AUT Fox "On Thin Ice" with Nigel Latta Unknown Monday, March 09, 2015

After a year of anticipation, the first part of Nigel Latta’s documentary “On Thin Ice” has been shown on TVOne.  (It is now available on TV On Demand for New Zealand viewers at
http://tvnz.co.nz/on-thin-ice-nigel-latta-in-antarctica/index-group-6240118).

During the 2014 K020 Antarctic expedition, Professor John Brooks took two AUT UAVs (the original Hawk and a newly purchased Swampfox, and two ground control stations) to Scott Base.  After the Antarctic Skills Training course, John and the two UAV systems were flown by Squirrel helicopter ZK-IDE to the Taylor Dry Valley.  The first flights were reported earlier in this blog.

After John and the K020 team had been in the Taylor Valley for about a week, a TV3 news crew arrived to make a short clip about the expedition, which included a very short segment on flying the Fox UAV.  This was shown on TV3 news as part of a series reports on Antarctic research.

A couple of days later, Nigel Latta arrived with a small film crew.  They were making a documentary about research in this harsh climate.  The crew spent a whole day filming with the K020 researchers and also filmed in Scott Base and visited several of the research outposts on the continent.

Clearly, Nigel and his team were very impressed with the Fox UAV and its potential for application as a research tool.  The UAV segment lasted for around ten minutes and was narrated by Nigel in his amusing, unscripted style, which infuses the viewer with his enthusiasm for science.  His final comment was that “This is how a schoolboy would conduct research - with a model aeroplane and a big rubber band”.  While not entirely accurate, this comment did reflect his excitement about the technique.

In the few days since the broadcast, John has received much positive feedback on AUT’s use of UAVs in environmental research. 

The adventure begins - arrival at Scott Base Anonymous Saturday, January 04, 2014

I am very excited.  After a frustrating day, when the flight to Antarctica was first postponed and then cancelled due to weather en route, we arrived at McMurdo around 17.30 just one day late.  All the equipment had been dispatched two weeks earlier.

After the arrival briefing and a meal, we went down to the equipment cages and I was very pleased to see five Pelican cases with my name and that of AUT on them.  Tomorrow, after a survival course, I'll open the cases and test all the equipment.  There are two UAVs, two GCSs and a spectroradiometer.  We expect to deploy to the Taylor Valley mid week and hope to conduct some flights towards the end of the week.

There is a pleasant bar here at Scott Base and it is obviously an important place for information exchange.  I met a helicopter pilot and an air traffic controller, who provided useful information on flight clearances.  It appears that obtaining clearance to fly the UAVs in the Dry Valleys will not be a problem, provided that sufficient notice is given to all pilots and that the specific location for the operation is notified.

This place has an amazing ambience - the sense of history is tangible.  I'm sitting typing this short post in a computer room where there are scientific experiments running that were started in 1957 (the Ionospheric Vertical Sounding Programme).

Working here is going to take some getting used to - I am typing this post at 23.40 and the sun is shining brightly.  The temperature is a balmy 1C and the wind around 2 knots; ideal conditions for UAV flight.  Let's hope that the conditions in the Taylor Valley are just as nice.

Equipment going South Anonymous Sunday, December 22, 2013

A computer glitch has meant that Prof. John B. has been locked out of this blog for the last fortnight.  After many frustrating attempts, access has been restored.

This comes just in time: the Hawk and GCS have both been sent to the Antarctica New Zealand base in Christchurch for transport down to the ice.  Our new Fox UAV and a spare GCS have also been sent to Christchurch.

Skycam UAV have been very generous sponsors of our research, loaning us spare wings, repair items, replacement spars, batteries and motor, together with a complete GCS, so that should we have problems down there, we can continue to collect data.

Prof. John B will travel to the ice to take part in the K020 deployment as part of the New Zealand Terrestrial Antarctic Biodiversity Survey, using the UAVs to collect data on cyanobacterial mats in the Taylor dry valley.  This is a proof-of-concept project.  Using the vegetation stress camera and the two Sony NEX5-N cameras, the UAVs will survey the lake margins.  This is all new to John; he is a microbiologist, but has never worked on cyanobacteria, nor has he been to Antarctica before, so the 3 to 4 week deployment will be a steep learning curve.  This has been complicated by the unfortunate accident in which the AUT project leader broke his ankle, which ruled him out of travel to Antarctica this year.  However, if all goes well, the UAVs may be depolyed in future expeditions.

Since leaving Auckland, John has spent two days with Dr. Tim Brooks of Skycam UAV, training on the Fox.  The Fox is rather different from the Hawk, being a tailless aircraft, and is considerably easier to operate.  A different pre-flight checklist is used, but the GCS software is exactly the same, so type conversion is very straightforward.  As usual when John goes to the Manawatu, the weather conditions were not very conducive to UAV operation, but Tim and John achieved six training flights, collecting a large number of nIR and RGB images of part of the D522 area in Pahiatua.  The next flights will be down on the ice.  At least there are no trees there!

John hopes to keep colleagues and other interested UAV operators informed of the progress of the project via this website.

Trials and tribulations Anonymous Sunday, December 01, 2013

We are now making significant progress with our bush survey and ground truthing.  However, each step forward has the potential to raise new problems, some obvious, but others requiring a bit of detective work.

A few weeks ago, we went back to our piece of bush near to the North Shore Model Aero Club strip and flew several transects with our vegetation stress camera.  We launched in a 15-20kph wind (as a full-scale pilot I have real difficulty thinking in terms of kph and not knots!) and began the survey, but the aircraft reported wind of up to 30kph.  This caused our transects to be 'bent' - the autopilot attempts to arrive at the waypoint, but in a cross wind, the track becomes significantly curved.  No problem for the aircraft, but the images must overlap significantly for us to use Pix4UAV to synthesise the orthomosaic.

We decided to bring the aircraft back overhead the GCS and commenced a manual approach, using the GCS computer to bring the A/C down in 50ft increments and the hand controller to steer the Hawk.  (Our trainer suggested that manual steering and a lower parachute deployment is a better option than a full auto approach in stronger conditions). In Heading Manual mode, the autopilot maintains airspeed and stabilises the A/C.  It appears that shortly after entering Heading Manual mode, the pilot engaged Partial Control mode.  This allows the pilot to control both roll and pitch, and airspeed.  No problem here - the pilot is an accomplished model aircraft flyer.  At an appropriate height the pilot cut the throttle and deployed the recovery parachute.  The chute deployed properly and the A/C began its descent.  However, close to the ground there was significant turbulence and the A/C began to pitch and roll violently.  It landed safely, but the parachute began to drag, cartwheeling the A/C over the rough ground, breaking the main spar and one elevator, and damaging the vertical stabiliser.  All this can (and has been ) fixed.

When we analysed the images from the vegetation stress camera, we found that we had more images than were recorded in the photo log file.  This is a potential problem, as the images must be geo-referenced for entry into and processing by Pix4UAV.

A quick chat with Dr. Tim Brooks at Skycam revealed something more that we didn't know - when the aircraft is put into Partial Control mode, the camera can continue photographing, but the images are not recorded in the photo log.  Problem solved - just match the photographs to the point in the photo log where the last image was recorded and discard the rest.

Our student, Hins, processed the images and we find that we collected a good set, but that there is a strip down the middle of the bush with no images; the result of the curved transects.  One solution is to enter intermediate waypoints into the flight path to force the A/C to fly straighter transects.

Major lessons learned:  when the aircraft is landing under parachute, the ground team need to get to the touchdown point quickly to secure the aircraft, and when the wind is up around 15 - 20kph and forecast to rise, it's probably better to stay in the UAV Ops HQ and write papers, or if desperate for a flying fix, practice with the flight simulator!

Surveying beyond Aotearoa Anonymous Friday, September 27, 2013

We are hoping to take the Hawk to Antarctica early next year as part of the New Zealand Terrestrial Antarctic Biocomplexity Survey.  This is a major departure from our current New Zealand native plant survey conducted from the North Shore Model Aero Club site at Dairy Flat.

There are many things to consider in this deployment.  What effect will the cold have on the battery capacity? Can we obtain suitable maps with digital elevation data to enable us to fly there?  Will we be able to land the Hawk without damaging the sensors or the airframe?  Can we handle the wind conditions?  Will the sensors work reliably in the environment there?  Even something as simple as the catapult launch may be different - if the ground is sandy or rocky, will we be able to anchor the bungee at the upwind end?

Not the least consideration is "Are the pilots fit enough to work in the environment down there, where daily walking may be 20 - 25 km carrying equipment and wearing protective gear.

Today, Prof. John B spent time setting up the simulator to see if the system already has Antarctica in the GCS computer.  (It doesn't - the coordinates can be entered, but there is no terrain information to display).

Whatever, this deployment is very exciting.  Watch this space for further news!

A rather expensive learning experience Anonymous Thursday, August 22, 2013

Up to now, we have had a very good run of data collection and training.  Last sortie, there was a bit of a scare when the Hawk landed in a clearing close to some large trees.  This week our good run ended.

We launched the Hawk, carrying our newly modified vegetation stress camera, into a 15kph wind.  During the flight, the wind got up a bit and the telemetry indicated a wind speed of about 30kph at 400ft AGL.  However, this was quite smooth air with little turbulence.

We conducted a number of transects of our study area, hoping to collect data on the vegetation that we could compare with our spectroradiometer ground truthing.  We sent the students off into the bush to collect reflectance readings, while the UAV Team flew the sortie.

When we calculated that we had almost filled the camera data card with images, we recalled the Hawk.  She dutifully returned to overfly the GCS.  This was the point where things began to go wrong.

The Operator entered another two waypoints and turned the camera on again to collect a short transect over the GCS.  We had a blue tarpaulin laid out on the ground and we hoped to get an indication of resolution from 400ft AGL.  When this transect was finished, the Operator entered L4, the command for an automated parachute landing.  However, none of us realised that the Hawk would now attempt an automated approach to the last waypoint, rather than the take-off point.  (We now understand that we should have entered L4 while in Return mode).

The aircraft performed a series of circles with decreasing height about 200 metres to the East of our GCS position.  Expecting the parachute to deploy upwind of the GCS we were startled to see it pop out 200m to the East.  In the strong wind, the Hawk drifted gently but inexorably towards the trees.  The more optimistic of us thought it would land just to the West of the trees, but the parachute caught right at the end of the tallest branch about 60ft AGL.

 There's always someone with a camera to record your misfortunes!

The AUT Hawk, apparently nesting in a pine tree

Since we were flying from a model aircraft field, Dr. John R. knew that this was not an uncommon occurrence and telephoned a tree removal company.  They arrived within about 90 minutes and recovered the Hawk.  Unfortunately, the tree climber either didn't tie a good knot to the Hawk, or completely forgot, because as the branches were cut away, the aircraft crashed to the ground from about 40ft, landing on the starboard wing and breaking the tip off.

So... we are grounded until repairs can be carried out.  Our trusty suppliers, Skycam UAV, analysed the flight log today and determined what we had done wrongly.  They believe that the wing can be repaired and today I packed the whole aircraft into its transport Pelican case and sent it to Skycam UAV by courier.

The one saving grace is that we collected approximately 270 images with the vegetation stress camera.

Several important lessons learned - proper operation of the landing procedures, emergency recovery to normal flight, alternative landing methods, and perhaps the most important of all: full communication between the Operator, Mission Commander and observers.

Successful data collection (with just one little scare!) Anonymous Thursday, August 08, 2013

This week's sortie was totally successful from a data collection point of view.

Our first flight netted 706 RGB+nIR images and the second 471 nIR images.  This will keep our research student busy for many hours!  These images will now be taken into Pix4UAV and stitched into 3-D orthomosaics.

The students also walked around the area with our hand-held spectroradiometer, taking measurements of various plants and trees.  We hope that these measurements can be correlated with the UAV images.

What was the little scare?  The Hawk is landed by bringing it back to the launch point and then handing over control to the autopilot to decrease the altitude and deploy a parachute.  The autopilot calculates wind speed and direction and then flies upwind to deploy the parachute, after which the aircraft should float down to land close to the take-off point.

On this occasion, the telemetry reported a wind speed and direction that didn't correspond with my measurements on the ground.  The aircraft flew overhead and we expected it to do another circuit, but it headed off towards some trees and bush to the west of our flying area.  The chute deployed and we had a few moments of 'concern' as it floated towards the trees.  In the event, the landing was in a small clearing and we were able to recover the aircraft without needing to climb trees.

Next week, we will be accompanied by a radio reporter, who wants to talk to our students on-site and obtain suitable sound bites for her report.  We must make sure there are no further exciting moments and that we sound totally professional!

Perfect day for flying Unknown Tuesday, August 06, 2013

We are heading out to fly the Hawk UAV to collect nIR and nIR+RGB images of our current study site. We flew last week but for some reason when we changed filters on the camera we shut down the camera and it did not restart to capture any images on our second flight! Frustration was felt by the entire team, but with frustration comes learning! We have now modified our protocol to download images after every flight and to reset the camera each time. The pre-flight check list now includes a test firing of the shutter.  We are starting to build an extensive image library and we are looking forward to further work with the Pix4UAV mosaicing software.

Today we are taking two of our master thesis students into the field with us. They will be using the handheld spectroradiometer to collect reflectance data for several species of native trees.

First successful data collection sortie Anonymous Thursday, July 18, 2013

Today we passed a major milestone.  We went into the field once again and flew the same transects as last time.  The firmware fault in the autopilot had been corrected by our suppliers, Skycam UAV, and we were keen to collect a set of data that could be analysed by our Masters student.

Because the strip of bush that we are surveying is only 1.4NM from a commercial airfield, we need the agreement of the aerodrome operator to fly.  Professor John B wrote a draft Memorandum of Understanding and submitted it to the CFI of the aerodrome operator, an established aero club.  Dr. John and John B went to visit the CFI and the club manager on Tuesday to discuss the form and content of the MoU and came away with an agreed form.

Today's operation was set up in accordance with the MoU; the proposed flight path, times of operation and an annotated Google map of the area was sent to the CFI 72 hours in advance.

After arrival at the operating site, the CFI was contacted to confirm the the operation would take place.  The aircraft was very carefully checked against our standard pre-flight check list, as it had not been test flown after the firmware update.  All checked out and the planned track was loaded into the autopilot.  The Sony NEX5-N camera was installed in the payload bay and the autopilot was set to trigger the camera every 1.8 seconds.  After a short period of monitoring 118.00MHz, the aerodrome circuit frequency, a general broadcast was made to indicate that the Hawk would be launched imminently. 

The launch went without incident, the GCS announced that the Hawk had launched successfully and she headed off, climbing rapidly to our operating altitude of 500ft AMSL.  After the Hawk reached altitude, Navigation Mode was commanded and she headed off on the pre-programmed track.  The camera was turned on and the Hawk made three transects of the bush, returning to the launch point at the end of the track.  Auto-land was commanded and, after a couple of descending circuits, the parachute deployed and Hawk landed gently.  We have still not cured her of her predilection for fences, but she missed it, just!  (This problem is exacerbated by changing wind speed during the descent after parachute deployment, but the landing is probably more gentle than a conventional approach and slide across the ground).

With some trepidation, we removed the memory card from the camera and downloaded the images to Prof B's computer.  Magic!  There were 239 images on the card.

An infrared bandpass filter (720nm up) was fitted to the camera and a second flight was organised.  This too went off without incident and another 213 images, this time nIR were collected.

A call was made to the aerodrome to state that the Hawk UAV operation was complete, the A/C and ground station were packed up and we headed back to Auckland Central.

There is a lot of work to do, analysing the 452 images with Pix4UAV, and we hope to repeat the operation in about a week, this time carrying our vegetation stress camera over the same flightpath,

There is quite a lot of preparation for our next sortie - charging of batteries, issue of intent to fly, arranging for the team to be available at the same time (not so easy during semester), booking the vehicle, and cleaning the mud off the equipment; it is still winter here!

Infrared Image of the bush from about 350 ft

AUT UAV Team at the UAS Symposium, Auckland, 8-9th July 2013 Anonymous Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Hawk UAV Team attended the UAS Symposium organised by Callaghan Innovation and held in Auckland on the 8th and 9th July 2013.  Approximately 120 people turned up, more than twice the number expected.

The first day was taken up with flying demonstrations by a number of suppliers.  Multi-rotor helicopters and fixed wing aircraft were shown in static displays, and several multi-rotor craft flew from the grounds of the Muriwai Volunteer Fire Brigade HQ.  The site was ideal for this, as the HQ is located on the top of an escarpment and has a flat grassed area where the craft could be launched and retrieved.

A separate area at sea level in front of the surf lifesaving HQ was available for fixed wing operations.  This area had been notified in a NOTAM and permitted flight beyond line-of-sight.  Two aircraft were expected to be demonstrated , but only the Skycam UAV Swampfox actually flew because of the weather conditions and relatively short landing area.  The wind was averaging 20kph, gusting 27kph.

Prof. John B. assisted Lew Woods from Skycam UAV to launch the Swampfox, which flew for about 30 minutes.  Like the AUT Hawk, the aircraft is launched from a bungee catapult; Lew handled the aircraft while John manually steered the machine for the first few seconds of flight to ensure it cleared the trees surrounding the launch area.  "Swampy" has the DTA autopilot on board and is operated from the same GCS as our own Hawk.  The crowd was impressed when Swampy disappeared over the sand dunes, sending back real time images of the shore and breakers; the multi-rotors were all flown within 100m of their take-off point.  The flight was followed on the GCS computer display and the onlookers competed to be the first to spot the returning aircraft.  A number of people asked for the plane to be flown lower and for simple transects to be conducted.

At the end of the half hour scheduled flight, Lew brought Swampy down under heading staibilised control for a perfect landing in front of the crowd.

*******

The second day consisted of a series of presentations on UAS flight in New Zealand, presentations by representatives from CAA and CASA, capability statements by manufacturers and suppliers, and briefings on current research by users of the systems.  There was also a static display of equipment in the Navy Sports Complex, where all of the aircraft demonstrated on the first day were joined by several other aircraft.

The two days were an excellent opportunity for all suppliers and users to exchange information and network.  One important outcome was the strong feeling that we need an organisation to represent users and suppliers of UAS in New Zealand.  Regulation is lagging behind development, and it is clear that the industry is being held back by uncertainty over operating conditions and approvals.

 John R with Swampfox

Large multi-rotor craft set up for spraying

Multi-rotor comes in for landing, taking pictures of the crowd

Skycam UAV display with AUT Hawk in its transport case in front of the table

First data collection sortie Anonymous Monday, May 27, 2013

Friday 24th May 2013 saw another major milestone met.  We took the AUT Hawk to a location close to a patch of native bush to collect RGB and nIR images.

Our intention is that these images will be integrated with ground truthing data collected by students using a handheld spectroradiometer.

Not everything went according to plan, but we learned a great deal about our operations and in the process carried out further training for Barbara, who had been unable to come out on field trips with us since September 2012.

Planning for the sortie began the previous week, and John B spent a day preparing the UAS and programming a series of photographic transects to be flown by the Hawk.  Using the Hawk simulator, it appeared that the flights would collect images from overlapping transects for later analysis.

The day was perfect for our operation - bright sunshine with wind approximately 5kph and forecast for only occasional showers.

First lesson:  follow the checklist in its entirety.  As a pilot, John B knows the importance of this and pointed out that the team had jumped a couple of steps.  This became apparent after the first launch, when the aircraft went into navigation mode but failed to commence photography.  The aircraft was recovered and we found that the software was looking for the FLIR camera, rather than the Sony NEX5-N.

Second lesson:  after a photographic sortie, check the results before a second flight.  After we returned to AUT, John B removed the SD-RAM card from the camera to download the images, only to find two nIR photographs, rather than the 200 or so that we expected.  Clearly, we still have a programming issue with the automatic camera triggering.

After the flights, we conducted a short debriefing, picking out important points for improvements in future operations.  This was good practice for the team.  We hope to repeat the exercise this week with greater success.  A careful review of the programming and testing of the camera operation will be required before further flight.

In the mean time, the team will be updating their logbooks to reflect the new hours flown.

Below are a few pictures from the field trip.

 John B running through the pre-flight checklist.  Note the hi-tech paper rubbish sack sun screen around the computer monitor!

 John R testing the pitot tube operation

John R prepares to launch the Hawk while Barbara operates the GCS

Barbara monitors the progress of the flight on the telemetry screen

UAV as a marketing tool Anonymous Sunday, April 21, 2013

We recently held an expo for careers teachers, showing off our degree offerings, teaching and research.  The expo was held in our new building in the centre of Auckland City.

Our School set out to make a big impact and two recent acquisitions generated a lot of interest among the teachers.  Our new research boat was put on display and the Hawk UAV was hung from a balcony in the building atrium.

The video camera was turned on and linked with the GCS; teachers could see others walking around under the eye in the sky.  A number of teachers came up to our stand and asked many questions about the Hawk systems and how we intended to use it in conservation research.

Perhaps this is not how we all see UAVs being used, but enthusing careers teachers is an important part of attracting young people into our courses and ultimately into research.

                 Two teachers leaning about Applied Sciences from one of our programme leaders, under the watchful eye of the Hawk.

First independent operation Anonymous Wednesday, April 10, 2013

We passed another milestone today.  The two Johns took the Hawk to the North Shore Model Aero Club flying site and conducted two flights.  This is the first time we have flown the Hawk unsupervised.

We decided to conduct simple flights - takeoff, fly to two or three turnpoints programmed during the flight and return to the field for an automated landing.  The Hawk carried the Mintron video camera.

In preparation for our research on New Zealand plant species diversity, we flew along the edge of an area of bush before recalling the aircraft to the launchpoint.

I have to admit to some relief when the parachute deployed properly and the Hawk floated down for a safe landing close to the GCS and within the boundary of the airfield.

Our next sortie will carry the Sony NEX5-N NIR camera and we will collect images along a transect of the bush.

Flight time - at last! Anonymous Saturday, March 16, 2013

Taking advantage of a visit to the old homestead, Prof. John B. was able to spend two days training with Skycam UAV systems engineer, Dr. Tim Brooks.

Using our own unique ground control station, we prepared one of the Skycam test aircraft.  It's been a long time since our ground school, but working through the checklist, it all came back.

We were in D522, the Skycam UAV testing area, where we could fly up to 2500 feet and out of visual contact.  This danger area was the subject of a NOTAM; before the first flight and at intervals, we broadcast a warning to general aviation that Skycam was conducting unmanned aircraft operations.  As the aircraft headed off, following its pre-programmed flightpath, it was rather scary, but Tim wanted me to experience the feelings when the aircraft disappears from sight and you are totally dependent on the autopilot, telemetry and video downlink.

On the first day, we did two flights of around 50 minutes each.  The Hawk sensor bay was fitted with a GoPro.  This camera has a wide angle lens and can record about an hour of HD video. Our other sensors - Sony NEX5-N, Mintron 2-axis video and FLIR - will produce much flatter, less distorted images.

After launch, the Hawk circled the launch point at 850ft agl until commanded to fly to the quarry (see previous post).  The altitude was reset to 1100 ft and the Hawk flew to the quarry.  Then I followed a river to a new waypoint, using the computer to designate intermediate points.  After approximately 40 minutes, the Hawk was commanded to return to the launch point, where we reset altitude in decreasing steps, until we initiated the automatic landing mode (engine off, parachute deployed).  At this point, a thermal kicked off and the Hawk landed rather further away from the GCS than we would have liked.

After a battery change and new checklist, we flew for another 45 minutes.

The following day, the conditions were again ideal for flying and I was put through many of the procedures required to conduct flights and aerial data collection - handle launch, check footprint of stills camera, plan track to acquire a series of stills on a transect etc.  Finally, taking control of the Hawk in heading stabilised mode, I brought the aircraft down over the GCS, killed the throttle and deployed the parachute.  The Hawk landed 30 metres away from the GCS.

I have rather crudely edited a small composite video to show launch, flight and recovery phases.  The video is highly compressed to make it manageable for the Internet, but I think it shows clearly the potential of the Hawk for monitoring plants and animals.  The GoPro picked up quite a lot of motor and servo noise from the Hawk, but on the ground it is almost impossible to hear the aircraft as it flies overhead.

We also appear to have shown that the Earth is spherical and really quite small!

I have several times tried without success to upload the video clip mentioned above.  You can see it at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mYxMRxa-i0 

Potential capabilities of our UAV Anonymous Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Skycam UAV, the makers of our Hawk, recently installed our Sony NEX5-N camera in their new SwampFox X5, a JV airframe design with the University of Queensland.  They flew the SwampFox in Danger Area 522 near Pahiatua, New Zealand.

Programming the SwampFox to run four transects and setting the camera to take overlapping images during the transects, a series of 124 photographs were captured.  "Swampy" can carry two cameras simultaneously, and the images were captured in RGB and infrared.

The images were sent to Dr Andrew Fletcher, Mined Land Rehabilitation research fellow, at the University of Queensland.  He processed them with Pix4D software and created a 3-dimensional image of the quarry - the area with the 'CV' lake.

The video gives an indication of the type of information that the Hawk can collect.  SwampFox was flown at an altitude of approximately 1100ft amsl.  Note that the original images were at 20cm resolution; the video is heavily compressed to make it maneagable for the Internet and appears to have been further compressed by Blogger.

You can see more videos and information on Skycam UAV's website:
www.kahunet.co.nz

More equipment but a scarcity of flight Anonymous Wednesday, February 20, 2013

We have been waiting for our cameras to arrive.  We now have a Sony Nex-5N modified to take NIR images, and a Tau 324 25mm lens FLIR Thermal Imaging Camera and Gimbal assembly.  The upgraded Nex-5N requires a small modification to the fuselage to enable easy installation and removal.

The Nex-5N unit has been tested by Skycam UAV in their latest creation, which can carry two cameras simultaneously, and we now have a paired set of NIR and RGB images.  These images are quite stunning. 

The FLIR will be used to measure leaf temperature of trees.  One of our new researchers from Switzerland has worked extensively in this area.  More details will be published soon, but it appears that leaf temperature can be related to metabolic activity of the trees.

Now that we are all back from holidays and overseas trips, we hope to complete our flight training and make some scientific observations (the Head of School wants to see some results from his investment!)

Meanwhile, Prof. John B. is preparing the Manual of Approved Procedures for our operations.  We are also about to start a course on remote sensing.

Frustration and concern Anonymous Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The weather in New Zealand at this time of year is often difficult to predict.  Auckland residents refer to "Four seasons in one day".

The windy conditions prevented us from flying the Hawk during our training week at Skycam UAV.  Since we have returned to Auckland, we have managed to fly twice, owing to the fortuitous visit of Dr. Tim Brooks to Auckland.  Both Tim and the AUT Hawk Team decided that two flights was not sufficient for us to conduct independent operations and that we need more supervised air experience. Now we are all busy with examinations etc. and can't find time for more training.

So, that was the frustration; what about the concern?

UAVs are becoming more readily available - it is possible to buy complete units for a couple of hundred dollars on the Internet, or you can buy the components and construct your own.  Small companies are springing up, offering aerial photography services, and amateurs are flying them just for fun.  At this stage of the development of UAV operations in New Zealand, we don't need publicity like the following:

The on-line newsletter, sUAS News reported that a multirotor had hit a skyscraper in New Zealand, crashed and caught fire.  It appears that the operator broke just about all the rules - the multirotor was operated in a busy, built-up area, there was no attempt at crowd control, it is probable that the flight was not authorised by either the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority or the city council, as the road was not closed.  The relatively large multirotor was carrying an SLR camera.  The video clip shows two operators, probably one to fly the aircraft, the other wearing VR goggles to control the camera.

The aircraft was taken straight up into the air, apparently without any post take-off check, and climbed to perhaps 75-100ft, at which point it moved rapidly sideways and crashed into the side of a glass-walled building, before falling to the street, where it emitted smoke, probably from the LiPo batteries.  Nobody was hurt, but the potential for injury, or damage to cars, was considerable.  The sound track suggests that someone called the emergency services, but this was not really necessary.

There have been a number of suggestions as to why the multirotor crashed.  Perhaps the operator failed to control the aircraft; perhaps there was a systems failure or loss of communication.  Obviously, there was no emergency landing procedure to kick in should there be a loss of communication.  My own observation of the conditions on the day lead me to believe that the operator lost control of the aircraft as a result of the wind gusting between the tall buildings.

Whatever caused the loss of control, this incident comes at a time when CAA is looking at writing new regulations to control the use of UAVs.  General aviation and airline pilots are, not unreasonably, becoming concerned that sooner or later, a UAV will come into conflict with their own aircraft.  Having been buzzed by a model aircraft while flying full-size, I can confirm that this is a disturbing experience. We await with bated breath the possible fallout of this incident.  Fortunately, NZCAA appears to be taking a reasonable and considered approach to regulation of UAV operations in New Zealand.

My apologies if you have already read a similar version of this post - I accidentally deleted it an hour after posting the original.

Pictures from first flights Anonymous Thursday, October 11, 2012

Here are a few pictures from our first day of flying.  We still have a long way to go before we can use the Hawk in our research - we need more supervised flight time, we need to sort out a few issues with the video downlink and, perhaps most importantly, we need to produce a Manual of Approved Procedures that will be accepted by CAA.

 Tim making adjustments to the autopilot settings

Not easy to see and silent - the Hawk is unlikely to disturb birds and animals

 Parachute recovery after the first flight

 Safely down (and we missed the puddles!)

The Hawk waiting for launch #2

Pictures by the two Johns

Airtime! Anonymous Friday, September 14, 2012

At last, we have had a day without rain or high winds.

We took the Hawk to the North Shore Model Aircraft field and did two flights under the direction of Dr. Tim Brooks.  The field itself was very wet, but the sky was clear and the wind only about 10 kph.

After setting up the GCS, assembling the aircraft and doing the pre-takeoff checks, Tim launched the Hawk and we flew for about 40 minutes, programming orbits, waypoints and loiter points.  The parachute recovery went well, the aircraft landed gently and avoided the surface water.

The short video clip shows the actual catapult launch.  The controller calls to the aircraft handler "Clear prop", handler responds "Prop clear"; controller: "Takeoff mode entered" and the GCS commands "Takeoff mode".  The motor winds up and the controller checks that full power is maintained and calls "Launch", whereupon the  handler releases the aircraft.  The catapult yoke falls away and after a slight dip, the aircraft climbs.  The controller waits for the system to report "Takeoff", confirming that the autopilot has established control.  At this point, the controller can manually steer the aircraft if necessary to avoid obstructions, though an ideal launch site should have none.

Then it was our turn.  Again the pre-takeoff checks were performed (this is necessary before every flight, even if the aircraft has flown only minutes before).  This time, John R. was the controller, John B. the handler.    Again, the aircraft took off and flew flawlessly for about 25 minutes, the video camera was turned on and the on-board system recorded the flight.  The aircraft was automatically recovered by parachute.  Though the wind had dropped, a sudden gust, probably a thermal taking off, caused the touchdown point to be about 100m away from the target area - a bit closer to the fence than we would have liked.

After the successful trial, the aircraft and GCS were packed into the Pelican Storm cases and returned to AUT.  Post flight procedures included examination of the aircraft for damage, recharging of flight and GCS batteries and, of course, the paperwork to log the flights.

The video card was removed from the aircraft and the video downloaded for examination.  One thing is clear - the amount of data generated in a single flight is going to require a lot of analysis.

Kahu Hawk training - final day Anonymous Saturday, September 08, 2012

What a bust!  Our ground training is all done and each day we hoped to go out and fly, but the Manawatu weather defeated us.  We had learned from Day 3 that the wind in the UAV flying area could be deceiving.  John B, as a glider pilot, recognised the signs when he opened the curtains first thing - clouds moving quickly and trees showing significant movement.  So our final day involved more simulations of photographic runs and a discussion of how to deal with link loss and other emergencies.

We also had an opportunity to meet with Rene Redmond, Managing Director of Skycam UAV, to discuss deployment of our Hawk, details of aircraft under development and possible alternative sensor options for our machine.

Dr. Tim Brooks will be in Auckland next week and, weather permitting, we are hoping to arrange some flight training with the Hawk at the North Shore Model Aircraft Club.

We flew back to Auckland with our heads full of plans for the future and were relieved not to hear "Gyro clipped" when the aircraft rotated for takeoff!