Feasibility study to determine the economic and operational benefits of utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Details

• Creators:
  Irizarry, Javier ; Johnson, Eric N.
• Corporate Creators:
  Georgia Institute of Technology
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Feasibility analysis
  • Drone aircraft
  • State departments of transportation
  • Highway traffic control
  • Benefit cost analysis
  • Technology assessment
  • Aerial photography
  • Detection and identification systems
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA-GA-1H-12-38
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Georgia
• Corporate Publisher:
  Georgia. Department of Transportation. Office of Research
• Abstract:
  This project explored the feasibility of using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) in Georgia ; Department of Transportation (GDOT) operations. The research team conducted 24 interviews with ; personnel in four GDOT divisions. Interviews focused on (1) the basic goals of the operators in each ; division, (2) their major decisions for accomplishing those goals, and (3) the information requirements for ; each decision. Following an interview validation process, a set of UASs design characteristics that fulfill ; user requirements of each previously identified division was developed. A “House of Quality” viewgraph ; was chosen to capture the relationships between GDOT tasks and potential UAS aiding those operations. ; As a result, five reference systems are proposed. The UAS was broken into three components: vehicle, ; control station, and system. This study introduces a variety of UAS applications in traffic management, ; transportation and construction disciplines related to DOTs, such as the ability to get real time, digital ; photographs/videos of traffic scenes, providing a "bird’s eye view" that was previously only available with ; the assistance of a manned aircraft, integrating aerial data into GDOT drawing software programs, and ; dealing with restricted or complicated access issues when terrain, area, or the investigated object make it ; difficult for GDOT personnel to conduct a task. The results of this study could lead to further research on ; design, development, and field-testing of UAVs for applications identified as beneficial to the Department.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27333/dot_27333_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.20 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f33a012ca2250342af43d5421803c5d58402501a2d6d4330318cfbaaf2a587f0