Field Methods: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight and Mission Planning Processes

UAS Mission Planning and Flying

Conditions
Our study was conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Priory on Monday, May 11, 2015. Conditions were collected using a Kestrel 3000 unit. Temperatures were around 11.6° Celsius and conditions were overcast with winds out of the east at three miles per hour, gusting up to 8 miles per hour. The study was conducted between 1500-1800. My group consisted of the entire GEOG 336 Field Methods course.

Introduction and Study Area

Many applications exist for unmanned aerial systems (UAS's). However, unless you operating the UAS, or watching someone operate it, it is hard to comprehend just how much planning and safety checking is actually occurring. A multitude of sensors, wires, cables, computer programs, camera triggers, and flight planning is involved before the system even gets off the ground. In this exercise, the class was involved with the mission planning, preflight safety check, and flight phases of UAS operation.

As stated before, this exercise took place at the Priory, a 120 acre property owned by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Priory is within Eau Claire County, in the town of Washington, approximately three miles south of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus. The north edge of the Priory is bounded by the eastbound lane of Interstate 94, while the south edge is bounded by Priory Road (Figure 1). This area is referred to as being in bedrock uplands, so relief is very great at the Priory. Fluvial processes and anthropogenic tendencies have created a number of very steep, deep, and long gullies that transect the property. A resistant bedrock ridge interpreted as Late Cambrian Mt. Simon Formation bedrock exists, upon which the main building of the Priory has been built upon. The area that the two flights were conducted in was located approximately 0.15 km southwest of the main building on the property. This location was chosen because it was devoid of almost any restricting factors. It was easy to steer away from, or over trees, it was away from pavement so that if it did fall it would have come down on grass, and it was away from the public, so no one (other than one of us if we were not paying attention) could have gotten injured from this exercise.

Figure 1. Map showing the location and layout of the Priory.

Methods

The following figures (Figure 2 to Figure 10) highlight the various steps involved in the preflight and flight stages of UAS mission planning:

Figure 2. This first things on the checklist for preflight setup deal with weather and making sure that everything is connected. If these steps are not carried out and you are halfway through a job when a large storm rolls in, then you've just wasted a significant amount of time that has to be regathered. If a propeller flies off as the UAS is coming in for a landing then it is going to flip and potentially break on impact. Proper preflight checking is a necessary precaution before any flight. The second portion of this first image shows the electronic checking, such as battery life, current voltage, how many satellites are in orbit above you, and 

Figure 3. The next few steps listed at the top os this screen are ensuring the UAS is ready for take off. After everything has been checked on the unit and with the electronics, spectators are cleared for launch and the UAS takes flight. After the flight has concluded, the batteries are disconnected, sensors are checked, and the UAS is checked to make sure it is entirely shut down before it is packed away again.

Figure 4. This shows a photograph of a mission planning program that is created and the route devised through use of a tablet. The tablet program is great for reducing the overall amount that needs to be taken into the field, however it lacks greatly in its' functionality versus the computer program for mission planning. The computer program shows specifications during flight and provides constant monitoring, while the tablet program is just good for less precise, easier missions.

Figure 5. The IRIS UAS. This system was a lower power, smaller unit than the other UAS flown during this exercise. Given strong winds, this unit performed quite well and remained stable during flight, aside from a few small rolls with the gusts. The unit is controlled by the controller seen behind the unit. This shows a number of specifications on it as well, relating to the current flight of the UAS.

Figure 6. Dr. Joe Hupy bringing the IRIS UAS in for a landing after the initial flight. This flight flew a basic zig-zagging route and, as the unit was equipped with a GoPro, it acquired a number of pictures that would be able to be mosaicked together to provide a larger mosaic image of the area flown.

Figure 7. Classmate Michael Bomber setting up the Matrix UAS unit. This was a higher-powered, larger UAS than the IRIS. After the preflight check was completed and everything was in order, Dr. Hupy took off with unit. A video at the bottom of this blog documents the flight of the Matrix. Strong winds and the size of the Matrix did not combine for a smooth flight, showing us that it does not take significant winds to throw off the UAS systems.

Figure 8. Myself and classmate Aaron Schroeder. We were setting up the survey station so that we would be able to later collect ground control points to properly georeference the aerial imagery once we processed the data captured by the mounted GoPro.

Figure 9. Classmates Joel Weber and Michael Bomber using intersecting tar lines to collect discernible ground control points from the landscape around us to georeference the aerial imagery.

Results

Figure 10. An aerial image taken from the IRIS UAS as it was traveling along its' designated flight plan. The image was taken with a GoPro camera mounted onto the IRIS and shows an image with very nice resolution and a wide angle lens to properly capture a wide viewing window.

Figure 11. A mosaicked image from the flight of the Matrix UAS unit. This unit was not in the for very long, however it was flying long enough to provide this mosaicked image. A few pixels are missing under the silver box located on the right side of the image, but other than that it is a good image. 

Discussion

After conducting the flights for the IRIS and Matrix units, it is apparent that a number of things need to be considered and checked before the flight can truly be greenlit. Immediately, as the IRIS was getting set up, something happened and the battery pack was instantly fried. Luckily we were very close to campus, otherwise this issue may have spelled the end of our UAS experience that day. Dr. Hupy was always slightly wary about the wind during this exercise and with good reason. After the Matrix unit cleared the treetops, issues with flight began almost immediately. The unit had one large roll that immediately cancelled the flight and brought the unit back to the ground. In a professional world, conditions such as those would have cancelled the launch before we even got into the field. 

Conclusion

This was a fantastic entry into the world of UAS flying and is a promising look at what is to come for the university as it deploys a course on Unmanned Aerial Systems in the coming fall semester. All that goes into mission planning, safety checking, and flying the UAS is more than enough to fill an entire semester of work. The potential and applications for the UAS world are continuing to boom. I was recently told of a new way to keep elephants from leaving reservation lands by using UAS's. To the elephants they sound like bees, so when the UAS approaches, the elephant flees back to the reserve and back to safety.  This is just one of the many applications that drones have and I am excited to see just how it takes off in the years to come.