UAS Demo

Introduction:

The purpose of this lab was to demo the use of a UAS. This was done at the UW-Eau Claire Priory, as have the previous few exercises. The demo included running through the preparation, setup, and execution of a UAS survey. The first UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) used was an IRIS equipped with a GoPro.

Methods: 

After arriving to the Priory, Professor Hupy got out the IRIS UAV the controllers and the base station computer and tablet. The first step to prepare for a mission is to go through a series of checks. These are held in a spreadsheet, and include things like checking weather, making sure the UAV's hardware is secure, that the rotors are tight, that all of the necessary connections are made. A part of this checklist is verifying battery life, and this was an issue. The IRIS's battery short circuited during the process. A student was sent home to get another one, and to get some AA batteries for the controller. In the meantime, Professor Hupy explained a little bit about the base station, and the mission planning software. We each were able to try drawing routes on a tablet, and we compared the strengths and weaknesses of using the laptop vs the tablet for mission planning. Basically, the laptop allows for more in depth setup, but the tablet is quite convenient for drawing routes etc after setup.

Once Michael returned with the batteries, checking continued. This included verifying connections between the UAV base station and transmitter, and verifying satellite connections. Once these were done, we were ready to fly. Professor Hupy manually did takeoff, and then switched to autopilot at 40m to run the mission previously drawn on the computer. Another student was at the base station. Afterwards, they used the autoland functionality to bring the UAV back to the starting point.

Professor Hupy was hesitant to use the next UAV because of the weather conditions. The wind had picked up, with gusts up to 20mph, and sprinkling rain seemed possible. The class also took some ground points with the TopCon GPS system (see the Survey Methods post for more info on this). After re-checking the same things as above, this was ready to fly. This UAV is considerably more powerful than the IRIS, so Professor Hupy cautioned us to stay back in case the gusts blew it towards us. After the flight began, the UAV was put on auto, and began its route. However, the wind quickly began a problem, and a gust nearly flipped it for a second. This was due to the combination of a relatively sharp turn (where the UAV has to tilt) and the wind. The UAV couldn't right itself to get back on course properly. Michael at the base station noted this, and called for a return to launch to avoid a crash. This was a lesson on how important PIC (Pilot in Command) and PAC (Pilot at Controls) communication is. Professor Hupy couldn't see the UAV's planned route, so he wouldn't necessarily know why it was operating incorrectly. Michael at command quickly realized what was going on, and told Professor Hupy, who then called it back to launch. 

Discussion:

This exercise was very interesting, because we were finally able to see a UAS in action. It is important to understand that a UAS (unmanned aerial system) really is a system rather than just a unmanned or unpiloted vehicle. There is extensive planning and preparation that must be done to properly carry out a UAS mission, and it was very interesting to see this first-hand. I was also impressed at how effective the UAV's were in the wind. They were very steady and stuck to their routes really well. It was really useful to see the PIC - PAC interaction, because if they hadn't been on the same page, things could have gone wrong. This is important in any UAS mission.