Lab 11: Operating an Unmanned Aerial System

Introduction

An unmanned aerial system (UAS) is a term that encompasses all components required in the operation of a drone including the drone itself, the pilot, and the support equipment. This lab was a basic introduction to operating a drone and some of the ethics of their use. 

Drone Basics

The drone that was flown in this lab consisted of four blades, a center console, and the camera (figure 1).

Figure 1. Drone flown on May 8, 2018.

The camera that is placed on the bottom of the drone can vary from a high resolution camera to a red edge device which is used to monitor vegetation health. The drone in figure 1 is sitting on four legs that are part of the landing gear. These will retract once the drone is in flight. 

Before the drown is flown, two calibrations must be made: compass calibration and lens calibration. The compass calibration orients the GPS unit on the drone so accurate location points are taken. The lens calibration ensures accurate imagery is recorded. 

Once these two processes are complete other settings can be adjusted such as side and end lap. Side lap is the intersection between adjacent images in different flight lines and end lap is the intersection between images in the same flight line. This can be thought of as side-to-side and front-to-back overlay. The mission must also be loaded. This is the area that one wants to be imaged by the drone. This information will be loaded into the drone and the drone will then fly itself over the intended area. 

In more advanced missions, there will be a master controller who controls the flight of the drone and other aspects and the slave controller that controls the camera. 

A final point worth mentioning is ethics. There is a lot of controversy about whether drone owners should have to register their device. Current technology allows drones to fly into spaces otherwise inaccessible and can obtain imagery that some maintain is an invasion of privacy. Many professional drone fliers with licenses choose to follow the code of ethics but many hobby drone fliers choose not to. 

Drone Operation

The following is a video of the drone taking off.

During the mission flight of the drone, the user simply has to watch to ensure that the drone does not deviate from its intended course and monitor its progress. This can be done via the controller screen (figure 2).

Figure 2. Controller screen while the drone was in use.

Once the mission was completed the drone flew back to its original takeoff point and landed.

The actual flying of the drone was relatively simple. Once the mission was completed each student was allowed to fly the drone manually (figure 3). 

Figure 3. Lindsey Kurtz flying the drone.

The controls allowed the user to bring the drone higher or lower in elevation or in any of the cardinal directions. 

Conclusion

Overall this lab was a very simple introduction to operating a drone. There are many more components that make up a UAS system. As UAS technology becomes even better, UAS will be implemented in more and more areas such as precision agriculture and security. This exercise was a great introduction into the operation of a UAS system.