MESA Lab won two 2017 CITRIS seed grants - Congratulations!
http://citris-uc.org/citris-and-the-banatao-institute-award-611000-to-eleven-information-technology-projects/
Project 1. Consequences-Aware Co-Piloting System For Human-In-The-Loop Drone Operations
Small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are becoming more and more prevalent, driven by consumer interest and their potential for revolutionizing aspects of commercial applications, such as delivery of urgent goods. The expected ubiquity of such systems raises concerns about their safety, and the ability of such autonomous systems to operate safely in densely populated areas (where their value will be greatest). We propose to develop a system which adds an additional layer of safety to aerial systems operated by a human pilot, by monitoring the UAVs environment for visual cues, and monitoring the human pilot for signs of distraction. The system will endow a UAS with the ability to reason about its safety, and the consequences of safety failures during its operation. The UAS will furthermore continuously reason about possible safety maneuvers in response to likely failures — in the event of an emergency, the vehicle can then execute its last safe maneuver, thus reducing the system’s danger. We will exploit the capabilities offered by combining expertise from UC Berkeley and UC Merced: prior experience with rotorcraft, and safety thereof from Berkeley will be combined with experience on human factors, general UAS safety, and the drone safety center at UC Merced.
Project 2: A Multispectral And Thermal Imaging SUAS System For Monitoring Crop Water Use And Detecting Water Stress
California’s growers face great water use challenges due to the expansion of perennial crops and a warmer and drier climate. Accurate and timely estimate of crop consumptive water use and water stress at a field scale is the missing link in the current on-farm irrigation management. Field-based methods are limited by the high cost, while remote sensing approaches are constrained by accuracy, spatial and temporal resolution. We here propose to develop and test a robust and cost effective measurement and analytical approach to fill this gap, using the emerging drone and imaging technology. Calibrated multi-spectral and thermal imaging cameras will be integrated on a leading drone platform. We will use this fully integrated sUAS system to collect the aerial imageries over several walnut and almond sites in California, where we have both on-farm and plot irrigation experiments and ground measurements of evapotranspiration (ET) and water stress ongoing. Analytical approaches will be developed and validated to estimate ET and quantify water stress based on the multispectral and thermal imagery. This project put together the best combination of talents to figure out the best cost effective way of advancing the plant water monitoring technique, with scientific rigor, not only in data acquisition stage but also in the post flight data processing and analytical phase. The resulting capability will provide growers observation-based guidance for site-specific and time-sensitive irrigation management, and thus ensure agriculture sustainability. The ET mapping tool will also improve consistent estimate of water budget and thus support state and local water agencies for both water planning and regulatory/compliance purposes.
updated: 3/31/2017.