 5) specifies the type of
actiontypeX (with X from 0 to 5) specifies the type of action action of theofcamera (defined
the camera later);
(defined
• actionparamX
later); (with X from 0 to 5) provides corresponding parameter for the individ-
• ual actiontype.(with X from 0 to 5) provides corresponding parameter for the
actionparamX
individual
The actiontypeactiontype.
parameter could be:
0:
Thestay hovering;parameter could be:
actiontype
1: take hovering;
0: stay photo;
2: start recording;
1: take photo;
3: stop recording;
2: start recording;
4: rotaterecording;
3: stop aircraft;
5: tilt camera.
4: rotate aircraft;
After loading the CSV file on the platform, the mission, the point of interest, and the
5: tilt camera.
related
After loadingconfigured
waypoints the CSV filearound
on thethe target, will
platform, be displayed
the mission, on a georeferenced
the point of interest, andmapthe
2, 3, FOR PEER REVIEW of Litchi and then made available on any device connected to the 10 as shown in
platform,
related waypoints configured around the target, will be displayed on a georeferenced
Figure
map of7. Litchi and then made available on any device connected to the platform, as shown
in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Loading the mission on Litchi.

Figure 7. Loading the mission on Litchi.

The flight planThe

of the mission
flight is therefore
plan of available
the mission on the
is therefore device that
available is connected
on the device thattois connected to
the drone controller, which
the drone allows the
controller, whichmanagement
allows the of all the functions
management of all of
thethe aircraft.of the aircraft.
functions
Before startingBefore
the aerial
starting the aerial monitoring of the specified pointpossible
monitoring of the specified point of interest, it is to it is possible
of interest,
modify or addtowaypoints around the target and/or complete the configuration of
modify or add waypoints around the target and/or complete the configuration of thethe
specific mission by varying
specific missionsome
by parameters.
varying some parameters.
From this moment on, the mission and all the functions of the drone can also be
managed directly via the controller (see Figure 8).
 Figure 7. Loading the mission on Litchi.

The flight plan of the mission is therefore available on the device that is connected to
IoT 2022, 3
the drone controller, which allows the management of all the functions of the aircraft. 375
Before starting the aerial monitoring of the specified point of interest, it is possible to
modify or add waypoints around the target and/or complete the configuration of the
specific mission by varying some parameters.
From
From this
this moment
moment on,on, the
the mission
mission and
and all
all the
the functions
functions of
of the
the drone
drone can
can also
also be
be
managed directly via the controller (see Figure 8).
managed directly via the controller (see Figure 8).

Figure8.8.The
Figure Themission
missionisismanaged
managedthrough
throughthe
thedrone
dronecontroller.
controller.

Thedrone
The dronesends
sendsthe
thereal-time
real-timevideo
video
viavia YouTube,
YouTube, through
through thethe mobile
mobile phone
phone connected
connected
to the droneto controller.
the drone controller.
After theAfter the mission’s
mission’s end, its end, itschanges
status status changes from
from ‘ongoing’ to
‘ongoing’ toand
‘completed’ ‘completed’
the video and
shotthe video
from shot from
the drone the drone
becomes becomes
available to theavailable to the on
decision-maker
decision-maker
the on the
map of the smart map
city of the
(from thesmart
widgetcity (fromtothe
related thewidget related to the mission).
mission).

3.
3. Results
Results
The
Theon-field
on-fieldtesting
testingactivity
activitycovered
coveredthethe
whole
wholepresented
presentedsolution, from
solution, the alert
from to the
the alert to
end
the of
endtheofdrone mission,
the drone managed
mission, through
managed the Smart
through the City
Smartplatform. Unfortunately,
City platform. a large
Unfortunately,
no-fly
a largezone,
no-flydue to restrictions
zone, on drones
due to restrictions onover military
drones overand urbanand
military areas, led areas,
urban to the led
choice of
to the
achoice
rural place about 15 km from Cagliari. There, three people used a drone
of a rural place about 15 km from Cagliari. There, three people used a drone simulating an
operational
simulating an base (see Figurebase
operational 9), another person
(see Figure went nearby
9), another personwith a mobile
went nearbyphone
with atomobile
send
IoT 2022, 3, FOR PEER REVIEW alerts, while a person from the office pretended to be the decision-maker and selected one11
phone to send alerts, while a person from the office pretended to be the decision-maker
of
andtheselected
alerts toone
request
of thean inspection
alerts by drone.
to request an inspection by drone.
It must be specified that in a real context the number of people required is lower
than the number of people that were involved in the on-field simulation; in fact, only one
person is sufficient to make the report, who is supposed to be a common citizen willing to
communicate a risk situation. To manage the smart city platform, the decision-maker can
lead the environmental inspection along with a flight planner, and a pilot (but they can
be the same person). It must be said that in some countries (such as in Italy), due to the
already mentioned safety issues, the drone operator must guide the drone without losing
sight of it, but drones are already technically able to replace humans in environmental
inspections.

Figure9.9.AAphoto
Figure photoof
ofthe
theoperating
operatingbase,
base,taken
takenfrom
fromthe
thedrone.
drone.

ItThe
mustexperimental
be specifiedchain
thatwas
in acompleted
real contextin less than halfofanpeople
the number hour. An issue related
required is lowerto
the the
than precision
numberofofthe GPSthat
people coordinates,
were involvedarising
in thebecause
on-fieldthe mobile in
simulation; phone was one
fact, only not
connected
person to Wi-Fi,torequires
is sufficient make the some more
report, whoconsideration.
is supposed to be a common citizen willing to
communicate a risk situation. To manage the smart citydepends
The accuracy of the GPS system of smartphones platform,onthe
several factors. First
decision-maker of
can
all, when
lead a GPS is activated
the environmental or ifalong
inspection the GPS
withhas beenplanner,
a flight inactiveand
in the background
a pilot for too
(but they can be
long, the GPS needs to fetch data from the satellites that describe the position and timing
of all of the satellites in the system. This can take up to 4 min to be corrected, and during
this time the GPS is not reliable (this is the so called “cold start”). Usually, to cope with
GPS inaccuracy the Android subsystem uses several methods; one of these is the Wi-Fi
connection that can provide a first georeferentiation, which is then refined with satellite
IoT 2022, 3 376

Figure 9. Aperson).
the same photo ofItthe operating
must be saidbase,
thattaken from
in some the drone.
countries (such as in Italy), due to the already
mentioned safety issues, the drone operator must guide the drone without losing sight of
it, butThe experimental
drones are already chain was completed
technically in less humans
able to replace than halfinanenvironmental
hour. An issue related to
inspections.
the precision of the GPS
The experimental chain coordinates,
was completed arising
in lessbecause
than halfthe mobileAnphone
an hour. was not
issue related to
connected
the precision to Wi-Fi,
of the GPSrequires some more
coordinates, consideration.
arising because the mobile phone was not connected
The requires
to Wi-Fi, accuracysome of themoreGPSconsideration.
system of smartphones depends on several factors. First of
all, when a GPS is activated
The accuracy of the GPS system or if the GPS has beendepends
of smartphones inactiveoninseveral
the background
factors. First foroftoo
all,
long, the
when a GPSGPS is needs
activatedto fetch
or if data
the GPSfrom thebeen
has satellites
inactive that
indescribe the position
the background and
for too timing
long, the
GPS
of allneeds
of thetosatellites
fetch data in from the satellites
the system. thattake
This can describe
up tothe position
4 min to be and timing and
corrected, of allduring
of the
satellites
this time inthethe
GPSsystem.
is notThis can take
reliable (thisup to 4so
is the min to be“cold
called corrected, and
start”). during to
Usually, this timewith
cope the
GPS is not reliable
inaccuracy the(this is the so
Android called “cold
subsystem usesstart”).
several Usually,
methods;to cope with
one of GPSisinaccuracy
these the Wi-Fi
the Androidthat
connection subsystem
can provide uses several methods; one of these
a first georeferentiation, whichis the Wi-Fi
is then connection
refined with that can
satellite
provide a first georeferentiation, which is then
data; the absence of Wi-Fi slows down the “cold start” process. refined with satellite data; the absence of
Wi-FiAnother
slows down factorthe “cold start”
is related to theprocess.
Android energy management and its customizations:
the moreAnother factor is
aggressive it related to thethe
is, the more Android energy
sensor will tend management
to be turnedand itsimprove
off to customizations:
battery
the more aggressive it is, the more the sensor will tend to be turned off to improve bat-
performance.
tery performance.
The mobile app presented in this project is POC and so prone to several
The mobile to
enhancements; appfixpresented
several in of this project
these issuesis POC
it is and so prone
possible to to severalthe
enforce enhancements;
application
to fix several of these issues it is possible to enforce the application
development to force the app to be always active, and thus with the GPS coordinates development to force
the app
updated. to be always active, and thus with the GPS coordinates updated.
Figure 10
Figure 10 shows
shows the the drone
drone during
during thethe inspection.
inspection.

Figure 10. The drone during the open-field mission.

Figure 11 shows two alerts and the points for the inspection.
A detail of the points of the drone mission are shown in Figure 12.
As already mentioned, at present, the drone can share a streaming video of the area
on YouTube through the mobile phone connected to the drone controller. Once the mission
ends, the video is also made available on the platform, as shown in Figure 13. Based on the
video, the decision-maker can determine if an inspection by a team is necessary, and this
closes the chain.
It can be said that there are two kinds of limitations common to any drone-based
service: technical and regulatory. The technical limitations can be overcome by innovative
evolution, while the regulatory ones can be bypassed with a special license issued by the
authorities to operate in emergency situations. The on-field test was sufficient to better
understand the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution, which are the
challenges encountered by any similar system, and which are summarized below.
 IoT 2022, 3, FOR PEER REVIEW

Figure 10. The drone during the open-field mission.

IoT 2022, 3 Figure 11 Figure

shows10. The
two droneand
alerts during
the the open-field
points for themission.
inspection. 377

Figure 11 shows two alerts and the points for the inspection.

Figure 11. The on-site test shown on the smart city platform.
Figure 11. The on-site test shown on the smart city platform.
FigureA11. The on-site
detail of the test shown
points on the
of the smart
drone city platform.
mission are shown in Figure 12.
A detail of the points of the drone mission are shown in Figure 12.

Figure12.
Figure 12.AAdetail
detailofofthe
thepoints
pointsofofthe
theon-site
on-sitemission
missionasasshown
shownon
onthe
theplatform.
platform.
Figure 12. A detail of the points of the on-site mission as shown on the platform.
As already
The mentioned,
main advantage of at
thepresent, the drone
presented canisshare
solution a streaming
that in videocenter,
the operations of the area
the
on YouTube As
through already
the mentioned,
mobile phone at present,
connected the
to drone
the can
drone share a streaming
controller.
decision-maker can manage many kinds of reports coming from all the vertical applications Once video
the of the
mission ends,on
implemented on
the YouTube
thevideo
Smart through
is City the
also platform, mobile
made available phone
on the
not only connected
theones
platform,
related to the
astoshown drone controller.
in Figureuse
the presented 13. Onc
BasedInon
case. the
fact, mission
thevideo, ends, the video
the decision-maker
information is also
generated by can made available
this determine on the platform,
if an inspection
specific application as shown
by aofteam
is only one many,is in Figur
necessary,
built on dataand Based onfrom
this closes
collected the video,
chain. the
thesensors anddecision-maker
other sources, can determine
which togetherif compound
an inspection
the by a tea
necessary, and this closes the chain.
control room of a Smart City, providing the decision-maker with a holistic view of what is
happening in the area.
IoT 2022,3 3, FOR PEER REVIEW
IoT2022, 378
13

Figure13.
Figure 13.When
Whenthe
themission
missionends,
ends, the
the video
video is
is also
also made
made available
available on
on the
the platform.
platform.

It can
An be saidadvantage
important that thererelated
are two to kinds
the useofoflimitations
a drone is that common to any
it is easy drone-based
to fly at low and
service: technical
ultra-low and regulatory.
altitudes, compared to manned The aircraft;
technical for limitations can betoovercome
this reason, thanks the on-board by
innovative
video camera,evolution, while the
it was possible to getregulatory ones can
high-resolution be bypassed
images and playwith a special license
the video.
issued by the
Another authorities
advantage to operate
is related in emergency
to the possibility for thesituations. The on-field
drone to reach test was
difficult-to-access
sufficient
sites, such asto the
better
lake understand
nearby (clearly thevisible
advantages
in Figure and11), disadvantages
if necessary. of the proposed
solution, which
The main are the challenges
disadvantage is relatedencountered
to the battery: by theanydrone
similar system,
needed and
to be which are
recharged for
asummarized
couple of hours below.before the mission, and its autonomy would not have lasted more than
25 min The(asmain
alreadyadvantage
mentioned of the presented
in Section solution
2.3); this also is that in the
implies thatoperations
the dronecenter,
shouldthe be
decision-maker
kept fully chargedcan manage
in order to bemanyalwayskinds
readyof forreports
unexpected coming from all the vertical
missions.
applications
Another implemented
disadvantage on the Smart
is related City
to the platform,
Beyond VisualnotLine
onlyofthe
Sightones related restric-
(BVLOS) to the
presented
tions, use in
because case.
some In real-world
fact, the information
situationsgenerated
it would be byuseful
this specific
to haveapplication is only
the possibility to
one ofthe
guide many,
dronebuilt
for an oninspection
data collected from sensors
in impervious zones.and other sources, which together
compound
Lack of the control room
connection is alsoofa critical
a Smartissue
City,ofproviding
the proposed the decision-maker with a limiting
solution, significantly holistic
view
the of what isterritory,
operational happening in the
which is area.
already reduced by other types of no-flight zones, such
as urbanAn areas,
importantmilitary zones, etc.
advantage related to the use of a drone is that it is easy to fly at low
and Finally,
ultra-low harsh weather
altitudes, conditions
compared to can significantly
manned aircraft;complicate if not completely
for this reason, thanks to the ob-
struct
on-boardoperations.
video camera, it was possible to get high-resolution images and play the video.
Another advantage is related to the possibility for the drone to reach
4.difficult-to-access
Discussion sites, such as the lake nearby (clearly visible in Figure 11), if necessary.
An
Theexperimental
main disadvantage activityistesting
related the usebattery:
to the of drones the in environmental
drone needed to be control was
recharged
described.
for a couple Theofactivity is made
hours before theupmission,
of three and
mainitscomponents:
autonomy would a mobile notapplication
have lasted tomore
send
on-field
than 25 alerts,
min (as a Smart
alreadyCity platformintoSection
mentioned collect 2.3);
alertsthis
andalso
show themthat
implies on athe
3Ddrone
satellite map
should
to
besupport
kept fullya decision-maker
charged in orderintothe bechoice
alwaysofready
the alerts requiring an
for unexpected inspection by drone,
missions.
and the operating
Another base to manage
disadvantage the drone
is related to in
theitsBeyond
mission.VisualA complete
Line use case was
of Sight tested
(BVLOS)
in
restrictions, because in some real-world situations it would be useful to have The
the field, starting from an experimental alert, and ending with a flight by drone. the
application
possibility to could
guide have great potential
the drone to support
for an inspection a decision-maker
in impervious zones. in centralizing and
optimizing a control room which receives information about dangerous situations which
can be risky for the environment.
IoT 2022, 3 379

In the experiment, a multirotor drone was selected, but a fixed-wing drone, which
can cover longer distances thanks to its greater autonomy, could be particularly suitable in
scenarios of distant wildfires that are difficult to reach quickly.
The present version of the application could be improved in many ways. To begin with,
the mobile device could send more information about what is going on. Object detection
algorithms could be applied to analyze the video shot by the video camera on the drone.
A further improvement would be achieved by adding sensors to allow the application of
remote sensing algorithms, and so expand the potential use cases. It is worth noting that
without the limit of visual flight, many operational bases could be located on a territory,
where all the actions to be taken can be coordinated directly from the same central station;
depending on weather conditions and other parameters, the decision-maker can choose
which missions call for an inspection by drone, avoiding sending a human operator in
the field.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, G.G., L.L. and M.M.; methodology, G.G., L.L. and M.M.;
software, M.C., M.L.C., C.I., and R.P.; validation, all authors; formal analysis, G.G. and C.I.; investi-
gation, all authors; project administration, L.L. and M.M. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This work was partially supported by the Sardinian Local Government (RAS), within the
Joint Innovation Center (JIC) project.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design
of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or
in the decision to publish the results.

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