Oct 27, 2020

Week 9 Field Report                                                                                                                                                   1

AT 409 FIELD REPORT

 

Unmanned Aerial Systems Capstone I

 

Purdue University

 

Fall 2020

 

Week 9: 10/19-10/25

 

 

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 is 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 that have been professionally maintained (Figure 2).

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

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

 

 

Week 9 Overview

 

Two flights were successfully conducted over the course of week 9. On Tuesday 10/20, crew 3 flew a successful mission with Dr. Hupy during the regularly scheduled lab period. They reported via MS Teams that they forgot the iPad, but were able to make do. On Wednesday,10/21, crew 4 flew the second successful mission of the week. During one of their flights, they reported via MS Teams that one of the hand screws holding the PPK onto the drone was lost. This was replaced by the following day with a normal screw for the time being. Crew 2 attempted a flight on Thursday 10/22 but had to return to the field due to a broken sensor mount. Due to the broken mount and inclement weather, crew 1 had to cancel their regularly scheduled Friday flight.

 

This week crew 2 was hoping to get back out to the field as the past two weeks our flights were canceled due to inclement weather. Jesse reserved the department’s truck from 0930 to 1200 on Thursday, 10/22 to conduct a mission. Cole was unable to attend as he is quarantining due to exposure to someone with COVID-19 and was subsequently put on data processing duty. The weather was clear to fly on Thursday, however, once Nick and Jesse arrived at Martell, it was discovered that the α6000’s mount was broken. This rendered the M600 unairworthy and the mission was canceled. The issue was immediately reported to the class via MS Teams.

Week 9 Field Report

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Week 9 Planned Flight: 10/22/2020

 

Crew 2 has had a regularly scheduled flight every Thursday from 0930-1200 for the past couple of weeks. Establishing regular flights makes it easier to keep track of which days groups are flying. The class is still communicating via MS Teams and publishing intended flights at the beginning of each week. Jesse added the flight to the calendar a few weeks in advance and reminded the class of our flight on Monday night via MS Teams.

 

On Wednesday, Jesse met with Scott, the building manager and the “keeper of the truck” (Figure 3), to discuss reservation procedures. Requests for use of the truck are to be made 24 hours in advance if possible and via email, phone call, or in person. Scott has the discretion to decline a request or take the truck back if he needs it. He will leave the keys in his office or another set can be checked out of the main office in Niswonger. Jesse was able to request it for Thursday 10/22 from 0930-1200.

Figure 3: The department’s truck at Martell Forest

 

 

The aviation weather reports looked promising Thursday morning. The METAR (Figure

 

4)  referenced at 0935 indicated calm winds and mist at KLAF which is approximately 6 miles away from Martell. The TAF indicated similar conditions for the duration of our mission time. When we arrived at the field the conditions were partly cloudy and no mist was noted (Figure 5).                                                                                                                                               5

 

Figure 4: Latest METAR and TAF as of 0935 EDT 10/22/2020

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Figure 5: Partly cloudy and no sign of precipitation at Martell

 

 

Once at the field, Nick and Jesse proceeded with the M600 checklist. After physically mounting the PPK, Nick was struggling to plug the battery in. We sent images to Cole as he has the most experience as the SO in the group. He said we were doing everything correctly. We sent the following image (Figure 6) to the AT 409 class group chat, and found that group 4 had a similar issue the day before. It turned out the wrong cable had been attached to the PPK battery. We removed this and replaced it with the correct cable. We stored the PPK this way for the next group.

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Figure 6: Incorrect cable shown next to the PPK

While reformatting the SD card in the α6000, Nick noticed that the mount for the camera felt loose. Upon further inspection, it appeared that the 3D printed mount broke where a screw typically holds it in place (Figure 7). With this damage, the α6000 was positioned at an angle other than straight down and would have vibrated a considerable amount in flight. This would have most likely produced unusable data. It also would have endangered the α6000 if we were to have flown with this because there were only two remaining points of contact holding the camera on the M600 at that point. The issue was immediately reported to the class via MS Teams and Dr. Hupy instructed crew 2 to report back to the lab. An entirely new mount was later 3D printed and installed.                                                                                                                                        8

 

Figure 7: α6000 mount broken where a screw typically attaches to the M600