AUT Fox "On Thin Ice" with Nigel Latta

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. 

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A new expedition, a new face on the ice

This year, Professor Len Gillman, Head of School, has gone down to Antarctica, taking with him two modified Fox UAVs.  No doubt, Len will bring back lots of photographs and reports of the data collecting activities in the Taylor Valley.

The modifications to the Fox include battery upgrades for longer endurance and built-in redundancy in the control surface servos.  Failure of one elevon servo could cause the loss of the aircraft, or at least, deployment of the emergency parachute.  That would require a retrieve crew to find and recover the aircraft.  The last known position of the aircraft could be recovered from the GCS data log, but retrieval of the aircraft could involve a significant hike over the relatively difficult terrain.

Skycam UAV has split the elevons and fitted servos to each half, ensuring that a single failure would not cause the loss of the aircraft or an aborted mission.

A new multispectral camera has also been added to the sensor suite.  Similar to the vegetation stress camera, this unit can collect images in four bands, including infra-red.

In preparation for his deployment, Len spent some time with Skycam UAV personnel, working on the  systems and flying the Fox in D522, our regular test flying area in the Wairarapa.


Prof. Len Gillman and Dr. Tim Brooks during training in D522

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First research paper published!

The AUT UAV team has just had its first research paper published in an international peer reviewed journal!

Application of an unmanned aerial vehicle in spatial mapping of terrestrial biology and human disturbance in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica.

  Barbara Bollard-Breen •  John D. Brooks •  Matthew R. L. Jones • John Robertson •  Sonja Betschart •  Olivier Kung •  S. Craig Cary • Charles K. Lee •  Stephen B. Pointing
Polar Biology DOI 10.1007/s00300-014-1586-7 Published on-line October 2014

Our thanks to Stephen for championing this paper

The paper describes our approach and provides analysis of the images collected in the January 2014 K020 expedition.   The mapping also clearly identified the footprint of campsites and walking trails on soils, and highlighted the potential of this technique in monitoring human impact in this fragile ecosystem.

The paper is also an example of the interdisciplinary and inter organisational nature of Antarctic research.

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The AUT UAV mission in Antarctica features in New Zealand CAA Vector magazine

Professor John wrote an article for the New Zealand CAA magazine Vector.  The article concentrated on the operational aspects of flying the Fox in the Taylor Dry Valley, specifically the safety procedures adopted to ensure that the UAV did not conflict with helicopter traffic in the valley.

Helicopters are the only effective way of moving people and equipment in and out of the valley, so there may be several flights a day.  In order to operate the UAV safely, a procedure was worked out with Mac Centre and the Remote Operations Facility in Charleston, South Carolina.  The operational procedures are described in the article, which also includes a couple of photographs.

We now have a tested and reliable procedure for operating UAVs in Antarctica and hope that this sets the standard for future deployments.

See:  http://www.caa.govt.nz/safety_info/vector.htm  and download the July/August 2014 issue.


Image from NZCAA Vector magazine.

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Getting down to business in Taylor Valley

It's a while since I wrote my last blog about the deployment to Antarctica.  This is the result of having too much to do when I returned to New Zealand.  Sorry!

Having shown that the Fox would fly satisfactorily in the Antarctic conditions, though admittedly they were summer conditions, I had to start collecting data and stretching my comfort zone - flying over the camp and Spaulding Pond was an important first step, but there is very much more to do in Taylor Valley.

After the spectacular start to our flights, we had a couple of setbacks.  I found that one or other of the cameras was not triggering, but testing on the ground suggested that both cameras were working fine.  A morning of testing at K020 Base Camp suggested that one of the trigger leads from the autopilot had a fault, possibly in one of the plugs.  This was not something I could fix, so I decided to use the remaining camera lead and select the camera for the particular flight.

The next problem occurred on the first flight of the day.  After all pre-takeoff checks were complete, I hooked on the catapult and walked back the normal 20 paces.  I asked my wingman, Scotty, to command takeoff on the GCS and released the Fox, which accelerated away, but skimmed close to the ground, catching the propeller and smashing it into many pieces.  We aborted the takeoff at the GCS to prevent damage to the electronics and turn off the motor.  Because we must remove all foreign material from the valley, we spent about half an hour looking for the bits.  They had spread an amazing distance from the crash site.

Fortunately, I had several sets of propeller blades in my kit and it took only half an hour or so to mount new ones, check for proper alignment and prepare another flight.  But why had the aircraft failed to take off?  Probably two factors: just as we released the Fox, the wind died away, leaving us with no airflow over the wings at the critical moment; and the bungee was left out overnight, so perhaps the rubber had lost some of its elasticity (I know my knee joints did in the cold conditions!)  The next flight, I checked the wind carefully and took an extra five steps back.  The aircraft accelerated rapidly and completed a perfect launch.

We flew to Canada glacier across the Taylor Valley to the Northern side.  The tip of the glacier is approximately 5km from Spaulding Pond, so this was a challenge to the system, but more so to my confidence - as the aircraft flew off across the valley with what appeared to be a sense of urgency, we kept it in sight as the GCS reported "Range one thousand... range two thousand... etc".  At three thousand metres even those with the keenest eyes lost sight of the Fox against the backdrop of the mountains on the other side of the valley.  However, the GCS display showed the Fox heading for its waypoint at the tip of the glacier.  We had the RGB camera running during the crossing.

We did a couple of orbits over the end of the glacier and then programmed a return via Crescent glacier just to the East of Spaulding Pond.  As always, there was intense competition from the ground crew to be the first to spot the aircraft.  I heard it long before I had "eyes on" at about 1000 metres.  From there, I recalled the Fox for an uneventful automated parachute landing.  Plenty to think about during the night.



"Taylor Valley traffic, Fox UAV is airborne"



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First flight of the Fox in Taylor Valley

The afternoon before our first flight, I requested a NOTAM via Mac Centre.  Our intended flight was within a 3nm radius of Spaulding Pond and would be conducted below 400' AGL.  Fox Field is about 870 AMSL.  The objective of the flight was primarily to discover any unforeseen difficulties in operating the Fox in the Antarctic conditions, but taking advantage of being in the air, we would carry two Sony NEX5-N cameras and map the Spaulding Pond.

The following day, the first major task was to find "pack mules" to help me carry the UAV and GCS cases to Fox Field.  This is only about 500m from K020  Base Camp, but the Pelican case holding the UAV is a bit ungainly for one person to carry, and the built-in wheels were no use on the rocky valley floor.

After we reached the site, I set up the GCS and assembled the Fox - two fresh batteries were installed and the cameras had clean 32GB cards fitted.  As I was the only trained UAV pilot in the Valley, I began by instructing my colleague, Scotty, on what would be required of my "wingman".  At this early stage, he would be holding things, hooking on the catapult and acting as observer.

Our first difficulty became apparent almost immediately: the fixed end of the catapult is attached to a spike driven into the ground.  The very loose nature of the valley floor allowed the spike to pull free as soon as any load was put on the bungee.  Fortunately, there was a simple solution: drive a long tent peg into the ground on the far side of a large rock and place another rock on top of the peg.  We used this arrangement for all future flights with no problem.

Scotty and I went through the pre-takeoff checklist, a printed document, and determined the the aircraft was ready to fly - all control surfaces were moving as expected, the autopilot was making corrections for pitch, bank and yaw, the pitot tube was clear and correct telemetry was being received by the GCS.  The final check was to set the emergency landing point, on this occasion approximately 30m from the GCS.  If the link with the GCS is permanently lost, the aircraft will attempt to return to this point and land.

The second problem to arise was the result of the extreme interest shown by the remaining team members in the UAV.  They had seen me preparing the aircraft back at Scott Base and checking it at K020 Base Camp, so when the time finally came for the first flight, there was quite an audience, requiring a measure of crowd control.  This is always an issue for UAV operators, but fortunately, a simple request for them to stay behind the aircraft was heeded by everyone.  The last thing the handler wants is for a spar to break on takeoff, with the aircraft diving at full power into the onlookers.

Scotty hooked on the catapult and went back to the GCS computer.  I got on the radio on the helicopter frequency.  "Taylor Valley Traffic, Fox UAV is about to take off, 3nm radius, Spaulding pond".  I took 20 paces backwards to tension the bungee and called for Takeoff Mode.  Scotty entered this into the computer and called confirmation that the computer warned that the aircraft would take off and engine start.  I saw the elevons rise, which told me the Fox was ready to go.  I gently bounced the aircraft against the pull of the catapult and released it in a 15 degree nose-high attitude.  To my great relief, the Fox shot out of my hands, the motor started in response to the acceleration, and the aircraft climbed at full power.  A few moments later, the motor cut to a lower power setting and the Fox began to circle the launch point while it climbed to its set altitude of 1270ft AMSL.

For the first flight, I had decided to enter waypoints into the GCS manually during the course of the flight, so when the Fox reached operational altitude, I entered the first waypoint as the Eastern end of Spaulding Pond and turned on the cameras.  The Fox immediately set off on track and soon reported "On approach" approximately 1000m from the launch point.  I turned the cameras off and programmed a left turn and then another transect of the pond, attempting to get a camera footprint overlap with the first transect, so that the images could  later be stitched into an orthomosaic.  Cameras back on for the transect and off before the next turn. This process continued, back and forth, until we had covered the whole of the lake.  Craig, the expedition leader, described this as the "lawnmower pattern".

I recalled the Fox and commanded an automatic landing.  The aircraft reduced altitude to about 150' AGL and released the parachute.  When the chute inflates, the aircraft bunts inverted, so that the sensor window and cameras are protected from the impact.  In this case, I use the word "impact" advisedly, as the valley floor is strewn with rocks of all sizes, even at Fox Field.  However, the landing was uneventful, if a little firm, and we recovered the aircraft to the applause of the onlookers. During the short flight, we collected approximately 500 images.

Odd Spot:  There were many cameras operating for the first launch, and one video captured the remarks of a bystander as the Fox leapt into the air.  The gist of what he said was "Gosh, that was amazing".  I wonder if his Mum taught him to speak like that?




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First Days in Taylor Dry Valley

As promised, here is the first of my reports on our deployment to Taylor Valley, Antarctica.


We flew into the Taylor Dry Valley from Scott Base in ZK-IDE, an Aerospatiale AS-350B3 Squirrel supplied by Southern Lakes Helicopters.  The flight across the ice sheet was in bright sunshine, but as we neared our destination, we ran into very low cloud.  It's an "interesting" experience for a fixed wing pilot to be flying at 20kt only 200 feet AGL, but our pilot Heff was comfortable with the visibility and we eventually ran out of the poor conditions into bright sunshine in the valley.

 The basis of the camp, a blue Polar Haven tent, had been set up by the engineers a few days earlier.  There was diesel fuel for the heater and a generator.  There were only two of us on the first flight and our job was to move tents and other stores from the landing area and set up an essential facility (the Poo Tent, which will not be mentioned again).

 Our equipment arrived in a sling load two days later - two UAVs and two GCSs.  I felt that things were at last moving!  I checked over the equipment and found that all had arrived safely.


 The first major task for the UAV deployment was to find a suitable area from which to operate.  My preconceptions were proved to be completely wrong.  I had expected to be flying from a snowfield, rather like the area where we had our Antarctic Skills Training, but the Taylor Dry Valley is ... dry!  I should have realised this!  The ground is made up of rocks and gravel and very fine dust, broken into polygons by the effects of repeated freezing and thawing.  This will be apparent in some of the photographs that will appear on this site.  To be frank, I was rather shocked - the valley looked very inhospitable for UAV operations.

 We identified a flat area with relatively few large rocks some 500m from the Base Camp.  Though the valley is essentially dry, there are streams of melt water flowing from the glaciers.  Fortunately, we found an area large enough to operate from, bounded by shallow streams.

 Because our activities were to be coordinated with the WorldView 2 satellite operations, we set up four tarpaulins, 4m square, and coloured red, blue, green and yellow.  I didn't realise until I saw aerial images, that our "Fox Field" looked rather like the logo of a very popular computer operating system.


 In the next post, I'll describe the first flight of the Fox.

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Successful Antarctic Expedition

We are now back at Scott Base, staging for our return to New Zealand tomorrow.

Our expedition to the Taylor Dry Valley was an outstanding success and over the next few weeks, I'll publish photographs and comments on the deployment of the Swampfox UAV, built and supplied by Skycam UAV in Palmerston North.  I want to thank the company specifically, because they supplied spare parts and advice for our operations.  Without their support, we would not have been able to complete our programme of research.

This has been an awesome experience and I hope that in future years, we will be able to conduct further flights in Antarctica.

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Clearance to Fly and Ground Testing

This morning we drove over to McMurdo base to discuss our UAV operations with Air Traffic Controllers and Helicopter Operations Manager.

We set out our proposed operations in the Taylor Dry Valley and discussed the way in which we could ensure the safety of all airspace users, i.e. helicopters.  Essentially, we will notify Mac Centre of our intentions to fly 24 hours prior to commencement and a NOTAM will be issued.  We will then use our SOPs and make voice advisory 30 minutes prior to launch and immediately before launch.  At completion of the flight, a further voice advisory will be made and when operations cease for the day, a final call will be made.

The whole purpose is to deconflict our operations and that of other air traffic.  To this end, some flights will be conducted after normal helicopter operations have ceased - there is no problem of twilight or darkness here!  However, we are coordinating our work with other researchers using the WorldView 2 satellite, so we will need to synchronise our flights with the passes of the satellite.

This afternoon, I assembled the Fox and GCS and went through the pre-flight checklist to ensure that the systems are working.  All appears to be in order, so the Pelican cases have been weighed and are ready to be transported to the Taylor Valley on Thursday if the weather permits.

We will be out of Internet coverage for the next two weeks or so; there will be no further posts until our return to Scott Base.

To give readers a flavour of our location, here is a picture taken at the Scott Base sign and one at the flagpole in front of the Base.


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Preparations

We have finished our Antarctic Field Skills course, capped last night by a camp out at Castle Rock, about 30 minutes' travel from Scott Base.  It is such a privilege to be here in this spectacular place.

We returned to Scott Base this morning and since then we have been preparing for our deployment on Thursday.  I have checked the UAVs and GCSs and run some simulations.  This was not 100% successful and has caused me some concern.  Fortunately, we have e-mail access to NZ from the base, so I was able to dicuss the problem with Dr. Tim Brooks of Skycam UAV.  We appear to have sorted it out.

Tomorrow I will weigh all the equipment cases to determine the total weight for the helicopter loading calculations.

I hope that the batteries, systems and cameras of the UAS will deal with the cold temperature. According to the manufacturers' data, we should be alright. Another concern is the possibility that the bungee rubber could become brittle in the cold.

Though not strictly a UAV subject, I have attached a picture of the stunning view from my tent this morning at 06.00  It was much the same last night at 23.30 though the sky was much clearer.  At 23.30 last night, the air temperature was 1C, but it was 17C in my tent, the result of the sun shining brightly.  This morning it was around -1C, but the wind made it seem quite a lot colder.

 
View from my tent 06.00

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The adventure begins - arrival at Scott Base

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.

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Equipment going South

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.

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Surveying beyond Aotearoa

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!

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