UAVs are a disruptive technology bringing new geographic data and information to many application domains. UASs are similar to other geographic imagery systems so existing frameworks are applicable. But the diversity of UAVs as platforms along with the diversity of available sensors are presenting challenges in the processing and creation of geospatial products. Efficient processing and dissemination of the data is achieved using software and systems that implement open standards. The challenges identified point to the need for use of existing standards and extending standards. Results from the use of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement set of standards are presented. Next steps in the progress of UAVs and UASs may follow the path of open data, open source and open standards.

1. ®
Common Approach for
UAS Data Geoprocessing
UAV-g 2015
August 2015
George Percivall
Chief Engineer and CTO
gpercivall@myogc.org
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

2. OGC
®
Common Approach for
UAS Data Geoprocessing
• UAVs bring new geographic information to many
application domains
• UASs similar to other geographic imagery systems
so existing frameworks are applicable
• But challenges unique to UASs exist in processing
and creation of geospatial products
• Challenges motivate use of existing standards and
extending standards
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

3. OGC
®
UAS frameworks similar to previous
geographic observing system frameworks
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
!
UAS Production Process (USGS)
Figure 1. The frameworks of application from UAVs
II. PROJECT WORKFLOW OF IMAGE DATA ACQUISITION
overall workflow for the acquisition of UAV images will be
Image matching
and mosaicking
Flight planning Autonomous flight Flight trajectory
Data
processing
Environment
and agriculture
Terrain
extraction
3D
visualization
Monitoring
of hazards
Data
acquisition
Photography Classification
Applications
UAVs
Framework for research on UAVs (Ma)

4. OGC
®
Challenges with UAS technology
• Image distortion with inexpensive digital cameras
• Sensors have low or no metadata which hinders use of
sensor data
• Limited accuracy of the exterior information: position,
orientation
• Need for smooth, fast workflow: raw to classified imagery
• Requirements for accountability increase requirements
on provenance in data processing
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

5. OGC
®
Challenges motivate the use of standards
• Diversity of alternatives in UAVs show a lack of
standardization at all levels: sensors, platforms, processing
• To advance, UASs need to increase use of existing
standards and in some cases new standards will need to
be developed.
• Standards for geographic observations are quite mature
and UASs benefit from using them
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

6. OGC
®
What is a Standard?
• “An agreed way of doing something”
© 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
EC: Practical standards guide for researchers - en

7. OGC
®
What is a Standard?
• “An agreed way of doing something”
• Standards are distilled wisdom of people with expertise in
their subject matter and who know the needs of the
organizations they represent – people such as
manufacturers, sellers, buyers, customers, trade
associations, users or regulators.
• Standards are knowledge. They are powerful tools that
can help drive innovation and increase productivity. They
can make organizations more successful and people’s
everyday lives easier, safer and healthier.
© 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
EC: Practical standards guide for researchers - en

8. OGC
®
What is an OGC Standard?
• Document; Established by consensus; Approved by OGC
membership (balance of interest, all members have vote)
– Provides, rules, guidelines or characteristics
– Implementable in software
• Open Standards are not the same as Open Source software
– OGC/OSGeo Paper on Open Source and Open Standards:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Open_Source_and_Open_Standards
• OGC standards are Open Standards
– Freely and publicly available
– No license fees
– Vendor neutral
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium 8

9. OGC
®
OGC
Sensor
Web
Enablement
Copyright © 2014 Open Geospatial Consortium
Webcam
Environmental
Monitor
Airborne
Imaging
Device
Health Monitor
Vehicles
As Sensor Probe
Satellite-borne
Imaging Device
• Sensors
connected
to
and
discoverable
on
the
Web
• Sensors
have
posi9on
&
generate
observa9ons
• Sensor
descrip9ons
available
• Services
to
task
and
access
sensors
• Local,
regional,
na9onal
scalability
• Enabling
the
Enterprise

10. OGC
®
OGC Sensor Web Enablement Standards
Discover and Task Sensors
Access and process Observations
• Sensor Model Language
(SensorML)
• Observations & Measurements
(O&M)
• Sensor Planning Service
(SPS)
• Sensor Observation Service
(SOS)
• Catalogue Service
• Sensor Alert Service (SAS)
• PUCK
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

11. OGC
®
Visualization / Decision Tools and Applications
GeoAPI
OpenLS
SLD
SE
Data Models
and EncodingsWMC
FE
GML
GeoXACML
KML
CityGML OpenGeoSMS
IndoorGML GeoSparql
WaterML GeoPackage
NetCDF GMLJP2
OGC Services Architecture
Other
Data
Processing Services
OpenMIWPSTJS WCPS
Geospatially
Enabled
Metadata
Discovery Services
CSW
OpenSearch
Geo ebRIM
WMS
WMTSWFS
Simple
Features
Access
Access Services
Geospatial
Feature Data
Geospatial
Browse/Maps
Geospatial
Coverage Data
WCS
Other Services
Workflow, Alerts,
Security
Sensors
Puck
SOSSPS O&MSensorML
Sensor Web Enablement
Discover Task Access
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

12. OGC
®
Copyright © 2014 Open Geospatial Consortium 12
Empire Challenge
OV-1

13. OGC
®
Tigershark UAV in Empire Challenge 2008
• On-demand geolocation and
display of HD video from
Tigershark UAV
• Client:
– UAH Space Time Toolkit
• Services:
– SOS – Tigershark video and
navigation (ERDAS)
– SOS – Troop Movement
(Northrop Grumman)
– SensorML – On-demand
processing (Botts, Inc.)
– Virtual Earth – base maps

14. OGC
®
Tigershark UAV-HD with SWE processing
OpenGL
SensorML-enabled Client
SLD
Tigershark
SOS
JP2
NAV
Tigershark SOS offerings served in O&M:
(1) time-tagged video frames (in JP2)
(2) aircraft navigation (lat, lon, alt, pitch, roll, true heading)
SensorML process chain (using CSM frame sensor model) geolocates
streaming imagery on-the-fly
Source: Mike Botts

15. OGC
®
NASA and US Forest Service UAS missions
• Ikhana UAV with multispectral sensor
• Fire intelligence to management teams
• Web access to geospatial processing services
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
Source: Ambrosia, G., Sullivan, D., Buechel, S., GSA Special Paper 482

16. OGC
®
Framework for UAS using OGC SWE
• UAV challenges
– sensors publish data in
unpredictable manner.
– proprietary access to data
• Need to integrated data
stream web publishing
• Framework to simplify
integration in an
interoperable way using
OGC SWE standards
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
Source: Rieke, M., Foerster, T., Broering, A. 14th AGILE International Conference

17. OGC
®
Framework to combine UAS with other sensors
• Precision farming: variety of vendor-specific sensor
systems, control units and processing software
• SWE-based infrastructure: control, access, transmission
and storage of of sensor data for web services
• Field trial proved applicability of the infrastructure.
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
SWE infrastructure for precision farming (Source: Geipel)

18. OGC
®
Using SensorML to manage UAS complexity
• Manage proliferation of sensors on UAV platforms
– Mission planning: after the most appropriate UAV is determined, it is
time to choose which kind of sensor will be accompany to the UAV.
• Using SensorML to manage specifications
– Platforms: helicopter, quadcopter, blimp and airplane
– Sensors: micro analog, HD camera, lowlight and thermal camera
– In a database to support processing, e.g., MATLAB, BPEL
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium
Figure 23: System 1 and 2- Cameras with Quad copter and Cameras with Blimp
For instance, in a mission that happens at night and if it takes a lot of time and it must be
fast, the UAV will probably be an aero plane with these four UAV and the camera must be
thermal or low light camera from five camera sensors.
Figure 24: System 3 and System 4-Cameras with aero plane and cameras with helicopter
Source: C. Avci,, Halmstad University

19. OGC
®
OGC Point Cloud Working Group
• Established in July
2015
• Focus on all types of
point clouds:
LiDAR/laser,
bathymetric,
meteorologic,
photogrammetric…

20. OGC
®
Common Approach for
UAV Data Geoprocessing
• Open standards provide alternatives to “stove-pipe” vertical
integration of data collection, database management,
analysis, portrayal and user interface.
• Pick and choose components that work well together
because of open standards – “plug and play”
• Efficient processing and dissemination of the data achieved
using software and systems that implement open standards
• Gain full benefit of the explosion of UAV platforms and
sensors that will be interchangeable based on open
standards
Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium

21. OGC
®
For
Details
on
OGC
Standards…
OGC Standards
– Freely available
– www.opengeospatial.org/standards
George Percivall
gpercivall at opengeospatial.org
@percivall
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