UAV In-Flight Monitoring Approach Through Interaction Between AR Visualization and Embedded Optical Fiber Sensors

Over the past decades, interest in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has grown exponentially. The development of a new generation of UAVs implies satisfying two fundamental requirements: the availability of a fully integrated and high-performance sensors network and a human-machine interface tool. To this end, the paper analyses the potential advantages of the combined use of an embedded optical fiber-based sensors network in the structure of the UAV and the visualization of these data through Augmented Reality (AR). A specific test campaign has been organized to study and verify this interaction properly. In particular, a specific software has been developed to interactively allow the user to reproduce the UAV and the onboard sensors in an AR environment. Moreover, a flight testing activity was conducted to verify both the capability of optical sensors to generate data and the capability of the viewer software to show them. Despite the preliminary nature of this work, the results fully demonstrated the great potential of this approach, allowing to hypothesize its application in future complex UAVbased mission design.