Ground Control Station for Multi-UAV Systems in Infrastructure Inspection and Environmental Monitoring Applications
Alvaro Ramiro Poma, Antonio Sojo, Iván Maza, Anı́bal Ollero
Abstract
Abstract The increasing integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into complex projects, driven by their versatility and accessibility, requires robust mechanisms for interaction with various elements of the system during sophisticated tasks such as monitoring large-scale infrastructure and environmental inspection. This trend demands flexible integration solutions. This paper presents an open-source Ground Control Station (GCS) that serves as a crucial intermediary module, enabling the seamless integration of multi-UAV fleets with external applications working as Control Centers (CC). The GCS facilitates end-to-end automated workflows: from receiving high-level task assignments from the CC, through optimized mission planning and coordinated execution across heterogeneous UAV fleets (e.g., multicopters, VTOLs, fixed-wing, etc.), to data acquisition, processing, and the delivery of consolidated results back to the CC. Unlike many existing GCS solutions, often tied to specific autopilots or lacking straightforward integration capabilities with higher-level command systems, our approach provides a flexible and application-agnostic layer. The capabilities of the system were validated in real-world scenarios, including automated tower and power line inspections. These tests demonstrated that tasks commanded by the CC via the GCS platform were executed automatically and efficiently, as expected.