UAV IMAGE MAPPING: AN APPLICATION IN MONITORING AND CONTROL OF CRIME AND INSECURITY

Abstract

Crime and insecurity of life and possessions continues to ravage our societies till date, and of inestimable value in combating crime and insecurity is availability of updated information about the hotspots of such occurrences. Such information is appreciable when presented in a graphical form. Representation of the real world entities in the graphical form on a plane surface or in a computer model is called mapping. Mapping is a tedious job especially when it comes to large area of coverage. Methods of ground surveying, photogrammetry, cartography and other terrestrial methods employed in the years past for data capture, processing, presentation and storage are rigorous, time consuming and limited in capacity. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Systems (UAVs/UASs) or Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) widely called DRONEs (an acronym for Dynamic Remotely Operated Navigation Equipment) which was originally designed for a military operation is now widely adopted for civilian activities and is no less important than it is for the military. But today UAVs/UASs for civilian applications are growing rapidly worldwide. Examples of the applications include mapping, real time monitoring, package delivery, aerial photography and videography, geospatial data collection, etc. This paper however focuses on the adoption of UAV for mapping and its application in combatting the increasing trends in crime and insecurity. It also suggests how DRONE technology can be adopted for real time crime monitoring and control. It also seeks to assess developments in the UAV’s market and technologies as well as prevailing regulations on UAVs/UASs use for civilian operations in Nigeria.