Flying UAS Missions at the South Middle School in Eau Claire and Wetlands in Tomah, WI

Introduction

For our last two labs we flew actual missions with different UAS systems. I. Our goal of this lab is to accurately plan out a mission using GCPs to increase accuracy.

For the first set of missions we flew a community garden at South Middle School in Eau Claire, WI. We first set up GCPs throughout the garden. These were the GCPs we constructed in the previous lab. We made sure to lay the GCPs out in a grid pattern in a logical order. Next we used We used a total station survey tool to tie down the GCP locations to later be used in Pix4D.

Next we got DJI Phantom 3 out and prepared it for the mission. We had a small hiccup and had to wait for new firmware to be installed. This helps reiterated the fact that drones should be fully charged and updated before getting in the field. Next we used the Pix4D mission planning software. We did a preflight on the Phantom and flew the mission. The mission took about 15 minutes and then landed safely on its own. We then packed up and headed home. The data then just need to be processed.

I processed the data. I did initial processing and then attached all the GCPs to the correct locations. I ran the last set of processing and produced the following map.

Tomah, WI

In Tomah, WI we flew a wetland with Menet Aero. We used the Trimble UX5 fixed wing UAS to cover the wetland. This UAS is launched from a catapult system. The UAS can fly around 50 mph.The set up was time consuming but the UX5 is very easy to operate because it is 100% automatic. We just had to continue to watch the drone to make sure that the UAS followed the mission planning software. At the end the UAS comes in for a landing that is a little rough. After all of this we also flew the DJI Inspire. This UAS also followed a mission plan that was smaller then the UX5. The Inspire was easier to set up but had less battery life and was slower. The inspire is all automatic except for the take off that we did manually. Below are images and links to videos of our trip in Tomah. Inspire take off
UX5 Takeoff    UX5 Landing