We combined LTE communication quality with 3D geospatial information to build an operating system for safe drone corridors in national parks.
The Korea National Park Service systematically conserves the natural ecosystems, cultural landscapes and geological resources of national parks and supports their sustainable use. In the field, it uses unmanned vehicles for a range of tasks, including ecosystem management, wildfire prevention and suppression and visitor safety management.
The national park drone corridor project creates routes on which drones can fly safely, based on the LTE communication environment and reliable 3D geospatial information. The key task was to combine drone and robot control, a control system and digital 3D maps, and to assess LTE/5G communication quality to find flight paths that avoid coverage gaps.
The project was divided into drone equipment for building corridors, a 3D communication quality map and a lightweight digital 3D map. Together with the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, SyncTechno enhanced the 3D LTE communication quality map for national parks and its user interface.
Collected LTE quality and signal strength are displayed on a 3D map so that the communication status along flight paths can be checked.
Collected data is visualized by carrier and altitude and linked with base station information to support route decisions.
Communication quality information previously limited to 2D maps was combined with 3D terrain, and the user interface was improved to reflect the actual flight environment.
By combining an automated drone operation robot system, control of heterogeneous UAVs and a 3D mobile communication quality map including latitude, longitude and altitude, we established a foundation for building optimal drone corridors in national parks. It can be extended to a range of field tasks, including wildfire prevention and disaster response, delivery of relief supplies such as defibrillators and medicines, monitoring of illegal activity and visitor safety management.
