Nov 16, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

AT 409 FIELD REPORT

Unmanned Aerial Systems Capstone I

Purdue University

Fall 2020

Week 12: 11/9-11/16

 

Group 2

Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel

Context

AT 40900 is the first part of the Unmanned Aerial Systems Capstone for seniors enrolled in the UAS program at Purdue University. As a class, we are currently tracking the foliage as it changes color and eventually drops at Martell Forest from the end of September through late October or early November. This data will hopefully help Aish (Forestry PhD student) and Dr. Hupy (AT 409 professor) achieve species and genotype level identification of the trees at Martell. Zach and Will (UAS grad students) are also helping with this project to show that such identification can be accomplished with UAS collected data.

To achieve the data collection this semester, the At 409 class has been broken down into groups consisting of three students each and as a class are collaborating to collect data from a minimum of three missions per week. For this research, the more missions the better the data set will be (ideally). A mission consists of two successful flights over the two different plots of interest (NW & NE) at Martell using a DJI Matrice 600 equipped with a Zenmuse XT2 and a

Sony α6000 (Figure 1). The North-West plot consists of naturally occurring oak and other trees. The North-East plot consists of 10-12 year old precision planted red oak trees which have been professionally maintained (Figure 2).

 

Figure 1: DJI Matrice 600 equipped w/ Zenmuse XT2 & Sony α6000

Figure 2: The mission area - precision planted and regularly maintained red oak plot

Week 12 Overview

            This week, everyone in AT 409 who was not in quarantine met at Martell Forest on Tuesday (11/10) morning at 0930. Two missions were planned simultaneously. One was the standard NW and NE data collection with the M600 platform. That mission was conducted at 500ft AGL by crew 4. They began their first flight at 1015. Kaleb (student), John (student), and William (graduate teaching assistant) were going to conduct a flight to test the functionality of the recently repaired parachute door on the Bramor. This flight was to occur at or below 450ft AGL, but the winds were unflyable byt the time the crew set up the aircraft. The winds were erratic on the ground, and the METAR reported gusts up to 21kts. The crew conducting the M600 mission were not encountering significant resistance from the winds, and therefore proceeded with slightly shortened flights.

            The last flight of the data collection period was conducted by crew 3 on Friday (11/13). Crew 2 initially intended to fly on the weekend of 11/14-15, but that flight never panned out. Saturday 11/14 was the start of deer firearm season in Indiana. We were informed to be careful on and around the property, and that early mornings and evenings are the more popular times for hunters to be out. Taking this into account, Saturday did not work schedule-wise and Sunday was too windy for a mission.

Plans Moving Forward

Moving forward into weeks 13, 14, and 15 of the semester, all students in AT 409 will be working remotely to finish out the semester due to COVID cases increasing, and there is no need to continue flights in the field. Students will now be expected to coordinate and create a full field report containing notes and information from every flight conducted. Students will also be expected to finish their online portfolios, with information and data, as well as field reports from all the flights and labs completed this semester.