(Re-posted from: http://conservationdrones.org/2013/07/10/conservation-drones-in-us-fish-wildlife-service-webinar-series/ )

Serge Wich from ConservationDrones.org (http://conservationdrones.org) was recently invited by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to give a talk about the use of UAVs in conservation.

During the Q&A session after his presentation (also in this recording), questions from the audience indicate that they were all very positive about this UAV use, which was a pleasant surprise for us!

(Re-posted from: http://conservationdrones.org/2013/07/08/techpod-drone/)

Earlier this year, Wayne Garris from the Kickstarter project, HobbyUAV.com, donated two Techpods to ConservationDrones.org. I finally just had the time to build one up, equipped with an APM 2.5+ autopilot system.

This drone will be one of four that we will be bringing to Belize later this Summer. We are partnering with WCS to fly over Glover's reef to explore the use of drones for patrolling marine protected areas.

While building this drone, I was quite concerned about the wing flex, even though I was assured by others that these 2.5 m wings are meant to flex!

I decided to add some rigidity to the wings by fiber-glassing them with an ultra thin glass fiber cloth by applying several coats of water-based polyurethane. The fiber-glassed wings definitely helped to reduce wing flex and prevent sudden dips in the air. (I know I did not do a perfect job of it, but I am happy just as long as it flies!)

After installing the APM 2.5+, receiver, telemetry and APM power module, there really wasn't much space left inside the fuselage.

I created a battery holder using a piece of craft wood (pine), and a few pieces of velcro. This battery holder replaces the canopy, and can hold up to two 5000 mAh Turnigy batteries. The picture below also shows the location of the Turnigy Thrust 45 A ESC I used. I always prefer to place the ESC outside the fuselage to avoid overheating. The wings are held together mostly by friction at the wing joints, but further secured by several elastic bands hooked onto picture hangers on each wing. These picture hangers were glued to the wings with J-B Weld steel reinforced epoxy.

At first, I wasn't quite sure whether to glue the nose dome to the fuselage. In the end, I decided to improvise a hinge using control horns so that I can access the APM and receiver from the nose if needed.

The motor mount was given extra support from two 5 mm diameter wooden rods wrapped in shrink tubes, taped to the rear of the fuselage and zip-tied to the motor mount. I used a Turnigy 3536 1000 kv motor spinning a 11x7 2-bladed MasterAirscrew propeller. This combination provided about 1.6 kg of thrust, drawing about 30 A at 100% throttle. The All-Up-Weight (AUW) of this setup with one 5000 mAh battery is about 2.0 kg. This plane can cruise comfortably at 30-40% throttle drawing about 6-8 A. (I fly it with about 5 degrees flaps, which significantly improves lift without creating too much drag.)

The rudder servo was moved from underneath the fuselage to nearer the tail section. I used 22 g Corona digital metal gear servos for the rudder and elevator, and 11 g Turnigy metal gear servos for ailerons and flaps.

I don't like fussing with aileron and flap connectors inside the limited fuselage space, and so decided to bring them outside. This makes wing assembly and disassembly in the field much easier. In this picture you can also see the antenna for the 3DR telemetry.

I installed front landing gear to a piece of plywood Gorilla-glued to the bottom of the fuselage (where the carbon fiber rod is exposed).

The rear landing gear was screwed to the bottom of the tail section. These two screws also attach the vertical stabilizer to the carbon fiber rod.

The horizontal stabilizer is attached to the vertical stabilizer by an improvised system of control horns and 1.5 mm carbon fiber rod. These mods make the Techpod completely modular and can be easily disassembled and packed back into its shipping box.

I improvised a camera mount by just attaching a 15 mm diameter carbon fiber rod to the main carbon fiber rod using a few pieces of zip-ties (cable ties). This system also allows me to adjust weight distribution to achieve optimal CG (85-90 mm from leading edge of wings).

During the maiden flight, I tested flight endurance by letting it fly in Return-To-Launch (RTL) mode. It did so mostly at a speed of 10-12 m/s at 30-40% throttle. At 50% battery capacity (of a single 5000 mAh battery) it had stayed in the air for about 18 minutes. So I estimate a flight time of 30 minutes (range of 21 km) with one battery and 50 minutes (36 km) with two batteries.

... Sneak Peek of the next Conservation Drone, based on the amphibious Icon A5!

Raw flight footage.

Just to document some early progress in the building of a multirotor Conservation Drone with thermal imaging for wildlife research (last picture shows the quad with a FLIR PS32 camera, yet to be mounted). Apologies for the shaky video taken with an iphone (had to hold on to transmitter with other hand).

See: http://ConservationDrones.org for more information

Technical details:
Base unit: Reconfigured 3DR quadcopter with stock motors and ESC
Propellers: 10 x 4.5 SF props
Copter legs: improvised "foam noodles" (about $2 and surprisingly stable)
Battery: 2 x 5000 mAh Turnigy

Autopilot: APM 2.5 with power module, GPS uBlox LEA-6, Radio Telemetry

Firmware: ArduCopter V2.9.1b

APM parameter file: APMConfig_9XR_3DRQUAD.param

Flying weight: 1.8 kg

Total flight time: 21 minutes (17 minutes if flying with 1 x 5000 mAh battery)

I recently upgraded from my trusty old Turnigy 9X to a shiny new Turnigy 9XR, and had to figure out the channel mixing for it to work with my APM.

There are a few resources on the internet on how to do this (including here on diydrones), but non specifically for the 9XR.

I managed to set my transmitter and APM up such that I have 3 separate switches.

1. The ELE D/R is now my Emergency RTL switch, which overrides all other switches. (This connects to CH7 on APM and is assigned the RTL function.)
2. The AIL D/R is my Auto mode ON/OFF switch, which overrides the 3-way switch.
3. The 3-way switch allows me to switch between flights modes Stabilize/Alt Hold/Loiter.

(Of course you can re-assign the modes to anything you like. But this arrangement works well for me!)

You then have to connect receiver CH6 to APM CH5 for arducopter (or APM CH8 for arduplane). And connect receiver CH7 to APM CH7 for arducopter (I don't believe arduplane has an assignable CH7 for RTL mode, although it ought to have).

Hope this helps someone!

-LPK, ConservationDrones.org

Tested The Following Solutions:

1. GoPro without vibration dampening
2. Ear plug solution (more info)
3. Single layer of moongel (more info)
4. Double layer of moongel
5. Triple layer of moongel

Watch the video to find out which is the winner!

3D model and fly-through created by Serge Wich using PIX4D and ESRI 3D ArcScene. Drone Imagery from Keeyen Pang. This is a 3D model animation of an oil palm mosaic in Sabah. A subset of the aerial images was processed using PIX4D imaging software to generate a digital Surface Elevation Model (SEM) and orthomosaic. Another software, ESRI 3D ArcScene, was then used to drape the orthomosaic over the SEM, and to create the fly-through animation.

See: http://ConservationDrones.org

Airframe: Finwing Universeye Penguin
Autopilot: APM 2.5+ with Power module
GPS: 3DR LEA 6
Telemetry: 3DR 915 Mhz
Motor: Finwing stock M2220 1350kv
Propeller: Master Airscrew 3-bladed 9 x 7 Pusher
ESC: Finwing stock 40 A (5V/3A BEC)
Battery: Turnigy 5000 mAh
Radio: Turnigy 9X stock
Camera: GoPro Hero 1 and iPhone (ground)
Location: Near Princeton, NJ

More info: http://ConservationDrones.org

This is a 15-minute short film about Zuzana’s journey across parts of Madagascar with a drone, shining a spotlight on environmental and livelihood issues on the red island.

It is a fascinating and personal behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of conducting drone missions in the tropics. Zuzana had never operated a drone nor even flown a remote controlled plane before.

Zuzana is an ecologist based at a Swiss university, and a PhD student of Lian Pin Koh, who is co-founder of ConservationDrones.org. This Youtube film is also Zuzana’s first attempt at video production and editing.

Madagascar Team Leader and Drone operator:
Zuzana Burivalova (PhD candidate)
Applied Ecology & Conservation Lab, ETH Zurich

See: www.conservationdrones.org for more information.

With support from:
Dr Martin Bauert, ZOO Zurich
Wildlife Conservation Society Madagascar
Madagascar National Parks
Tom Allnutt, UC Berkeley
Edward Louis, Omaha ZOO and Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership
Pierre and Maria Bester, Masoala Forest Lodge
Jao Aridy, Madagascar National Parks
Nandi Fatro, Université d'Antananarivo

Over the last week, ResearchDrones.com and ConservationDrones.org conducted a series of tests of low cost thermal imaging cameras.

Models tested:
1. FLIR HS-324 Patrol 19mm Thermal camera (320 x 240 res) (link)
2. NEC F30 Thermal Shot Infrared Thermal Imager (160 x 120 res) (link)

Above: Flight tests (cloudy daylight, ~3 pm winter afternoon)

FLIR image taken by conservation drone from ~100 m above ground. FLIR camera tilted ~40 degrees downwards.

NEC image taken by conservation drone from ~100 m above ground. NEC camera was downward facing.

Ground tests (complete darkness, ~9 pm winter night):

Conclusion:

The FLIR is the clear winner in terms of picture resolution and thermal sensitivity. But the FLIR HS-324 is also much heavier and costly (~600 g, ~US$ 7,000) than the NEC (~300 g, US$ 4,000).

Based on these tests, we believe the ideal solution might be the more compact FLIR MS-324 (320 x 240 res) (link), which has the same resolution as the FLIR HS-324, but weighs much less (340 g) and is also more affordable (~US$ 3,000).

(*Note: We are not sponsored by the companies hyper-linked to in this post. The cameras we tested were either rented or on loan from colleagues.)

A fitting last post for what has been a most exciting 2012, which saw the founding of ConservationDrones.org and ResearchDrones.com, hundreds of successful drone missions in Asia and Africa (and a couple of epic crashes as well), and exciting new partnerships with conservation groups and colleagues around the world.

This is video footage from a December drone training mission on the beaches of Pongara National Park in Gabon, off the Atlantic ocean, conducted by Remo Peduzzi of ResearchDrones.com for WWF Netherlands, Team Libreville.

Not only did the drone capture detailed video and images of turtle nests on the beach, but it also had a serendipitous encounter with a Gabonese SWAT Team, which was parachuting down to the beach from a helicopter.

Looking forward to another productive and exciting year to come in 2013!

-ConservationDrones.org & ResearchDrones.com

Sander van Andel (Max Planck Institute) flies Conservation Drone Maja in Loango National Park, Gabon, capturing turtle nests on the beach (first ever coastal mission!), forest buffaloes and chimpanzee nests.

http://conservationdrones.org/2012/12/13/conservation-drone-in-loango-gabon/