A Smart Services Digital Platform for Drones as a Service
Harttunen, Julia (2024)
2024
Tietotekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Information Technology
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-05-20
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202404244371
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202404244371
Tiivistelmä
Unmanned aircrafts, such as drones, are increasingly being used in beneficial utility tasks. These tasks include farming, structural inspections, rescue missions, goods transportation, and video recording. However, there is still no unified solution to providing drone services, fleet management, and resource sharing. There may be a need for a new data ecosystem and a multitenant drone infrastructure in the future. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to find out what constitutes a smart services digital platform for drones as a service. Drone as a Service (DaaS) refers to a service for civilians performed by an automated unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV).
A systematic literature review has been carried out in the Master's thesis. In the literature, there is little mention of a digital platform that diversely supports various drone services. Instead, the literature tends to focus on reviewing individual functions or providing one type of service. Therefore, a wide variety of studies have been used in the Master's thesis to enable a comprehensive requirements definition. One of the goals of this thesis is to examine the features, functions, and data of the digital platform. The platform has many requirements, but efforts are made to find the most popular and essential ones. The requirements should support the design of the architecture of the digital platform, which is the last goal of this thesis. In addition to the literature, the regulations of three aviation authorities (EASA, FAA, and ICAO) related to unmanned aircrafts, U-space services, and UTM services have been utilized in the design.
The U-space and UTM services cited by the authorities are consistent with the features, functions, and data found in the literature. The requirements for a digital platform can be divided into six categories. The first category contains general requirements that support the operation of the whole. Mission planning is one of the most significant functions of the platform. Its optimization is influenced by several factors that can be found in the second category. The third category handles the data that the drone gives of itself or collects. Information security is the fourth and most important category because the goal of its requirements is to ensure the privacy of users, the reliability of data, and the safe operation of drone services. The fifth category is communication. Drones are IoT (Internet of Things) devices that exchange data with each other and with other systems. The sixth category considers various computing approaches. Although the digital platform uses cloud computing, not all data should be sent directly to the cloud. This last category also includes advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
The digital platform must meet the requirements of the aforementioned six categories and the regulations of aviation authorities to provide efficient, versatile, and safe drone services. The architecture of the platform should be based on microservices, as they support several requirements. In the future, services can be performed more cost-effectively, safely, and environmentally friendly by unmanned aircrafts.
A systematic literature review has been carried out in the Master's thesis. In the literature, there is little mention of a digital platform that diversely supports various drone services. Instead, the literature tends to focus on reviewing individual functions or providing one type of service. Therefore, a wide variety of studies have been used in the Master's thesis to enable a comprehensive requirements definition. One of the goals of this thesis is to examine the features, functions, and data of the digital platform. The platform has many requirements, but efforts are made to find the most popular and essential ones. The requirements should support the design of the architecture of the digital platform, which is the last goal of this thesis. In addition to the literature, the regulations of three aviation authorities (EASA, FAA, and ICAO) related to unmanned aircrafts, U-space services, and UTM services have been utilized in the design.
The U-space and UTM services cited by the authorities are consistent with the features, functions, and data found in the literature. The requirements for a digital platform can be divided into six categories. The first category contains general requirements that support the operation of the whole. Mission planning is one of the most significant functions of the platform. Its optimization is influenced by several factors that can be found in the second category. The third category handles the data that the drone gives of itself or collects. Information security is the fourth and most important category because the goal of its requirements is to ensure the privacy of users, the reliability of data, and the safe operation of drone services. The fifth category is communication. Drones are IoT (Internet of Things) devices that exchange data with each other and with other systems. The sixth category considers various computing approaches. Although the digital platform uses cloud computing, not all data should be sent directly to the cloud. This last category also includes advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
The digital platform must meet the requirements of the aforementioned six categories and the regulations of aviation authorities to provide efficient, versatile, and safe drone services. The architecture of the platform should be based on microservices, as they support several requirements. In the future, services can be performed more cost-effectively, safely, and environmentally friendly by unmanned aircrafts.