Italy’s University of Bologna is to this week make the debut flights of a purpose developed unmanned air vehicle intended for use in low altitude monitoring of volcanos.
The EUR92,000 Raven UAV prototype was rolled out 20 September and has been undergoing ground tests since. The planned first flight will be radio controlled with its first fully autonomous flights planned for mid-2008.
Its first volcano monitoring demonstration, carrying a suite of new generation sensors now being developed by NASA and Italy’s National Institue of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will be over Italy’s Mount Stromboli in the March-to-May timeframe of 2009.
The project is being funded and managed by INGV and follows on from an initial demonstration of the use of a radio controlled aircraft fitted with CCD camera over Mt Stromboli in October 2004.
University of Bologna research head Professor Gian Marco Saggiani says that the purpose-developed platform may have a future as part of international disaster relief operations as well as its anticipated role in monitoring Italy’s three active volcanos.
The Raven has a 4.750m span and a maximum takeoff weight of 70kg. It will cruise at 120km per hour using a 3W Modellmotoren 200iB2 engine and pusher propeller. The aicraft is expected to have an endurance of 4h and a data link range of 50km.
The EUR92,000 price tag is for air vehicle materials only, Saggiani told the 16th UAVNET conference in Madrid on 18 October.
He said the new generation payloads to be flown include a new imaging infra-red camera, an SO2 chemical sensor, a magnometer and a miniturised Fourier Transform Spectrometer. These will be modularised to allow for rapid changeover between missions.
Saggiani says Raven is expected to fly at an average altitude of 1000m-1500m during missions. Mt Stromboli is 900m.
Source: Flight International
