Field Report
Week 13 & 14: 11/23/2020-12/4/2020
Group 2: Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel
Week 13 & 14 Overview
The flying aspect of the Martell Forest mission has come to a close. Week 13 did not have a deliverable. At the end of week 14 a final consulting style report was due (12/4).
Week 13 & 14 Overview
Follow the link here to view crew 2's final report.
Field Report
Week 12: 11/9/20-11/16/20
Group 2: Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel
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.
Field Report
Week 11: 11/2/20-11/9/20
Group 2: Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel
Week 11 Overview
This week, the class met with Measure Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Jesse Stepler for a discussion about the measure platform. The meeting occurred over Zoom, and was recorded. After the meeting the class met in COMP 101 at the Purdue University Airport for a demonstration on replacing a broken servo in the C-Astral drone, the Bramor. According to the scheduled flights on the Outlook Calendar, there were four flights occurring this week. Professor Hupy flew on Tuesday 11/3, crew four flew on Wednesday 11/4, crew three flew on Friday 11/6, and crew two flew on Sunday 11/8. The SOP for PPK corrections was adjusted to now use the WGS84 Geoid to prevent future processing errors in Pix4D and a new workflow was released. Cole will be processing the data for crew two’s Sunday flight shortly using this new workflow.
Week 11 Planned Flight: 11/7/2020
While crew two usually flies on Thursdays, Jesse was unable to attend at this date due to being absent from the state of Indiana for two days. Cole Bramel was following quarantine protocols, and was also unable to make Thursday, so the group pushed the flight back to Saturday 11/7. This flight was then pushed back to Sunday 11/8 after Nick was unable to operate in the field after an allergy related sickness. Jesse and Nick were to be the PIC and FO in the field, while Cole was to remote login to a laboratory computer and process the data, as well as organize and catalog it.
Week 11 Conducted Flight: 11/8/2020
The morning of the flight, Jesse confirmed with the crew that the weather was flyable. The TAF reported low expected winds, high visibility and no significant weather events during the scheduled time of the flight (Figure 11.1). Jesse and Nick arrived at COMP 101 shortly after 1000, and waited for Kaleb (UTA & student) and William Weldon (GTA) to unlock the building and give us the keys to the truck. Jesse confirmed again that the METAR showed flyable weather before heading to the field (Figure 11.2).
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| Figure 11.1: METAR and TAF as of 0835 ET 11/8/20 |
Jesse and Nick arrived at Martell at 1106 EDT, and began to set up the M600. The trees over both plots showed a significant decrease in foliage since the last time crew two was at Martell to fly. The Northwest plot looked particularly bare and discarded leaves littered the forest floor (Figure 11.3). For the first flight over the Northwest plot, the orange batteries were used, with new settings for Measure being 85% side overlap, and 75% front overlap. The shutter was at 1/2500, and there were some wind gusts coming from the south unreported on the KLAF METAR. Takeoff for the first flight occurred at 1131 EDT and landed at 1155 EDT for 24 minutes of flight time. The batteries had started flight with 96% power reported, ended at 13% power, and were draining rather quickly inflight.
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| Figure 11.3: The Northwest plot’s foliage has decreased significantly |
The Northeast plot was similarly bare, but since the grounds are more regularly maintained there were fewer leaves on the forest floor (Figure 4). For the second flight over the Northeast plot, the green batteries were used, with a shutter speed of 1/2500, 80% front overlap, and 80% side overlap. Takeoff was at 1202 EDT and the M600 landed at 1225 EDT. The batteries were at 95% on takeoff, and finished with 16%. There were a few planes flying well above our activities a few thousand feet away. Jesse noticed how the Measure app was lagging behind in reporting the M600’s location along the flight plan, as well as dots representing images taken were missing on the app as well (Figure 11.5). The latter is common and not cause for concern. However, due to a lack of confidence in Measure to accurately report battery percentage, Jesse and Nick took manual control and landed the drone before the final pass over the Northeast plot. A second flight was not performed over the Northeast plot because the remaining battery set was not one of the new ones and would not have handled an entire flight over the plot and the last few passes overlap with the Northwest plot anyway.
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| Figure 11.4: The Northeast plot’s foliage has also decreased significantly |
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| Figure 11.5: The Northeast plot’s foliage has also decreased significantly |
After completing the flights, Jesse and Nick returned to COMP 101 and returned the equipment and the truck. After a preliminary look over the data, everything appeared normal (Figure 11.6). Jesse and Nick offloaded every bit of data into the shared folder for Cole to remotely process. This time to avoid any issues with possibly deleting trigger files, no folders or files were deleted. Due to the flight being late in the week and a busy Monday schedule, processing has not yet been completed yet but will be done on Tuesday
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| Figure 11.6: Image taken on the α6000 above the launch site |
Field Report
Week 10: 10/26/20-11/2/20
Group 2: Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel
Week 10 Overview
Two flights were conducted in week 10, with varying levels of success. The first flight of the week occurred on Tuesday 10/27 with group two, Kaleb Gould, and Dr. Hupy. After the flight on Tuesday 10/27, Dr. Hupy informed the class through Microsoft Teams that going forward the shutter speed on the Sony A600 should be either 1/3200 or 1/2500 to avoid overexposure. The second flight was performed on Wednesday 10/28 with crew four and Dr. Hupy also present. After the flight, Dr. Hupy informed the class through Microsoft Teams that there would be some slight adjustments to data collection settings: all flights must now use a shutter speed of 1/2500, 85% lateral overlap for the Northwest Martell plot, and 80% lateral overlap for the Northeast Martell plot. Crew three planned to fly on Monday 10/26, but had to cancel due to illness.
Week 10 Planned Flight: 10/22/2020
Prior to the flight, in the lab, it was decided to try out two new sets of batteries while flying and compare their depletion percentages to older battery sets. The battery sets brought to the field were the orange, green, and beige batteries. Group two was missing Cole Bramel this week due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions, so Jesse and Nick drove out with Dr. Hupy to the field. At the gate, they unexpectedly met Kaleb Gould (another AT 409 student), who was there to conduct another mission that had gotten canceled due to weather restrictions.
The first flight took off at 1015 EDT using the green batteries over the Northwest plot. Upon landing, it was discovered that the Sony A600 wasn’t connected to the ppk, and no pictures were taken during the flight. This created a faulty trigger log in the SD card for the first flight. After changing out batteries, the second flight took off with the orange batteries over the Northeast Plot.
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| Figure 10.2: METAR for KLAF as of 1054 EDT 10/22/2020 |
Failure to Process
This week we ran into a few errors both in the field and during processing.Since Cole was in quarantine this week, he did all the processing remotely. It was found out that one of the PPKs trigger logs had accidentally been deleted during transfer. It was found that the other log, when compared to the amount of pictures that were taken, had several disparities. The amount of photos were different, none of the times lined up, and the triggers did not follow the usual pattern of a normal flight. Cole discussed possible solutions with Zach Miller and they came to the conclusion that sorting the data would be difficult and that without the data from the other plot it wouldn't be of much use.
The issues with the misaligned PPK data stems from issues encountered in the field. The PPK had a red light come on once. Another time we forgot to plug the PPK in all together and had to refly the NE plot. This caused confusion with the PPK logs when offloading data. In the future we will keep all logs no matter how certain we are until the data has been processed.
Field Report
Week 9: 10/19/20-10/25/20
Group 2: Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel
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 hopeful to get back out to the field as the past two weeks our flights were cancelled 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 cancelled. The issue was immediately reported to the class via MS Teams.
Week 9 Planned Flight: 10/22/2020
Crew 2 has had a regularly scheduled flight every Thursday from 0930-1200 for the past couple 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 9.1), 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.
The aviation weather reports looked promising Thursday morning. The METAR (Figure 9.2) 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 9.3).
Figure 9.1: The department’s truck at Martell Forest
Figure 9.2: Latest METAR and TAF as of 0935 EDT 10/22/2020
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| Figure 9.3: 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 correct. We sent the following image (Figure 9.4) to the AT 409 class groupchat, 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 9.4: 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 9.5). 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
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| Figure 9.5: α6000 mount broken where a screw typically attaches to the M600 |
Field Report
Week 8: 10/12/20-10/18/20
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 8.1). 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.
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| Figure 8.1: DJI Matrice 600 equipped w/ Zenmuse XT2 & Sony Alpha 6000 |
Week 8 Overview
This week was expected to be a typical data collection week. As a class we planned four missions in the event that one was cancelled due to weather. As the week progressed, however, high winds and light rain prevented multiple outings to be postponed or cancelled. There were only two successful flights conducted over week 8: one on Tuesday () by crew 3 and the other on Friday (10/16) by crew 1. We had planned to fly Thursday (10/15) morning from 0930-1200. This was postponed and eventually rescheduled to Sunday (10/18) due to high winds. The rescheduled flight on Sunday had to be cancelled altogether due to projected high winds for the duration of the day. In the meantime, Jesse was able to gain access to the department’s truck for future missions.
Week 8 Planned Flight: 10/15/2020
Last week we, crew 2, established that we will be regularly flying on Thursdays from 0930-1200 (weather permitting) for the remainder of the data collection period for this study. The scheduled flights have been on the outlook calendar since then. Jesse posted a reminder via MS Teams on Wednesday night of this week before we attempted to fly on Thursday morning. This post also asked for clarification on issues encountered during the Tuesday morning flight conducted by crew 3.
Crew 3 reported via MS Teams on Tuesday after their flight that they had encountered some issues with the M600. The SD card for the Sony Alpha 6000 was missing. This was later found in the case. It had just fallen below some lens wipes. They also reported that the batteries in the M600 reached low enough voltages during flight that it engaged in the return to home sequence. This disrupted their flight and prematurely ended the mission over the NE plot of Martell. The data they collected ended up being okay due to the amount of overlap with the NW plot flight. The more concerning issue reported was a loose propeller. This was found to be a common issue among M600s when the prop bolts are over-torqued. The screws can strip and even fall out during flight (Figure 8.2). New bolts were ordered and according to Kaleb, the M600 was repaired and test flown sometime before Wednesday evening.
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| Figure 8.2: Damage resulting from an over-torqued prop bolt on an M600 Source: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=139731 |
On Thursday morning at approximately 0845, Kaleb informed us that the M600 was ready to fly, but we would need Dr. Hupy’s approval that it was ready to return to service. We agreed to stand by until 1015 at which we would postpone the flight to 1600 later that day if we had not gotten the okay to fly the M600. At 0938, Dr. Hupy gave us the go-ahead, but there were on and off showers in the area and they were not predicted to leave until after 1200. See Figure 3 for the satellite radar at the time. We included this solely for illustration purposes. We consulted the METAR and TAF first as these are the approved sources for aviation weather. We decided to postpone our flight until 1600 later that day.
Field Report
Week 7: 10/8/2020
Group 2: Jesse Giampaolo, Nick Dayton, Cole Bramel
Background
As part of the senior year coursework for the Unmanned Aerial Systems program at Purdue University, our group is currently enrolled in part 1 of a capstone course. Students are working toward earning hours across multiple UAS platforms while collecting data for ongoing research projects at the university. The current research project of interest involves tracking the foliage at Martell Forest as it changes from the end of September through late October or early November. Groups are working together to collect data from a minimum of 3 missions per week. A mission consists of two flights over the two different plots of interest (NW & NE) at Martell using a DJI Matrice 600.
Week 7 Flight Cancellation: 10/8/2020
This week, our team was scheduled to fly on Thursday at 0930. Using the M600, we were to map both the NE and NW plots, and return the vehicle to the lab by 1200. This week was a transition period as we moved away from communicating flight plans via Brightspace, and moved towards MS Teams for the most up to date flight information. We posted this information on MS Teams and the Office 365 calendar designated for communicating with other groups (Figure 7.1).
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| Figure 7.1: Office 365 calendar displaying flight planned for 10/8/20 |
Jesse arrived at the lab at 0845 to check the battery status, however, the lab was locked, and Dr. Hupy, William Weldon, Kaleb, and Dr. Lercel were not in the Niswonger building at the time. According to Kaleb, usual dispatch hours of the lab are between 0800-1700. We assumed the lab would be open by this hour, but it was later clarified that these hours are not guaranteed, just a generalization based on when the previously mentioned people are in the office and/or missions are expected to be taking place. Upon sending some emails, it was clarified that Scott (office next to Dr. Lercel’s) also has access to the lab and could provide access in a pinch in the future.
While waiting for word on when the lab would be opened, it was also discovered that Group 4 was planning on conducting a mission at Martell between 1200-1400. Two missions conducted on the same day is not necessary for this research, and therefore, if both groups flew it would create redundant data. These back-to-back missions were planned due to a miscommunication resulting from switching from Brightspace to MS Teams. As stated prior, Group 2 posted our plans to MS Teams and logged it on the calendar. Group 4 posted their intentions on Brightspace. Both groups discussed this in the moment and agreed that it would be best for Group 4 to conduct the mission on 10/8, but moving forward Group 2 will plan to conduct a mission every Thursday from 0930-1200. Later in the week, it was clarified to the entire class that mission communication will take place via MS Teams and be scheduled on the Office 365 calendar moving forward.
Future Communication
In the future, the class as a whole will communicate flight plans via MS Teams and record the specific times on the shared Office 365 calendar. Dr. Hupy has since used MS Teams to announce fight groundings due to inclement weather and communicate his own personal availability/conflicts. It has been noted that the lab can be accessed by the following personnel: Dr. Hupy, Dr. Lercel, William Weldon, Kaleb Gould, Scott (building manager).
Field Report
Week 6: 9/29/2020, 10/1/2020
Week 6 objectives:
Martell Forest mission update (refer to previous reports for details):
It is week 6 of the semester and the foliage is starting to show clear signs of changing colors. Last week was the first week of data collection and from here until the leaves are dropped will be crucial to collecting this data regularly. If any period of time is missed it could leave gaps in the data and the team would have to wait until next year to observe the phenomena again.
September 29th, 2020:
Groups 2 and 4 reported to Martell Forest at 0930 to demonstrate competency on the M600. Group 4 unpacked the M600 and flew the first mission over the NE plot. Group 2 then stepped in and conducted the second flight of the day over the NW plot.
UAS platform:
System: DJI Matrice 600
Sensors: Zenmuse XT2 (RGB & thermal)
Sony α6000
Infinity focus
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter: 3200
Flight 1 - Martell NE
Group 4
Takeoff: 0950
Landing: 1011
Alt: 500 ft
Weather: Partly sunny, sun low on horizon
Flight 2 - Martell NW
Group 2
Jesse - PIC
Nick - FO
Cole - SO
Takeoff: 1033
Landing: 1051
Alt: 500 ft
Weather: Partly sunny, sun low on horizon.
October 1st, 2020:
Groups 2 and 4 reported to Martell Forest at 0930 to demonstrate competency on the M600. Group 4 unpacked the M600 and flew the first mission over the NE plot. Group 2 then stepped in and conducted the second flight of the day over the NW plot.
Thursday was the first day group 2 was able to checkout and report to Martell Forest independently. Jesse and Nick reported to the lab at 0930 to check out the M600. The iPad was left uncharged by the previous group which pushed back the takeoff time to 1140. This will be reported to the previous group for them to note for next time. Group 2 reported to Martell around 1100 to perform missions over both the NE and NW plots.
UAS platform:
System: DJI Matrice 600
Sensors: Zenmuse XT2 (RGB & thermal)
Sony α6000
Infinity focus
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter: 2500
Flight 1 - Martell NE
Group 2
Jesse - PIC
Nick - FO
Cole - SO
Takeoff: 1140
Landing: 1204
Alt: 500 ft
Weather: Partly cloudy, no wind
Flight 2 - Martell NW
Group 2
Jesse - PIC
Nick - FO
Cole - SO
Takeoff: 1213
Landing: 1234
Alt: 500 ft
Weather: Cloudy, no wind
Post flight, the M600 was returned by Nick (Figure 6.1) and Cole later offloaded and processed all flight data upon returning to the lab.
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| Figure 6.1: M600 returned to lab on 10/1/20 |
Field Report
Week 5: 9/22/2020
Martell Forest mission status:
This week and next, flight groups will be working to get cleared to fly the M600. The leaves are expected to start changing next week and it is essential to start collecting data beginning this week. Next week we should be cleared to fly. Cole is not in attendance today due to potential exposure to covid. All notes and this report was shared with him.
PWA Search and Rescue Simulation:
In an effort to get more mock search and rescue missions logged, William Weldon supervised two groups (myself included) through a number of iterations today. William hid the “body” which consisted of a red shirt and jeans. One group conducted the flight while the other analyzed the images. After the UAV was grounded, the flight crew packed it up and then became the ground search crew. The image analysis group consisted of one person manually combing through the images and another using the Loc8 software. With the Mavic 2 Pro (Figure 1) we can collect a live stream of images to be directly analyzed in Loc8. The quality, however, was lower than that on the SD card, and we were unable to identify anything from this method through all iterations of the simulation. We were able to conduct a total of three simulations.
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| Figure 5.1: DJI Mavic Pro 2 in case. |
Platform:
DJI Mavic 2 Pro
Sensor:
Hasselblad L1D-20c Camera
20 MP
f/2.8-f/11 range
Search 1:
Roles:
Jesse: Loc8 image analyst
Nick: Manual image analyst
Takeoff: 0950
Landing: 1004
Body found: 1017
Search 2:
Roles:
Jesse: Loc8 image analyst
Nick: Manual image analyst
Takeoff: 1043
Landing: 1054
Body found: 1126
Search 3:
Roles:
Jesse: PIC, ground search team
Nick: Flight engineer/VO, ground search team
Takeoff: 1144
Landing: 1155
Body found: 1236
One issue we were having with the second and third flight were the images coming out dark. The first flight was flown on manual settings (ISO 100, F/2.8, Shutter 3200) and these images came out fine. The flight was conducted early and the sun was low on the horizon. The images from the second flight were taken with the same settings, but all of the images were underexposed. We attempted to fly the last mission with shutter priority at 1600, but the outcome was still underexposed imagery. This made it more difficult for Loc8 to process the images and for the analysts to provide precise locations of potential hits. You can see for these two flights that it took us significantly longer to find the body. Next week we plan to send the Mavic up for some test shots before collecting more underexposed images.
Field Report
Week 4: 9/15/2020
Martell Forest mission:
The flights today were once again completed over Martell Forest. I was PIC for the first flight of the day and this was my group’s first chance to conduct a full mission with the M600. We used the PPK as opposed to the GCPs used last week. These work with Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) to provide more accurate GPS data than the GCPs could provide. These stations are owned and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and are available for free public use making this technology extremely helpful for the type of data collection we are conducting.
The cloud coverage today was partly cloudy and the sun was to the east, low on the horizon. Noting the location of the sun can be very helpful when going back and looking at the data to better understand and even estimate glare and shadows.
UAV setup:
System: DJI Matrice 600
Sensors: Zenmuse XT2 (RGB & thermal)
Sony α6000
Infinity focus
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter: 1/4000
Flight Data:
Flight 1
Altitude: 500 ft
Setup: 25 min
Takeoff: 1008
Landing: 1028
Duration: 20 min
Teardown: 15 min
Flight 2
Altitude: 500 ft
Setup: 17 min
Takeoff: 1109
Landing: 1130
Duration: 21 min
Teardown: 14 min
During our flight, I observed two types of errors displayed on Measure, both of which were fairly common and not overly concerning. The first was “SD Card Busy”. This occurs when the SD card on the XT2 data is taking a long time to write to the SD card. It will delay the next photo taken by the XT2 but has no effect on the Sony α6000 which operates independently. In fact, the α6000 operates almost entirely independent of the M600, it has its own system controlling it and the status cannot be monitored from the ground, so everything from Measure is about the XT2. The second error we encountered displayed as “Aircraft tilting”. I noticed this only happened when the M600 was turning to complete another pass. I believe this error was thrown out of an abundance of caution on Measure’s end. Since the M600 does not natively operate with Measure, I can only assume that Measure is unaware that this type of maneuver is normal.
When flying the Sony α6000 there is no easy way to determine if the photos will come out over or under exposed. The camera is always on shutter priority and we have found that 1/3200 or 1/4000 works best the majority of the time but there is no good method for verifying this at the current moment. My proposal is to send a DJI Mavic up prior to the M600 to check the conditions from the sky. The Mavics are natively set to shutter priority and can be controlled from the ground. This way we could sample photos at different shutter speeds to help determine what the α6000 should be set to. Even though they are different cameras, it wudl at least give us an idea of the conditions and over time we would have a good idea how the two cameras compare.
Field Report
Week 3: 9/7/2020
Martell Forest mission brief:
I met Aish, a PhD student in forestry here at Purdue, at Martell Forest today. Her research is related to the missions we will start flying later this month to hopefully achieve species and genotype level identification with UAS collected data.
The mission today will involve flying the DJI Matrice 600 at different altitudes and seeing how this may affect the quality of the data collected. Ten AeroPoint GCPs will be used to help with the accuracy of the data. The mission area consists of 10-12 year old precision planted red oak trees which have been professionally maintained (Figure 3.1).
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| Figure 3.1: The mission area - precision planted and regularly maintained red oak plot |
Placing the AeroPoint GCPs:
The Propeller Aero AeroPoint GCPs (ground control points) add a level of GPS accuracy to the data that would otherwise be unattainable from the UAS alone. These consist of foam target-like squares that contain the GCP chip embedded in their core. The idea is to lay these down strategically through the area flown such that once the data is retrieved these points can be identified and linked with the data collected. To set these up, one simply has to lay them down in areas of the mission that are visible from the sky and away from obstructions that could redirect GPS signals. Once the mission is complete, the AeroPoints must be retrieved in reverse order in which they were laid down. For this reason, I sketched out a map of our target area for reference (Figure 1). As seen in the sketch, we made sure to space the GPS evenly throughout the mission area. AeroPoint 10 was placed under some light coverage to test the limits of the technology. The effectiveness of this AeroPoint will have to be determined at a later time.
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| Figure 3.2: Rough sketch of mission area for GCP location reference. |
DJI Matrice 600 flight:
As a class, we were able to do 3 flights today. Initially we had planned for each flight crew (4 total) to do a flight including everything from setup to teardown but we quickly realized this schedule would not be able to accommodate all groups flying within the given time frame. Thus, my group did not end up flying today but we will be first to fly next week. The flights we were able to record were flown at 500ft, 400ft and then 300ft. The M600 setup consisted of:
System: DJI Matrice 600
Sensors: Zenmuse XT2 (RGB & thermal)
Sony α6000
Infinity focus
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter: 3200
Flight info:
Flight 1
Altitude: 500 ft
Takeoff: 1116
Landing: 1123
Duration: 7 min
Flight 2
Altitude: 400 ft
Takeoff: 1208
Landing: 1216
Duration: 8 min
Flight 3
Altitude: 300 ft
Takeoff: 1237
Landing: 1247
Duration: 10 min
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| Figure 3.3: The M600 in action |
Field Report
Week 2: 9/10/2020
Martell Forest mission brief:
The foliage this year is expected to begin changing in late September. When the time comes, we will organize 3x per week flights. The data will be used for genus and species level identification within Martel Forest.
Mock search and rescue mission:
This week we participated in a mock search and rescue mission organized by William Weldon. A pair of pants was hidden in a field to simulate that of a missing person. While this task was ongoing, the flight crew prepared the Bramor for a flight over the area.
Flight info
System: C-Astral Bramor
Camera: Sony α6000
Shutter speed: 1600
Aperture: 4.5F
ISO: 100
Altitude: 500 ft
Launch: 1103
Land: 1149
Duration: 46 minutes (approx)
My role was intelligence lead and I was tasked with managing people combing through images manually and with Loc8 image scanning software. In theory, I would have communicated their findings with the recovery lead who then would have dispatched recovery teams to search for the missing person. However, we ran into issues transferring the data from the memory card off the Bramor to the intelligence team. The data transfer was so slow that we ran out of time before we could get the data on all of the computers. We ended up having to wrap up operations by 1300. We may use this data set in the future.
Figure 2.1: Bramor getting assembled
DJI Matrice 600 flight:
While I was working with William to upload the search and rescue data on the intelligence teams computers, another flight crew prepped and launched the DJI Matrice 600. The purpose of this flight is for a Martell Forest mapping project. The goal is to map the entire Martell Forest and present this to the Purdue Forestry department for their own use. I did not collect as many details for this flight because I was working with William while the flight team prepared. I will gather more details on this system in the coming weeks.
Flight info
System: DJI Matrice 600
Sensor: Zenmuse XT2 (RGB & thermal)
Launch: 1215
Land: 1237
Duration: 22 minutes (approx)
Figure 2.1: DJI M600 ready for launch
This week brings the start of a new semester and my senior year. We are currently attending classes in person, but no one knows how long this will last. This semester I will be taking the first part of my UAS capstone course. I will be posting weekly reports here detailing my progress in the class.
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Week 1 - 8/25/2020
Summary of Field Activities/Notes:
Course overview:
When I arrived at Purdue Wildlife Area (PWA) at around 1000 the syllabus was being reviewed in detail. This class will focus on a series of applied UAS data collection projects.This will give me the opportunity to log hours on a number of systems. The majority of my grade will depend on reports such as these this semester.
C-Astral Bramor demo:
At 1047 the Bramor was launched. The three man team consisted of a pilot, flight engineer and visual observer. Communication between these roles was continuous and crucial to a successful operation. Zello was mentioned to be helpful. It’s an app that allows a phone to operate as a walkie talkie. I was told that during critical stages of flight such as take off and landing to not interrupt the flight crew and not enter the flight staging area. They have a checklist to go over and it is easy to miss things. Once the Bramor is airborne the only control the crew has is return to the rally point and whether or not to pull the parachute, so it is crucial to do all planning *before* takeoff. I was also warned not to power on the combox without the antenna on the box or the aircraft or I risk frying all nearby electronics.
The camera onboard today is a 42 megapixel full frame Sony RX1 with a 35mm lens. The lens focus is slightly off of infinity. Other settings are:
Shutter speed: 1600
Aperture: 4.5F
ISO: 100
DJI Matrice 210 demo:
The DJI Matrice is essentially a large Mavic 2 with dual controls. One person flies the UAV and the other controls the camera. Today I was able to step up and take control of the camera. As someone who frequently flies a Mavic Pro Platinum, it is easy to see how dual control can be very useful for getting perfect cinematic shots or more precision when flying. This system is all weather and can even be flown in light rain. The lenses on board today are the Zenmuse Z30 zoom lens and the Zenmuse XT2 thermal imaging sensor.
