Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2018 - 48

Feature Article:

DOI. No. 10.1109/MAES.2018.170176

A Remote-Controlled Platform for UAS Testing
Bartosz Brzozowski, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
Pasquale Daponte, Luca De Vito, Francesco Lamonaca, Francesco Picariello, University
of Sannio, Benevento, Italy
Mauro Pompetti, DPM Elettronica, Foggia, Italy
Ioan Tudosa, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy
Konrad Wojtowicz, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, unmanned aerial systems (UASs) find application in
several fields [1], such as agriculture, environmental monitoring,
energy, geology, and archaeology [2], and the list is continually
growing. Light vertical takeoff and landing-remotely piloted aircraft systems, often called generic UASs, are the most used platforms due to their low weight, low size, and low cost [1]. This trend
is due to the integration on the UAS of high-performance processors, sensors, and actuators with very low power consumption.
In civilian applications, it is necessary to guarantee an acceptable level safety during UAS operations. In particular, to verify the
reliability of a UAS before performing a mission, all its subsystems (e.g., electrical or mechanical and electronic elements) have
to comply with the design specifications and regulatory laws or
standards [3]. Therefore, a growing interest has been aroused in
developing fully automated test benches for UASs to detect and
identify faulty or damaged components and to speed up the testing
process. The literature survey shows that the test benches for testing of UASs can be classified into two categories: (1) test benches
for verifying each subsystem of a UAS and (2) test benches for
testing a UAS during flight.
In the first case, test benches aim to measure the parameters
related to each UAS component. The used measurement systems
are not designed for testing the UAS as a whole platform but for
testing each UAS subsystem (e.g., motor, control board, and sensors) [4]. In this case, the main disadvantage is that these systems
require the disassembly of each UAS component to be tested.
In the second case, the testing of the UAS is performed during
a flight. The test bench consists of a defined area where the flight
of UAS is controlled [5]. Usually, a high-performance vision-

Authors' current addresses: B. Brzozowski, K. Wojtowicz,
Witolda Urbanowicza 2, 01-476 Warszawa, Poland. P. Daponte,
L. De Vito, F. Lamonaca, R. Picariello, I. Tudosa, Tenente Pellegrini, 82100 Benevento, Italy, Email: (fpicariello@unisannio.
it). M. Pompetti, Alfonso de Liguori 115, 71100 Foggia, Italy.
Manuscript received August 31, 2017, revised January 8, 2018,
and ready for publication February 1, 2018.
Review handled by S. Debei.
0885/8985/17/$26.00 © 2018 IEEE
48

based tracking system is used to measure the position of the UAS
and to compare the measured trajectory with the imposed one. In
this case, it is possible to verify whether the UAS is performing a
correct trajectory, but it is not possible to identify a fault.
Moreover, because most users tend to be professional pilots,
remote visualization and control of the UAS during the test is becoming part of the test procedure. To this aim, it is necessary to
develop hardware and software systems for remote control of the
test benches. In this way, the pilot can impose its trajectories and
working conditions of the UAS during the test.
To facilitate the testing procedures, a scenario could be foreseen (Figure 1). The test bench is located in a facility where a pilot
drives the UAS under test and handles the testing steps. A technician, remotely located, visualizes and analyzes the obtained test
results and gives feedback to the pilot.
In [4], a test bench called DronesBench is proposed. This system allows testing of a UAS as a whole platform but in a controlled
environment. In particular, DronesBench measures the (1) attitude
of the UAS in terms of pitch, yaw, and roll angles; (2) accelerations; (3) power consumption; and (4) thrust force exerted by UAS.

Figure 1.

Use-case scenario.

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Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2018

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