Small Scale Aerial Monitoring for Human Body Temperature Measurement Using Rotary Wing Drone

In Indonesia, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on a variety of sectors. Using all available technology for disaster mitigation is critical for pandemic prevention and control. Recent studies have uncovered the advantage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drones, particularly those with rotary wings, in dealing with the pandemic. Much effort has been devoted to developing a rotary-wing drone system as a flying platform for aerial monitoring. However, several factors must be considered when visually observing a specific region, i.e., the area's size, topographic contours, locations of special interest inside the area, approach points to the area, and the observation timeframe. Since fever is a common symptom of COVID-19, human body temperature monitoring is highlighted for fever screening, with the objective of minimizing people with high body temperatures going to the crowd. A major challenge is creating a system that can provide accurate body temperature data, which is critical for fighting the pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to present a rotary wing drone application for aerial human body temperature measurements. The paper also proposed an alternative solution based on using a portable, low-cost, Forward-looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal imaging camera. The FLIR thermal camera is incorporated into the drone's electronic system. Furthermore, thermal image data are transmitted into the ground station via a radio telemetry transceiver to allow flexible surveillance by the operator. Indoor and outdoor experiments reveal that the system has been effectively installed and provide data collection for further research. The results show that the system can be used for small-scale area aerial monitoring.