PLC-Integrated Sensing Technology in Mountain Regions for Drone Landing Sites: Focusing on Software Technology

• Main Author: Jun-Ho Huh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-08-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: natural hazards; lightning; drone landing site; Internet of Things (IoT); artificial intelligence; AI; App; computer architecture; protocol
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/8/2693

In the Republic of Korea, one of the most widely discussed subjects related to future logistics technology is the drone-based delivery (transportation) system. Much (around 75%) of Korea’s territory consists of mountainous areas; however, the costs of installing internet facilities for drone landing sites are very high compared to other countries. Therefore, this paper proposes the power-line communication (PLC) system introduced in the author’s previous study as an alternative solution. For the system design, a number of lightning rods are used together with a monitoring system. The system algorithm performs substantial data analysis. Also, as the author found that instantaneous high-voltage currents were a major cause of fire incidents, a three-phase three-wire connection was used for the installation of the lightning rods (Bipolar Conventional Air Terminal). Thus, based on the PLC technology, an artificial intelligence (AI) which avoids lightning strikes at the drone landing site by interworking with a closed-circuit television (CCTV) monitoring system when a drone flies over the mountain regions is proposed in this paper. The algorithm was implemented with C++ and Unity/C#, whereas the application for the part concerning the integrated sensing was developed with Java Android.