Design of a Real-Time Wireless-Based Flight Monitoring and Drone Surveillance System.

Abstract

Real-time motion monitoring of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is critical for ensuring flight safety and mission effectiveness. However, wireless telemetry systems often suffer from transmission delays, leading to discrepancies between the actual drone position and the data displayed at the ground station. This study proposes the design and evaluation of a wireless-based flight monitoring system that prioritizes responsiveness and spatial accuracy. The system utilizes GPS to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) conversion for 2D position mapping. System performance was evaluated through flight experiments by measuring end-to-end monitoring delay, delay variation (jitter), and position monitoring error. Experimental results demonstrate that the system transmits motion data with an average monitoring delay of 45.8 ms and a low delay variation of 1.7 ms, indicating robust communication stability. Furthermore, position monitoring accuracy yielded an average absolute error of only 0.040 m on both the X and Y axes. These results confirm that the proposed system is capable of delivering accurate and timely motion information suitable for real-time surveillance applications.