Tim Pruss UAS Blog

After presenting the rough draft of our poster, it was critiqued by our classmates. We wrote down each critique that was given to us and deliberated over the changes that we would make to our poster. Below is a list of critiques that we were given as well as our response to those critiques. Our rough draft of the poster looked like this: Figure 1. Poster Rough Draft "Emphasize the data “results”, should be more like 60%-70% of the poster" We agree with this point and will work to emphasize the results section more by decreasing the size of the other sections and including insets from the main orthomosaics. We incorporated three different subjects at each location and grouped them together to quickly see differences in the thermal imagery at different points in the day. "Combine abstract and introduction into one section" We agreed that the introduction was redundant to the abstract, and was replaced. We also removed the satellite images of our

Our poster is segmented into six different modules: (1) the project introduction, where we share the goal of the project and how we conducted our studies; (2) research questions, where we dive more in-depth into the goals of our project; (3) methods, where we talk about the platform we utilize and the process by which we go about collecting data sets; (4) answering the question of 'What are Diurnal Heat Patterns?’, where we talk about the reasons and justifications for our specific study; (5) Results, where we will share and discuss the Diurnal heat observations taken at three different sites at different times; (6) the Conclusion, where we will share our concluding statements, including charts showing the average temperature of the ground and buildings at each time of day. Included throughout the poster are aesthetically supplementary photos taken while flying missions and gathering data.

On top of the progress we have made in data collection and processing, we have also written the abstract for our poster and applied to participate in Purdue GIS day on November 5th. The abstract was to be 250 words or less and encompass what our project is about. Abstract: The high-resolution data captured from a UAS, such as thermal imagery, can be utilized in a wide variety of applications. The flexibility of using UAS to capture thermal data allows for multiple sets of data to be captured in a relatively short period of time at an almost on-demand basis. To best display the abilities of thermal imagery, the temperature changes of an area throughout the day were captured with the thermal sensor. These temperature changes are called diurnal heat patterns. Current data collection methods for studying diurnal heat patterns include satellite and aerial photography. However, problems with these methods include cost, speed, timing, and resolution. To address these challenges, a DJI M60

This week we managed to collect another data set of diurnal heat patterns. However, we ran into several problems that bring to light a couple of the difficulties of working with UAS and thermal data. The first problem we encountered was that the planned location of data collection, the Tippecanoe County Amphitheater, would be displeased at the prospect of us bringing the m600 and collecting data throughout the day without first contacting them. We decided that to avoid possible confrontation, that we would relocate to the Davis Ferry location right up the river. We began our first flight from the red circled area and captured data in the red boxed area.  Davis Ferry The amphitheater location is still on the cards, we will just have to get their permission beforehand while also making sure that the date works for all group members involved, has winds below 18 mph all day, the sky is clear enough that there are discernible differences between data sets, and that nobody el

The weather this week posed to be rather troublesome obstacle in our data collection. Winds were gusting well beyond the limits of our platform, so we deemed it unsafe to fly on our first planned flight day and the following day. This is the reason that a strong safety management system is so important. Flying in unsafe conditions can result in injury or damage to the platform, which makes having a strong SMS essential to any UAV operation.  Each of our flights were flown at 400 feet to get a wide shot of the area. We flew a grid pattern in a parallel direction so all of the data would be taken facing the same direction of north. We used an overlap of 90% to ensure that our data aligned correctly when we process it. Using the standard overlap of 70% causes inaccuracies in the matching of photos and results in bad data. In our images, purple is cold, red is warm, and white is hot Purdue Wildlife Area Study Area Once the weather cooperated, the group did a full day’s worth of d

To prepare for the poster that we will be crafting for GIS day, we have been tasked this week with the construction and formatting of a class poster, describing the UAS program here at Purdue. The entire class was to participate in this poster creation as a means of simulating working in a team. We started by choosing a series of topics that could be covered in the poster. We settled on 3D models, high resolution imagery, GIS, and "search and rescue". The class then split up into smaller groups to gather images for the poster, find out what exactly would be written on the poster, and format the overall layout. I, personally, created a map that compared the a thermal orthomosaic to its RGB counterpart. Along with that I contributed a couple images from last year's class to the poster. After the poster was mostly finished, I stayed behind to help format the smaller details of the poster. Here is the final poster: Figure 1: The Poster

The group has made steady progress since the last update. Training with the m600 has concluded with preflight checks in place and operational procedures established. The data collection procedure is still undergoing improvements before we are confident that the data that we collect will be of high quality. On 9/30, Tim Pruss and Luke Mlakar went to Purdue Wildlife Area again in order to test different data collection methods with the m600. The flights took place from 5:45 to 6:30. The same XT2 Thermal Sensor was used but the speed of the UAV while collecting data was decreased to and, in later flights, the angle of the sensor was changed from Nadir to an oblique 60 degrees. The second and third flights, performed with a 60 degree oblique angle were unusable. Problems to work past Several issues arose from the first data collection outing on September 7th. A possible solution to this problem is to capture images at an oblique angle that allows a larger area to be captured