Guidance regarding drone specifications for pothole detection

[Avi08]

Hi all,

I’m working on a project to build a drone that can detect potholes and other road surface issues. My plan is for it to fly at a distance of 15-20 km from the operator and detect these problems using onboard processing. I know I’ll need a good camera, a capable processor, and a reliable communication system, but I’m not entirely sure what specifications would be best. I’m also worried I might be missing some important details that could impact performance down the line.

I want to make sure I don’t overspend but also don’t want to use components that will limit performance as the project evolves. Any guidance to point me in the right direction would be really helpful! Here are the specifications I’m thinking of (though I realize some might be a bit ambitious):

1. Range: Ideally, the drone should work at up to 30 km from the operator and fly at altitudes of 4–6 km.
2. Camera: A camera that can spot road defects from about 1 km altitude would be great, but I’m willing to lower the drone closer to the ground if necessary. It would also be a bonus if it had infrared (IR) capabilities for low-light or night-time use.
3. Battery Life: A flight time of around 5-6 hours to cover a large area in one go.
4. Processing Power: The drone should be able to handle real-time image processing onboard (maybe with a GPU?) and create a 2D map marking detected road issues.
5. Environmental Tolerance: It needs to handle temperatures between -10°C to 50°C (14°F to 122°F).

I’d appreciate any suggestions on components I should consider or if there’s anything I might be overlooking. Thanks in advance!

 

[Brutalwarpig]

Wow! You have set some lofty goals. I am currently building a large hexacopter and I also wanted many of the same features. I've done a lot of research and I've chosen to use the SIYI MK32 enterprise ground station. This system using long range antennas has a max transmission/reception range of 30km. SIYI just this week has released their new SIYI Uni7 system which is dual frequency and has a maximum transmission/reception range of 40km. You will most likely have to go with a fixed wing or possibly eVtol design to be able to achieve the flight time you mentioned. SIYI offers an AI tracking module that works with their cameras. SIYI also is somewhat open source and compatible with Qgroundcontrol and PX4/Mavlink protocols. They provide a SDK for developers and with their AI logic module this platform sounds like it could meet all your requirements. SIYI also has high performance optical zoom cameras. One of which is capable of 180X hybrid zoom. They also have a few multi sensor camera pods that include high definition/high zoom factor visible light camera and a 640 x480 thermal camera. Unfortunately my SIYI MK32 and A8 gimbal/camera are due to arrive in a couple of days. So I don't have any hands on experience with their products yet. I'll certainly post about my experience using the mentioned hardware in the near future but maybe this info will be helpful.