Greg Crutsinger's Posts (16)
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Hi All,
We are launching the Fly4Fall campaign, a worldwide initiative to crowd-source science from the drone community over the next few weeks. Please pass on to others you know!
The goal of Fly4Fall is a biogeographic survey of autumn plants everywhere (forests, prairies, deserts and more) to measure plant phenology (botany-speak for how plants look during the growing season) and reveal what the community can accomplish. Volunteer drone pilots are asked to collect data points from the poles to the equator, in places where leaves have already dropped to where they are green all year.
- Fly4Fall is free and totally voluntary.
- Open to anyone with a DJI drone and an iOS device (we had to standardize process). See here for compatibility.
- Download the free Hangar 360 for DJI app on an iPhone/iPad (sorry Android users).
- Collect a panoramic at the default height in the app of 100 m (300ft) over vegetation located in safe areas to fly (i.e. not national parks or near airports).
- Do as many spots as you like. Totally fine if the leaves are already gone in your area.
- Load the photos from the drone to app and the Hangar cloud to process into the panoramic.
- Submit the pano link created by the app to the team to plot on a master map.
- Email or Twitter instructions can be found at www.Fly4Fall.com.
- Here is an example from the Kearney Ag Station in California that just was submitted.
Full detailed instructions can be found at here
This is a joint initiative that will run for the next few weeks with citizens, schools, universities, companies, and a growing number of partners...including you!
Questions can be directed to Drone Scholars at info@dronescholars.com.
Thanks everyone!
Greg Crutsinger
Parrot/Pix4D Climate Innovation Grant Deadline of Jan. 31st
Grant Guidelines
To submit you application, go to at edu.parrot.com/climate
Background – The overarching goal of this grant program is to foster innovation in our understanding and mitigation of the impacts of global climate change. The award will consist of drone hardware and software for field research. Competitive proposals should include an aerial geographical/mapping dimension using UAVs and Pix4D photogrammetric software, as well as multispectral imagery related to the technical capabilities of the Parrot Sequoia camera. Applications are open to researchers across a range of disciplines, from archaeology to zoology. Proposals that integration drone technology with existing long-term experiments and studies are highly encouraged.
Eligibility – Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis, judged on novelty, scientific merit and team experience. Applicants are not required to have advanced degrees. However, advanced degrees, formal association with educational organizations or institutions, and a strong record of climate change research will be ranked accordingly.
Proposals are not restricted to location — Worldwide applications will be considered, though applications should be submitted in English only. Only one proposal will be accepted per applicant.
This grant program does not provide financial support, nor does it offer scholarships or fellowships of any kind. Awards consist of a single drone package (hardware, software, and basic introductory training as needed). Grantees will be solely responsible for understanding and meeting country-specific UAV regulations for research use at a given field locality (e.g. Part 107 in the United States). Additional terms and conditions related to the proper use of drone hardware may apply.
Grant award specifics – Each award winner will receive an aerial mapping kit that includes a single multirotor drone (3DR Solo or similar), 2 extra batteries, one Parrot Sequoia camera, Sequoia integration cables, and 6-month licence for Pix4D (totally ~ $6500 USD value). Drone hardware and software support is intended to function as complementary support. The award committee strongly encourages applicants to seek additional, concurrent funding from your organization, university or other funding agencies.
Project communication expectations – Successful teams will be expected to coordinate with Parrot to communicate and promote their research and through Parrot social media channels on a regular basis throughout the duration of the project. Please submit a two-page proposal along with your resume or academic CV by Feb. 1, 2017 to be considered for this grant.
Go to edu.parrot.com/climate
Compliments to Tridge and team for the great documentation in the Setup Guide for Disco should folks want to load APM.
I'm excited to see what the community does with this hardware platform. Remember that academic institutions can apply for hardware discounts at edu.parrot.com and developers at developer.parrot.com.
Parrot launched some fun new mini drones this morning that are about to make your drone educational programs even more awesome, particularly access to the Parrot SDK for app development. Here is a nice writeup in TechCrunch and more details on the Parrot webpage.
Introducing 'Swing', a new vertical takeoff, transitional vehicle. This thing is really fast and comes with a nice new bluetooth controller that makes piloting mini drones even easier. Swing is definitely unique!
'Mambo' is an upgraded quad with power out of the Lego-style bricks to run accessories, including a little cannon for light plastic pellets and a claw for picking up and dropping things. For you DIY folks, the interesting thing here is that power is available to solder on other accessories (think Raspberry Pi, LEDs, etc...).
For the educators out there, when combined with the Tickle app for programming, this should make your drone classes even more interesting (e.g. whichever team drops the pin the closest to the target on an autonomous mission through an classroom obstacle course wins).
So while you are studying for your Part 107 exam, lets remember to have a little fun!
The Parrot Sequoia API reference page is now up on developer.parrot.com. There are two control interfaces for Sequoia: HTTP-API and PTP. This should be helpful for folks interested in integrating the sensor on different hardware platforms. For educational institutions, you can apply for academic discounts on Sequoia at edu.parrot.com.
The Mojave desert is a tough place to live by any measure. Receiving less than 13.7 cm (6 in.) of rain per year, it is the driest of all North American deserts. Spanning a range of elevations, the Mojave is prone to extreme temperatures, from sub-freezing conditions at night and in winter up to 49 °C (120 °F) or higher in the summer. Without any natural cover, a relentless sun beats down on plants and animals alike.
One species thrives in the Mojave, however: the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Creosote is an evergreen shrub that grows 1 to 3 m (3-10 ft) in height and boasts bright yellow flowers. It is one of the most dominant species in the Mojave landscape, and it provides most of the scenery on the drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
The dark green creosote leaves are full of resins (plant oils), making the plant inedible to all but very specialized insects and contributing to the shrub’s common nickname, ‘greasewood.’ Creosote releases these oils into the air after a precipitation event, and they permeate the desert with a distinct smell that long-time desert dwellers associate with the smell of rain.
A fascinating aspect of older plants is the propensity to form rings. Creosote shrubs can live a long time, and as they age, their oldest, most central branches die off and the crown splits apart into a ring pattern. These rings appear to march, spreading out over the years; however, each new plant is actually the same genetic individual -- meaning they’re clones.
The oldest known creosote clones are in the Lucerne Valley, California. Referred to locally as the ‘King Clone,’ this ring has been estimated by scientists to be over 11,000 years old and spans over 40 ft (15 m) in average diameter.
Figure 1. The ‘King Clone’ of creosote (Larrea tridentata) in Lucerne Valley, California, is the large ring near the center of the map. Note the black car on the road shown for scale.
Recently, I headed to the Mojave with the Parrot Sequoia camera, one of the smallest, lightest multispectral sensors on the market. In a single flight, Sequoia captures images across four defined visible and non-visible spectral bands, plus RGB imagery.
I used Sequoia to help address ecological questions about these ancient desert shrubs. Specifically, I was interested in whether ancient rings vary in productivity compared to their younger counterparts? If estimates are correct, the King Clone germinated when wooly mammoths still roamed the earth. Now that’s impressive, for sure, but I also wonder what that kind of aging might mean for the plant itself.
I mounted Sequoia on a 3DR Solo drone and using the free, open source Tower app to plan a fully autonomous mapping mission, I was able to map the King Clone and surrounding shrubs in a 10-minute mission at 30 m altitude. Though it was a single, short flight, the drone-mounted Sequoia captured data for a variety of ring sizes. I then linked up with the Pix4D team in Lausanne to collaborate on data analysis.
Pix4D stitched the Sequoia imagery into a high resolution orthomosaic in both color (RGB) and multispectral data layers. Focusing on a sub-sample of 60 shrubs that ranged from 1.2 to 23.5 m in diameter,we then used the Sequoia’s multispectral data to calculate the average normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) across the different ring sizes.
Figure 2. NDVI map showing multispectral data from the Parrot Sequoia camera of the clonal rings of creosote (including the King Clone) in Lucerne Valley, California.
The conclusion? There was no relationship between ring size and NDVI (Figure 1), without or without the King Clone included in the dataset as a statistical outlier (r = 0.005, P = 0.96).
Figure 3. Relationship between the diameter (measured at the widest point in meters) of creosote shrub rings and the average (shrub level) NDVI.
Its a a cool result, as it suggests that the physiology of ancient shrubs, or how they function in this extreme environment, may be similar to shrubs several millennia younger. Mark Twain said that age is an issue of mind over matter: If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. That certainly seems to be the case with creosote in the Mojave.
Drones have already transformed the way ecosystems are studied and monitored. It’s easier and faster than ever to get a large amount of rich, accurate and actionable data. And with the Sequoia camera in particular, scientists now have an incredibly powerful tool to complement traditional vegetation data collection on the ground.
You can learn more about Sequoia here and Parrot Education herehere.
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A great example from the folks at Beaumont college of what DroneKit opens up for educational use. I can’t wait to see how else Solo will be used as a teaching tool in the coming months!
Ardupilot 2.5… vintage, open-source artwork for the wall.
For 2016, 3DR has added an academic Tumblr page to promote all the amazing drone collaborations with schools and universities across the globe. 3DR will also continue with its academic hardware discounts of 20% off retail, including Solo and Solo accessories. The application for discounts can be found here and is currently applicable for non-profit educational institutions in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (with more countries coming soon). Feel free to pass on this info to a school near you.
New startup funds SkyFund and Commercial Drone Fund are launching to help advance businesses seeking to develop in the commercial drone space, from hardware to data services.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/05/27/accel-partners-dji-skyfund-drone-investments/
And here:
Pre-orders are now being taken for the eXom inspection drone. An early quote from a US based rep for Sensefly suggests it is going to be priced in the $40,000-$45,000 range. You can buy two of these and map lots of cell towers....or perhaps just get a Tesla instead.
http://gpsworld.com/sensefly-launches-intelligent-mapping-and-inspection-drone/
Getting tasered in national parks is probably not the best promotional use of drones.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/ranger-stun-gun-hawaii-sanders_n_7166192.html
Looks like this is the week of big UAV announcements with the launch of the Airware platform for commercial drone use.
