Volume 10, Number 4 • July/August 2002 • Aerospace Technology Development

UAV Center Trains Students for Aerial Missions

Solar-powered airplane in flight. Artwork courtesy of Ames Research Center.

NASA and Clark University are developing a system to train students to plan and conduct missions by remotely controlled aircraft capable of taking aerial images of natural disasters, crops and even of Mars and other planets.

NASA anticipates that as the use of remotely piloted, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) expands, specialists must be trained to support aerial missions expected to generate large numbers of pictures taken with on-board, high-resolution digital-imaging systems. Future missions may include imaging flights that would help firefighters, disaster relief workers and farmers.

“The primary thrusts of this new educational program are to train people who can develop UAV technology, plan missions, conduct them and accurately and quickly interpret the real-time digital images acquired,” said Dr. Stanley Herwitz, professor of Earth science at Clark University, Worcester, MA. Herwitz serves as a UAV principal investigator and leads a team of more than 20 researchers at NASA Ames Research Center. “New technology is now being developed that will produce an astonishing number of aerial images taken from UAVs capable of long-duration flight.”

Specific activities will include planning future UAV image-acquisition campaigns; developing procedures for operating UAVs in Federal Aviation Administration controlled airspace; testing and evaluating high-resolution imaging systems; testing real-time telemetry systems for payload control and data transfer; evaluating data acquisition and control systems for real-time applications; developing and packaging automated image-processing streams; integrating imaging payloads onto UAVs; and implementing educational research opportunities for university students.

“More trained people are needed to evaluate aerial images so they will be available on a timely basis,” he said. “These pictures will have to be studied by specialists in order to be useful during disasters, at harvest time and in other time-critical situations.”

An Ames-based research team led by Herwitz is conducting the $3.76-million project for NASA’s UAV Science Demonstration Program. The effort will provide the first-ever commercial demonstration test of a solar-powered UAV operating in national airspace this fall over the largest coffee plantation in the United States, located in Kauai, HI. In addition, Herwitz spearheaded the formation of a center at NASA Research Park, adjacent to NASA Ames, to conduct collaborative UAV research and development, as well as educate students.

Officials from Ames, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (Edwards, CA), Clark University and the Girvan Institute, a non-profit organization located in NASA Research Park, signed an agreement to establish the UAV Applications Center in NASA Research Park. The charter of the new center is to conduct collaborative research and development, leading to enhanced scientific and commercial utilization of UAVs as high-resolution imaging platforms in national airspace.

“Formation of the UAV Applications Center has led to the development of an innovative educational program that will provide a trained workforce with skills in UAV mission planning, geographic information systems (GIS) and digital image analysis,” Herwitz said. “The nature of our current UAV coffee project, using an environmentally friendly solar-powered aircraft, has an inspiring effect on students because it is so futuristic.”

“Long-duration solar-powered aircraft, able to fly for many days without landing, will develop in the future, and these students will have an opportunity to be actively involved in the early stages,” said Herwitz.

“The program will produce a significant return on investment,” Herwitz said. “Its benefits may include such things as protecting the environment and natural disaster response and mitigation. We are also inspiring the next generation by involving them in the future of UAVs.” Q

For more information, contact Dr. Stanley Herwitz at sherwitz@mail.arc.nasa.gov. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits