AT 309 Lab 8: Measure Ground Control

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 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 Administration, Pilot, Data Analyst, and Drone Program Manager. Figure 2 efficiently summarizes the privileges.

Figure 2: The chart shows the different access to all the roles. The Drone Program Manager is not included because it has access to all of these aspects.

Now diving into the different aspects of Measure, the Airspace Map is for viewing a map of the airspace within an area and of any possible advisories. Figure 3 shows the airspace map.

Figure 3: This is the airspace map. The blue area is the actual airspace, while the orange area is an advisory.

Settings are to simply change different aspects of the application and even flight or camera settings. If any changes are needed for any reason at all, it is wise to go to this section. For Fly, this is where pilots would get to manually fly the UAV. Figure 4 shows the Fly interface.

Figure 4: This is the fly interface; to those familiar with DJI, this is simply a simplified version of that interface.

Again, as mentioned in the caption, Measure's Fly interface is just a simplified version of DJI's to make it easier for pilots to use. It also brings out the more important settings and indicators that would be needed by the pilot. Finally, Figure 5 will show Flight plan.

Figure 5: This is the interface of Flight Plan with the Grid feature enabled.

The reason for Flight Plan is to create an autonomous flight to streamline the process. There are two options when switching to this mode: grid and waypoint. Grid is pictured above, but the drone will fly in a square area to completely survey that whole area. Waypoint makes it so the drone moves to different points created and can do specific actions that are assigned to it.

Discussion

The purpose of the lab was for us to become accustomed to using Measure. The perks of using the software for mission planning and operation management allow for a streamlined approach that is accessible to everyone. The software brings a lot of key components needed for UAS operations. I believe that it could be the future of unmanned operations. It is a resource that crews all have access to utilize. Missions can be assigned to different people to complete and work on later. Mission plans are easy to create and metadata is created along the way, which makes the specifications and parameters of the mission easier to find. Flight Plans also help out a lot for various missions since they enable autonomous flight which reduces human error and helps out with data collection.

Conclusion

The use of Measure Ground Control proved to be beneficial. It helped to give even more insight into mission planning and the different aspects of it. The application also revolutionizes the UAS industry by bridging different aspects of operation into one solution. Unmanned traffic is starting to be integrated into traditional aircraft traffic through the use of airspace maps. The application also helps to drive towards creating missions and flight plans to create the infrastructure needed. A lot of the infrastructure that is needed for this industry has not been laid out yet, and using Measure it helps to create enough of it for crews to work more sophisticated missions. The use of Measure can be beneficial to the UAS industry to use and can be beneficial for the development of it.

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