• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-12
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• 2021

Recently, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is increasing in the field of land information acquisition and terrain exploration through high-altitude aerial photography. High-altitude aerial photography is suitable for large-scale geographic information collection, but has the disadvantage that it is difficult to accurately collect small-scale geographic information. Therefore, this study used low-altitude UAV to monitor changes in small rural spaces around rural resources, and the results are as follows. First, the low-altitude aerial imagery had a very high spatial resolution, so it was effective in reading and analyzing topographic features. Second, an area with a large number of aerial images and a complex topography had a large amount of point clouds to be extracted, and the number of point clouds affects the three-dimensional quality of rural space. Third, 3D mapping technology using point cloud is effective for monitoring rural space and rural resources because it enables observation and comparison of parts that cannot be read from general aerial images. In this study, the possibility of rural space analysis of low-altitude UAV was verified through aerial photography and analysis, and the effect of 3D mapping on rural space monitoring was visually analyzed. If data acquired by low-altitude UAV are used in various forms such as GIS analysis and topographic map production it is expected to be used as basic data for rural planning to maintain and preserve the rural environment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.735-741
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• 2022

Global warming affects forests and their ecology. Diversity in the forest is a buffer that reduces the damage due to global warming. Mixed forests are ecologically more valuable as versatile habitats and are effective in preventing landslides. In Korea, most forests were created by simple afforestation with trees of evergreen species. Typically, evergreen trees are shallow-rooted, and deciduous trees are deep-rooted. Mixed forest tree roots grip the soil effectively, which reduces the occurrence of landslides. Therefore, improving the distribution of tree types is essential to reduce damage due to global warming. For this improvement, the investigation of tree types of the forest is needed. However, determining the tree type distribution of forests that are spread over wide areas is labor-intensive and time-consuming. This study suggests effective methods for determining the distribution of tree types in a forest that is spread across a relatively wide area. Using normalized difference vegetation index and RGB images from unmanned aerial vehicles, each evergreen and deciduous tree, and grassland area can be distinguished. The distinguished image determines the distribution of tree type. This method is effective compared to directly determining the tree type distribution in the forest by the use of manpower. The data from these methods could be applied to plan a mixed forest or to prepare for future damage due to global warming.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.351-363
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• 2023

Visual structural inspections are an inseparable part of post-earthquake damage assessments. With unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) establishing a new frontier in visual inspections, there are major computational challenges in processing the collected massive amounts of high-resolution visual data. We propose twin deep learning models that can provide accurate high-resolution structural components and damage segmentation masks efficiently. The traditional approach to cope with high memory computational demands is to either uniformly downsample the raw images at the price of losing fine local details or cropping smaller parts of the images leading to a loss of global contextual information. Therefore, our twin models comprising Trainable Resizing for high-resolution Segmentation Network (TRS-Net) and DmgFormer approaches the global and local semantics from different perspectives. TRS-Net is a compound, high-resolution segmentation architecture equipped with learnable downsampler and upsampler modules to minimize information loss for optimal performance and efficiency. DmgFormer utilizes a transformer backbone and a convolutional decoder head with skip connections on a grid of crops aiming for high precision learning without downsizing. An augmented inference technique is used to boost performance further and reduce the possible loss of context due to grid cropping. Comprehensive experiments have been performed on the 3D physics-based graphics models (PBGMs) synthetic environments in the QuakeCity dataset. The proposed framework is evaluated using several metrics on three segmentation tasks: component type, component damage state, and global damage (crack, rebar, spalling). The models were developed as part of the 2^nd International Competition for Structural Health Monitoring.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.473-480
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• 2023

This study evaluated a novel method of defining the automatic flight path of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for search and rescue missions in a VR environment. The developed VR content reserves miniature digital twins of a building in the fire and a steep mountain terrain site. The users drow the UAV's scanning path using hand gestures on the surface of digital twins, and then the UAV make an automatic flight along the defined path. According to human-in-the-loop simulation tests comparing the novel method with a conventional manual flight task with 19 participants, the novel method did not improve the mission performance but participants felt a lower mental workload. The designer may need to consider the automation support on the vulnerable points of the SAR mission environment while maintaining experts' mapping capability.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.638-651
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• 2023

The objective of this study was to quantitatively estimate the level of grazing area damage in outdoor free-range pig production using a Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) with an RGB image sensor. Ten corn field images were captured by a UAV over approximately two weeks, during which gestating sows were allowed to graze freely on the corn field measuring 100 × 50 m². The images were corrected to a bird's-eye view, and then divided into 32 segments and sequentially inputted into the YOLOv4 detector to detect the corn images according to their condition. The 43 raw training images selected randomly out of 320 segmented images were flipped to create 86 images, and then these images were further augmented by rotating them in 5-degree increments to create a total of 6,192 images. The increased 6,192 images are further augmented by applying three random color transformations to each image, resulting in 24,768 datasets. The occupancy rate of corn in the field was estimated efficiently using You Only Look Once (YOLO). As of the first day of observation (day 2), it was evident that almost all the corn had disappeared by the ninth day. When grazing 20 sows in a 50 × 100 m² cornfield (250 m²/sow), it appears that the animals should be rotated to other grazing areas to protect the cover crop after at least five days. In agricultural technology, most of the research using machine and deep learning is related to the detection of fruits and pests, and research on other application fields is needed. In addition, large-scale image data collected by experts in the field are required as training data to apply deep learning. If the data required for deep learning is insufficient, a large number of data augmentation is required.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.75-75
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• 2022

Traditional agriculture mostly focused on activity in the field, but current agriculture faces problems such as reduction of agricultural inputs, labor shortage and so on. Accordingly, traditional agricultural experiments generally considered the simple treatment effects, but current agricultural experiments need to consider the several and complicate treatment effects. To analyze such several and complicate treatment effects, data collection has the first priority. Remote sensing is a quite effective tool to collect information in agriculture, and recent easier availability of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) enhances the effectiveness. LAI (Leaf Area Index) is one of the most important information for evaluating the condition of crop growth. In this study, we utilized UAV with multispectral camera to evaluate plant-based LAI of sweetcorn in a small-scale field experiment and discussed the feasibility of a new experimental design to analyze the several and complicate treatment effects. The plant-based SR measured by UAV showed the highest correlation coefficient with LAI measured by a canopy analyzer in 2018 and 2019. Application of linear mix model showed that plant-based SR data had higher detection power due to its huge number of data although SR was inferior to evaluate LAI than the canopy analyzer. The distribution of plant-based data also statistically revealed the border effect in treatment plots in the traditional experimental design. These results suggest that remote sensing with UAVs has the advantage even in a small-scale experimental plot and has a possibility to provide a new experimental design if combined with various analytical applications such as plant size, shape, and color.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2024

Small streams, despite their rich ecosystems, face challenges in vegetation assessment due to the limitations of traditional, time-consuming methods. This study presents a groundbreaking approach, combining unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), convolutional neural networks(CNNs), and the vegetation differential vegetation index (VDVI), to revolutionize both assessment and management of stream vegetation. Focusing on Idong Stream in South Korea (2.7 km long, 2.34 km² basin area)with eight diverse revetment methods, we leveraged high-resolution RGB images captured by UAVs across five dates (July-December). These images trained a ResNeXt101 CNN model, achieving an impressive 89% accuracy in classifying vegetation cover(soil,water, and vegetation). This enabled detailed spatial and temporal analysis of vegetation distribution. Further, VDVI calculations on classified vegetation areas allowed assessment of vegetation vitality. Our key findings showcase the power of this approach:(a) TheCNN model generated highly accurate cover maps, facilitating precise monitoring of vegetation changes overtime and space. (b) August displayed the highest average VDVI(0.24), indicating peak vegetation growth crucial for stabilizing streambanks and resisting flow. (c) Different revetment methods impacted vegetation vitality. Fieldstone sections exhibited initial high vitality followed by decline due to leaf browning. Block-type sections and the control group showed a gradual decline after peak growth. Interestingly, the "H environment block" exhibited minimal change, suggesting potential benefits for specific ecological functions.(d) Despite initial differences, all sections converged in vegetation distribution trends after 15 years due to the influence of surrounding vegetation. This study demonstrates the immense potential of UAV-based remote sensing and CNNs for revolutionizing small-stream vegetation assessment and management. By providing high-resolution, temporally detailed data, this approach offers distinct advantages over traditional methods, ultimately benefiting both the environment and surrounding communities through informed decision-making for improved stream health and ecological conservation.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.476-483
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• 2021

In order to maintain the safety of the airspace with ever increasing traffic volume, it is necessary to thoroughly analyze the collision risk with the current data. In this study, collision risk analysis was conducted using Detect and Avoid (DAA) Well-Clear (DWC) metrics, risk induces developed for the DAA systems of unmanned aerial vehicles. All flights in year 2019 that flew within the Incheon Flight Information Region (FIR) boundary were analyzed using the recorded Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast(ADS-B) data. High risk regions as well as trends by airports and seasons were identified. The results indicate that the risk is higher around the congested area near Incheon International Airport and Gimpo International Airport. Seasonally, the risk was highest in August that coincides with the Summer vacation period. The result will be useful for the baseline data for various aviation safety enhancement activities such as revision of routes and procedures and training of the field specialists.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.16-26
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• 2023

With the growing demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), various collision avoidance methods have been proposed, mainly using LiDAR and stereo cameras. However, it is difficult to apply these sensors to small UAVs due to heavy weight or lack of space. The recently proposed methods use a combination of object recognition models and distance sensors, but they lack information on the obstacle size. This disadvantage makes distance determination and obstacle coordination complicated in an early-stage collision avoidance. We propose a method for estimating obstacle sizes using a monocular camera-YOLO and infrared sensor. Our experimental results confirmed that the accuracy was 86.39% within the distance of 40 cm. In addition, the proposed method was applied to a small UAV to confirm whether it was possible to avoid obstacle collisions.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.48-55
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• 2024

In recent years, as the commercialization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been actively promoted, much attention has been focused on developing a technology to ensure the safety of UAVs. In general, the UAV has the potential to enter an uncontrollable state caused by sudden maneuvers, disturbances, and pilot error. To prevent entering an uncontrolled situation, it is essential to predict the flight state of the UAV. In this paper, we propose a flight state prediction technique based on an improved CNN-LSTM hybrid mode to enhance the flight state prediction performance. Simulation results show that the proposed prediction technique offers better state prediction performance than the existing prediction technique, and can be operated in real-time in an on-board environment.