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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #274368
Title: UASs for geospatial data

Author
item STEELE, CAITRIANA - New Mexico State University
item ELLIOT, LISA JO - New Mexico State University

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/24/2010
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: This book chapter introduces the reader to some civilian applications for Unamnned Aerial Systems (UAS). We talk about how easy UAS are to launch in comparison to manned aircraft and how manouverable they are in the air. We include a discussion of the types of cameras that are commonly used on UAS and what types of processing must be done in order to use these imagery. The civilian applications mentioned in this chapter include: agriculture, rangeland monitoring, ocean research, pollution detection and monitoring, traffic sensing, disaster response, and monitoring of fires, floods and tornadoes.

Technical Abstract: Increasingly, consumer organizations, businesses, and academic researchers are using UAS to gather geospatial, environmental data on natural and man-made phenomena. These data may be either remotely sensed or measured directly (e. g., sampling of atmospheric constituents). The term geospatial data refers to any data that are referenced spatially, with a coordinate system, projection information and datum. The low cost and easy deployment of UAS relative to manned aircraft and satellites means that UAS can respond rapidly to collect geospatial data on an expected or unexpected event or during a disaster (Ambrosia et al., 2007). Further, UAS may be used to monitor gradual changes such as fruit ripening for harvest (Berni et al., 2008). This chapter starts with a synopsis of the reasons for the growth in the popularity of remote sensing on UAS platforms, the types of sensors in use and the image processing requirements. The chapter finishes with a review of some civilian applications for geospatial data acquisition.