Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for disaster relief, environmental monitoring and precision agriculture.

Philippines and Hawaii

“Prediction: By year 2020, UAS will emerge as the primary collection platform for remotely sensed data.” USGS National UAS Office.

• Public Organizations should acquire a COA (Certificate of Authorization) to fly UAV in designated areas.

• Crew must be properly trained and certified regarding aviation regulations, medical etc.

• Federal Judge from the NTSB ruled against FAA in March 2014, regarding regulation of UAS.

• Congress has not passed any laws specifically regulating UAS, but FAA has promised to pass a law regarding small UAS sometime in 2015… or by 2025.

FAA Regulations?

Temporal Resolution

Hours DecadesDays Weeks Months Years

Spatial Resolution

.01 m 0.1 m 10 m 100 m 1000 m1 m

Cost

Free Low High Very HighModerate

1 m2 100 m2 1 km2 1,000 km2 Global10,000 m2

Max. Spatial Coverage

Gov’t Satellite

Commercial Sat.

Plot Data

Airborne RS

Fixed-wing UAV

Rotary wing UAV

Aklan River

Aklan River

Researchers from University of Hawaii and Ateneo de Manila University

X8

FX-61 Phantom

UAV Fleet

Airframe Name Type

X8Fixed Wing

Powertrain2X 5,000 Mah LiPo Battery45-60mins flight

Payload Canon S100Go Pro Cameras

Autopilot APM 2.5(Arduino)

UAV Fleet

Airframe Name Type

FX-61Fixed Wing

Powertrain2X 2,200 Mah LiPo Battery20-30mins flight

Payload Canon SX260

Autopilot APM 2.6(Arduiono)

Destroyed Levee

• Yolanda impact on agriculture fields?

• Philippines facing a rice shortage this year.

• 85,004 homes damaged in Aklan province.

UAS team meets with Mayor of Libacao.

• Leaves start to yellow around edges and bunch together.

• Plant stops producing fruit.• Disease can spread to nearby

plantings quickly.• State lacks resources to contain

spread of virus.

BBTV Detection with UAS

5 m 5 m 5 m

cm-resolution point-and-shoot camera imagery

(12/16/13)

sub-meter Digital Globe imagery from

Google Earth (1/21/13)

30-m Landsat 8 imagery (6/17/13)

Early Detection of Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV)

Healthy Banana Field Hamakua Springs, Hawaii.

Suspected Infected Banana Patch, Keaau, Hawaii.

Infected Keiki, remain stunted.Aphids, spreading BBTV Virus.

Feature Detection with Visible RGB Imagery

Dr. Ryan Perroy taking field samples with spectral radiometer.

• Rare plant survey, fence line assessment, forest biomass estimation.

• University of Hawaii at Hilo FAA Certificate of Authorization (COA) for Pu’uwa’awa’a reserve.

• First University in the State of Hawaii to receive a COA.

Environmental Monitoring in HETF Pu’uwa’awa’a Makai Subunit

90% of commercial UAV Companies World Wide are small start ups, not big aerospace.

Please contact us for research related collaborations!Website: www.spatial.hawaii.edu Ph: 808.932.7276