Licensing and autopilot questions.
Alright. So I heard about diy UAV drones a while ago, and the second I did, I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I got to thinking then, how I might be able to use it.
Currently, I'm an undergraduate majoring in Zoology and Biology. I plan on getting my masters in Ethology (animal behavior). As part of my planned dissertation, I will need to look at how groups of animals move and interact with each other in relation to other animals outside of the group in real time.
At first, I was planning on some how attaching a tracking unit to the animals themselves (as before it was the only thing I could think of). I knew, however, that this wasn't practical from the start, as I would be needing to get data points at least every second (though more than likely every 1/4th to 1/2 of a second), and the power supply wouldn't last very long, not to mention the fact that it may, somehow interfere with my findings (the animals may behave differently and what not).
So, I got the idea of attaching an infrared video camera to a UAV drone.
My questions are: what kind of license would I need to track animals beyond my line of site (would a "exemptions granted to non-commercial flyers" suffice or would I need a "CoA"), if either would do, which is easier to obtain and would it be possible to set up the auto pilot to track and follow a group of animals based on infrared signature?
Currently, I'm an undergraduate majoring in Zoology and Biology. I plan on getting my masters in Ethology (animal behavior). As part of my planned dissertation, I will need to look at how groups of animals move and interact with each other in relation to other animals outside of the group in real time.
At first, I was planning on some how attaching a tracking unit to the animals themselves (as before it was the only thing I could think of). I knew, however, that this wasn't practical from the start, as I would be needing to get data points at least every second (though more than likely every 1/4th to 1/2 of a second), and the power supply wouldn't last very long, not to mention the fact that it may, somehow interfere with my findings (the animals may behave differently and what not).
So, I got the idea of attaching an infrared video camera to a UAV drone.
My questions are: what kind of license would I need to track animals beyond my line of site (would a "exemptions granted to non-commercial flyers" suffice or would I need a "CoA"), if either would do, which is easier to obtain and would it be possible to set up the auto pilot to track and follow a group of animals based on infrared signature?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Traiden D on -
Also, I didn't think about it, but would I need additional licensing for the infrared camera/tracking? Is it even legal to the public? If it isn't, would I be able to apply for some sort of permit for scientific research?
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by automatik on -
Hi Traiden and welcome to diydrones.
Interesting project. Most of your legal questions can be answered from the FAQ link close to the top of main page:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A28583
I am not an expert on the legal stuff, but let me make couple points:...
If you are not in U.S. I don't know...If you are in U.S. then under current law you can not fly out of line of site, must remain pilot in control, and can't go above 400' above ground level, unless you get a COA. An most likely you will not get COA.
I don't think there are any legal issues with IR cameras. No clue on any legal issues about tracking animals....
Out of curiosity...why do you need to acquire data faster then 1 Hz? Is the animal behavior, which you wish to track, really that interactive that you need 1Hz or better? While UAV tracking you propose is interesting, just by your presence you might disturb animals (noise, movement, etc.). Nat. Geo. did a a series where they tracked animals, but they used helicopter and stayed 1 mile away from animals ( so not to disturb them) and used realllllly powerful and fancy cameras and lenses. Also consider possibility that animals you wish to track might co under tree/brush cover and you might not be able to see them from air. Do you need to receive animal movement data in real time? If not, you could tag the animals with a tracker which has data logger, and then recapture animals and recover datalogger, or perhaps download data wirelessly...I believe such tag devices are commercially available, or at least I remember reading about them with respect to tagging marine animals.
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Permalink Reply by Traiden D on
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Well, I was actually wanting to track hunting patterns of animals that live in groups to see how exactly they work together throughout their hunt (the stalking, actual chasing, and with some species how they work together to direct and corner their prey), and compare how different species that hunt in groups work with their group and to see if there are any correlations between species, or if there are any patterns between different hunts of a single population, or even if those patterns correlate with hunting patterns of a different population of the same species. Now, this is a long way off still, I'm just coming up with ideas at this point.
As I'd be studying predator animals that live in groups, it would be hard to tag all of them, and sedating animals is fairly traumatizing for them. So I'd much rather figure out how to do it with a UAV.
Some species are more likely to hunt at night, so I figured the IR camera would be a good way to track and record them. Would the IR cam not see through trees/brush?
As for the tracking animals, I was mostly asking if there are legal issues with using a UAV to visually track moving objects at all, not just animals. Since, some people could use tracking by heat a signature for any number of other purposes, I wasn't sure if it would be legal or not.
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Permalink Reply by CheBuzz on
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Can we put this to rest once and for all? As far as I know, the LOS/400' AGL is a _recommendation_ and not a law. If somebody could show me otherwise, I would be interested.
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
CheBuzz, you're right that it's not a law per se (yet). But as far as we're concerned here it might as well be. And if people choose not to respect it these FAA guidelines and get in trouble, the eventual restrictions will be much worse.
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Chris Anderson on -
If you're doing this with official university sponsorship in the US and staying out of flight paths it's usually possible to do with minimal regulation. If you don't have official university sponsorship it's going to be hard.
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Gary Mortimer on -
Hi Traiden, your after doing exactly what Lyndon Estes and I are upto, PM me and we can chat. Repeating data collars is quite straight forward, tracking brings its own issues, the IR camera is not cheap!
IR will see through canopies, you will need a fairly sophisticated autopilot and ground control station as well.
Cheers
G
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Permalink Reply by Scott Plunkett on -
The Procerus UAV Test platform with gimbal IR camera and Kestrel autopilot could do exactly what you are looking to do...but be ready to shell out like $5-10K for the complete system. Out of curiosity, how much loiter time do you expect to have over the site?
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Permalink Reply by Traiden D on
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Well, I wont be going into graduate school for at least another two years--which should give me plenty of time to build a simpler UAV just so I can get more experience with them before I actually build the one for my experiment.
As for cost, I was hoping to be able to get some kind of grant, but I'll see about that later.
I was planning on just getting a pan-tilt IR camera. Is there any benefit to getting a gimbal and mounting a stationary cam to it over a IR cam that has a pan-tilt mount? Does it cost less, would it have better tracking, or what?
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ModeratorPermalink Reply by Joseph Glanville on -
Gimbal = pan/tilt mount effectively.
Different gimbals and mount setups have different specifications and thus differences in slew speed, acuracy etc.
IMO the procerus test rig might not be the way to go. It's a flying wing and it looks like it would be noisy as.
A better way to go would be a motor glider with a decent autopilot.
Depending on your skill level I suggest going Paparazzi or commercial (Procerus or Cloudcap.. from what I hear micropilot is not worth your time).
Paparazzi + some decent image recognition code and kalman filtered object tracking would be the ultimate solution but would take a few months to get right and would cost an arm and a leg. Not to mention you would need sufficient programming skill hehe.
Awesome sounding project though. :)
Goodluck!
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Permalink Reply by Traiden D on
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I'm sorry. I had meant like, are gimbals more accurate in tracking, if not, do they generally cost less than pan/tilt cameras? I'm just wondering if there is any benefit to getting a stationary camera and mounting it onto a gimbal than getting an IR camera that is already pan/tilt.
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