158
March 2019
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
SECTOR
INSIGHT:
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org
provisioning; (2) in-flight operation and command & control;
and (3) post-flight data processing and dissemination. This ar-
chitecture is best described in the context of an operational
construct – from pre-flight to post-flight, as shown in Figure 2.
This architecture can also support Unmanned Traffic Manage-
ment (UTM), facilitated in part by the Aeronautical Informa-
tion Exchange Model (AIXM), which is based on OGC’s Geog-
raphy Markup Language (GML). AIXM was developed by the
US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA) and the European Or-
ganization for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL).
Pre-flight – mission planning and operational environment
UAS operations occur over a specific geography, which the
UAS needs to be able to navigate. Further, UAS missions
are typically planned using other geographic information,
such as boundaries, micro-climate, and/or other obstacles. It
is critical, then, that all source information is correctly posi-
tioned with respect to the planned mission. There is a need
to use standardized coordinate reference systems (CRSs) and
data encodings that support those CRSs. Mission planning
tools should support the integration of different data sources
and provide flight parameters aligned with the GNSS (Global
Navigation Satellite System) positioning of the UAS.
Figure 2. Standards-based interfaces between operational phases. Most of the standards listed in RED are from
the OGC and more information on those standards are detailed in OGC Implementation Standards.
2
Geography
Markup Language (GML), Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), Web Processing Service
(WPS), Sensor Observation Service (SOS).
Figure 1. OpenSensorHub general architecture. Courtesy OpenSensorHub.
“OGC welcomes
anyone, especially
ASPRS members,
interested in advancing
solutions to these and
other location-related
issues...”
