9 - Real-World Applications

Summary

Introduction

Innovations in UAV research and technology opened up a number of new opportunities that were not imagined before. From pizza delivery to providing broadband services to rural and disadvantaged areas, UAVs are being envisioned for numerous real-world applications. Realization of such applications requires not only technological advances but also regulations, policies, and best practices for safety, privacy, and security reasons. This chapter reviews two of the many applications of UAVs and UAV networks that researchers are currently pursuing: (1) wildlife detection and (2) emergency communications. These examples showcase the unique value and innovation that UAVs can bring to real-world applications.

Wildlife Detection

Wildlife population counts are traditionally conducted either from ground or from fixed-wing aircraft observations; however, both of these methods have limitations (accuracy, cost, safety, and timeliness). Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), and their cameras and sensors, have been tested for their suitability to provide accurate population estimates of Sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) and detect Greater sagegrouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Colorado, USA. The first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved sUAS flights in the United States national airspace for the US Department of the Interior (DOI) were conducted in March 2011 by scientists with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) using the Raven RQ-11A sUAS at Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. These flights determined the suitability of the sUAS to enumerate sandhill cranes, by comparing ground counts to number of cranes estimated from sUAS imagery. In 2012, the first FAA-approved sUAS night flights were conducted at Monte Vista, to obtain a population estimate of the number of roosting cranes at five roosts on the refuge. In April 2013, the sUAS was flown near greater sage-grouse leks (breeding sites) in Middle Park, Colorado, to determine if the system could detect greater sage-grouse and what (if any) reaction the sage-grouse might have to the sUAS. These studies proved that the Raven sUAS provides a non-intrusive, safe, and accurate way to estimate sandhill crane population abundance on roost sites, and detect greater sage-grouse on lek sites. sUAS technology has become more widely available to natural resource managers to track wildlife population numbers, health, and trends and will be relied upon in the future as a critical source of data.