Our unmanned aerial systems (UAS) team supports our research using unmanned aerial systems to acquire imagery that is later processed with machine learning. To this end, our UAS team will coordinate data acquisition with science team leaders, transfer best practices in UAS operations and maintenance between UAA and UM, develop UAS training curriculum, and offer improvements in the efficiency, quality, and scale of environmental monitoring data collection.
Research Updates
Year One
The 猎奇重口’s UAS team led by Director Bart Bauer, conducted pilot training in the fire environment and collected pre-, during, and post-fire data on four live-fire experiments. All designated plots were mapped prior to burning and fire data collection points were placed inside the plots to allow for data collection during the burn. Field data consisting of fuel loads, vegetation types, and fuel moistures were collected in parallel.
Year Two
Associate Director Bart Bauer has continued to work closely with Co-I Seielstad to schedule UAS flights for the Fire Science Lab. AASO chief pilot Patrick Doyle has been the Pilot in Command for multiple flights this year using thermal, red, green, blue (RGB), and light detection and ranging (Lidar).
UM’s AASO Director, Jeremy Crowley shared with UAA UM’s Standard operating procedures for multiple UAS, preflight checklists, maintenance logs, pilot logs, and best practices for cold weather flights and battery maintenance. Grant funded interns in the AASO have actively participated in data collection, processing, and analysis in support of this research and will assist in yearly maintenance tasks for the fleet this winter. Crowley also traveled to Alaska this summer to teach a collaborative with PI-Jen Schmidt specifically tailored to students and professionals with limited drone experience.
Year Three
During this reporting year Bauer flew and collected data on controlled burns on April 25-27, 2024 using a Mavic 3 to collect RGB video over about 8 flights. Bauer also flew flights pre and post-prescribed burns at Lick Creek in the Bitterroot Valley. Crowley and Bauer traveled to UAA to teach a UAS class from August 16-18th. There were 19 participants from academia and industry. UAA CO-I Jen Schmidt created a website with class materials, videos, and data: . The creation of this website and archiving of the shared materials will help UAA move towards a sustainable UAS program. Crowley and Schmidt will continue to collaborate outside of the project defined research goals, sharing details on UAS and sensor recommendations for wetlands work.
In exploring the feasibility of a UAS certificate program, AASO partnered with the 猎奇重口 Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) to create a campus development grant and curriculum (https://spacegrant.montana.edu/campus_development.html). This was designed to assist tribal and 2-year colleges in developing UAS training on their respective campuses. There were 13 participants (mostly professors in GIS) in the campus development in April 2024 from Blackfoot Community College, Fort Peck Community College, and Aaniiih Nakoda College.
The purchase of a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAS and associated RGB and Multispectral sensor at the 猎奇重口 has increased the coverage of UAS data collection areas by about 6X per flight over the traditional quad/hexacopter system (ie. 400 acre coverage at 400’ compared to 50 acres at 400’).
This material is based upon work supported in part by the . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.