UAS Use

One area facing rapid growth and change from the rise of UAS is environmental research.  Many areas and types of research are volatile and require UAS support to ensure safety.  Other types of research are the opposite, and require UAS because the environment is too fragile.  Many times the latter, environmental research and research focused on animals can be too difficult for manned assets or personnel to perform alone.  For these reasons, biologists, ecologists, and other researchers have embraced the development of UAS in their fields. 

In November of 2015, four researchers published their results from a 2011 excursion to Antarctica to explore the world of penguins without the help of Morgan Freeman.  Perryman, Gardner, LeRoi, and Ash (2011) were able to utilize three UASs to gather data on thousands of penguins without hindering their behavior or intruding on their ways of life.  The utilization of UASs allowed the researchers to collect data that would have been much more difficult to do with traditional methods.  Most commonly, researchers must move en masse to the penguins to film and document, hopefully able to gather an angle that will allow them to break out the numbers later (or they'd have to estimate).  More importantly, the scientists could depend on the quality of the data without worrying about their affect on the penguins' activities.  For example, the relatively quiet nature of the UAS and the zoom provided by the sensors allowed for imagery and the ability to individually count numbers of penguins. 


Figure 1. Imagery Used to Count Penguins

Additionally, the researchers noted that they were able to collect data on other targets, as opposed to just the penguins.  Specific examples include monitoring movements of seals and measurements of those seals.  Previous research would pose no only a threat to researchers in such a harsh environment, but size alone would prove difficult for the accurate measurement of the creatures. Previous researchers required crews to tranquilize animals to be able to accurately measure them in teams of 2-3 personnel.  Luckily, the UAS provided the ability to both count penguins and measure seal sizes, sometimes during the same missions. 

Figure 2. Imagery Measurement of Seals

The UAS utilization performed by the researchers demonstrates a robust and new capability available to researchers across the globe.  This article provides a peek behind the curtain of things to come in both research and the UAS community in terms of platform and sensor development and environmental uses. 

Sources
Perryman, W., Ash, LCDR N., LeRoi, D., Gardner, S., Goebel, M. Evaluation of small unmanned aerial systems as tools for assessment of krill predators in the Antarctic-final report. (2015). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 23. Retrieved from https://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=PRD&ParentMenuId=211&id=18412.