AT 319: Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications, Data and Documentation

  Introduction The remote sensing industry requires the use of geocoding and georeferencing. Geocoding is the process of giving an address or name of a place a coordinate referencing the location of it on the Earth's surface. The universal format is latitude/longitude, which is the exact format that ArcGIS Pro follows. It then uses the XYZ coordinate system to reference the data; "X" is longitude and "Y" is latitude. Georeferencing is also important; it is the use of a map utilizing an internal coordinate system that relates to the geographical coordinates of the real world. This helps to find the actual location of different subjects when looking at them on a GIS application.   For Lab 9, students were tasked with looking into geographic datums, identifying different types of datums, using the XYZ coordinate system, and solutions to issues with location data given for a mission.  Discussion The dataset that was given shows ground control points (GCPs) near Bloo...

  Introduction As everyone can observe, the UAS industry is still very much in its infancy. The implementation of unmanned traffic into traditional aircraft traffic has not the smoothest process. Mission planning for UAS has also not been the easiest to implement and get used to. With Measure Ground Control, it bridges those issues into one simple solution. This lab served the purpose of introducing students to the software. The main purposes of the software are for mission planning, data collecting, analysis, flight logs, and operations management. Figure 1 shows the standard interface of the application. Figure 1: The interface has four major sections: Airspace Map, Settings, Fly, Flight Plans. As we can see, Measure already makes things easier for UAS crews. It gives a nice, simple interface that anyone can understand and use. Before diving into each option, during the lab, the different types of users and their privileges were looked into. The main groups of types of users are ...

  Introduction On October 6th of 2020, the AT 309 class was invited to attend a field outing that the AT 319 (The course that is taken after AT 309) class was conducting. The main purpose of the mission was to survey a portion of Purdue's Wildlife Area. The field outing also gave the 309 students a better understanding of what is done during field outings and how to perform them (correctly). For the purpose of this mission, the primary UAV that was used was the DJI M600 and a Mavic 2 Pro was provided for the 309 students to use.  Once we unloaded all of the equipment, it was time to set up the field. A miniature helipad was laid out for the M600 to take off and land on. Figure 1 shows the M600 placed on the helipad. Figure 1: This is the M600 about to take off for the mission. We also laid out ground control points (GCPs) to increase the accuracy of the GPS and coordinate systems relating to UAS. Figure 1 shows the Propeller Aeropoints GCPs. Figure 2: This is one of the GCPs i...

  Introduction The labs so far have covered various ways to use satellite imagery and the different features of remote sensing. During this lab, we got to use ArcGIS Pro to look into imagery acquired through UAS. Along with that, we got to learn the different color bands and possible combinations that can be used. Each color band and combination that was looked at was asked to see what stands out. Methods To do this lab, students were given a brief introduction to using ArcGIS Pro and the different features it offers. After given the introduction in the lecture, students were tasked with following a step-by-step guide in exploring various features. Towards the end of the lab, students were tasked with creating their own color band combination and the results of such. Below, the lab is discussed further. Discussion At the beginning of the lab, we were tasked with looking into each band that the data set had to offer and look into reflectance values. Figure 1 shows the Martell Forest...