# UA Drone discussion group

## November 29, 2021
Attendees: Jeff, Matt R., Chris, David L, Kamel, Andy, Rosa

### Agenda
- 5 minutes: Meeting begins
- 40 minutes: what do people want to get out of this meeting?
- 5 minutes: Wrap up the meeting

#### Notes
- Discussed the Drone Demo Day meeting and thoughts were added
- Plan out a semester (or more) at a time
- Bringing in outside people on how they used UAS - continue and expand this
- Reach out to people that do this on Campus and bring them in
- Bring in data people for discussing them
- Share resources, collaborations,
- Seeking fundings, get outside 'movers and shakers' to present, provide services
- Malchom Greene (from AZ State): building out industry partnerships
- Perhaps: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-pate-53458042/
- Work with Rosa on classification of different crops/soil/other in fields
-
- December 20, 2021 for next meeting
- Aerospace and Machanical Engineering professor: Sergey Shkarayev
- Marcillan? used to run the Baha Automative club
- Chris will send out direct confirmation emails when sent to mailing list to check if they made it out
- Discussion with Rosa about NVDI classifiaction

# Notes for 2023 (February 27, 2023)
- Skip drone flying, have a "show and tell" instead
- School of mechanical engineering - Kamel - flies balloons w/ sensors - Jekan Thanga ME
- NPL professor - cubesats - invite to talk - Ewan Douglas – Cubesat/Smallsat activities at UA and across AZ
- QR codes for signing up for drone discussion group
- Student posters?
- Bring industry into meeting - Kamel knows of some via Chamber of Commerce
- ASU - reach out to with drones -
- https://www.usdronefest.com/arizona/
- AGIC - Contact and see if they can come
- Tyson and Planet Labs - how to access and use the data
- Pix4D (met with Rosa) -
-

## May 24, 2021
Attendees: Chris Schnaufer,

### Agenda

- 5 minutes: meeting starts
- 10 minutes: open forum
- 40 minutes: discuss ML with Artin
- 5 minutes: wrap up and schedule next meeeting

### Start meeting

### Open forum

Kamel mentioned that NEON is flying drones and people can join in flying drones
Rosa - should we add to the web site?

Reach out to Jeff Gillen - present on RTK work he's done
Rosa has worked with Jeff, as has Tyson

### Discuss ML

Artin Majdi discussing MLFlow (for running Machine Learning models)
- its easy to lose track of the multitude of parameters needed
- most ML projects are not individual efforts, but group efforts
- some people use git or other version control systems for coordinations
- history is more difficult to restore when using version control (eg: difficult to find parameters used months ago)
- MLFlow has a large community & is open source
- MLFlow has 4-5 main components
- model deployment
- package final product
- tracking progress of your work
- model registry
- projects
- Going through presentation from previous CyVerse meeting
- Demo-ed some aspects of the MLFlow UI
- Q: Is it restricted to ML only?
- A: Any language supported can be used; it's mostly parameter management
- Q: (I missed this Q & A)
- Q: Is anyone using TensorFlow or Vice/multi-container procesing?
- A: Unknown at this time; Tyson is working on installing MLFlow at Vice

- Chris: Is anyone using ML now, or have ways to use ML in their work
- Andrew French: involved with UCRiverside on a ML water management project (Planet Labs: https://www.planet.com/)
- Using ML to handle the complexity of hundreds of satellites over many years (5 year project)
- David LeBauer would be intersted in how ML data could work outside of the project
- The work Rosa and Chris are doing ties into verification of ML aspects

- Kamel posted: Planet Labs - https://storage.googleapis.com/planet-ditl/day-in-the-life/index.html

Tyson Posted: You need to go to faasafety.gov and probably make a new account. You can then link your old part 107 license number to this account. Within this website, look for a link to take the Part 107 sUAS Recurrent – for Non-61 Pilots. I think the test reference number is ALC-677.

### Wrap up and next meeeting
Proposed meetings/workshops:
- We have WebODM running, please contact David LeBauer or Tyson Swetnam
- Bring Eric's drone group to this group:
- Tyson can bring Armen to this group at end of summer to review what has happened
- Metashape workshop from Jeff Gillman

Kamel: RSSL for battery best practices esp. in office; may want to reach out to them to get them to help you manage batteries

Next meeting: June 28, 2021 @ 4:00PM

## April 26, 2021

Attendees: David LeBauer, Chris Schnaufer, Artin Majdi, Kamel Didan, Mazin Saber, Rosa Bevington

### Agenda

- 5 minutes: meeting start
- 10 minutes: start discussion, at a high level, on drone demos on campus
- 40 minutes: discuss ML with Artin
- 5 minutes: wrap up and schedule next meeting

### Start meeting

- Problems with connecting through phone - Chris to resolve

### Drone Demos on Campus

- Drone demos on campus:
- kamel: can have problems with flying drones with many people,
- suggestion - host @ santa-rita experimental range
- herb: school of journalism has demos on how to use drones for news as part of teaching students
- Contact: Michael McKisson?
- https://journalism.arizona.edu/jour-482-drone-zone-become-licensed-drone-pilot
- Kamel: wait for next semester due to Covid and lack of students; tie in with other event, such as Earth day or Career day; tie in with other departments
- Rosa: a good eye catcher with nets setup, and micro drones
- https://icap.engineering.arizona.edu/short-range-remote-drone-deployment
- Research applications of UAV day
- Can also invite local companies
- Kamel has some contact information for them
- videography / journalism
- mining, engineering

### Discuss Machine Learning

Artin Majdi - link to CyVerse presentation on MLFlow from last Friday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Qpu7k0BbM

### Wrap up

Next Meeting May 24, 2021

## March 22, 2021

### Agenda

Start meeting - 5 minutes
Quick review of Drone Website - 5 minutes
Presentation with Q&A - 40 minutes
Wrap up - 5 minutes

### Start meeting

### Review drone website

https://drones.arizona.edu/

New submission form & search capabilities

Review web site pages

David LeBauer, et. al.
- Have pre-packaged sensor types so that they are standardized
- Can have fill in with suggestions & auto adding new sensors
- Add checkmark for permissions to contact / willingness to share
- this website has a fairly comprehensive set of information to record https://www.uasuserlog.org/
-

Does the site have ADA compliance? Yes

### Presentation
Herb Wagner on rules and regulations around flying drones

There is a site for all registered drones available - post registration
Flying them:
- Need to have a license, and they know what needs to be done already
- Most work is for flying drones on Campus
- University police check for permits when they find drones flying
- Herb: gatekeeper, knowing about drones flying on campus
- Not training people, trying to keep University in compliance with FAA regulations
- Any university property needs to register drone flights
- Don't handle leased lands - only the tracts uni owns
- Uni: needs the FAA registration card, pilots license, when and what flying, observers, flight plan areas
- Uni provides insurance and so they needs to know
- Does not provide property insurance other than what Uni owns
- What is the database that Herb has regarding drones?
- Dept, frame type, cost, (information only on UAV's)
- There is an extended permit that allows flying without needing to re-register, can just notify the time and place
- Kamel: doing field work off campus
- What it is that Uni provides and what do we need to do to ensure we're doing it correctly?
- Herb: liability coverage provided on campus, need to report any incidents. Limited property insurance on UAVs
- Where is the line on Uni coverage and non-uni coverage
- Not the drone itself, but the purpose it's put to
- Deductable is $2500.00
- Herb's department adjudicates the deductable, then. it goes to the state
- Matt: if under university hat & flying off property, don't need to inform Herb's group
- Herb: would like to know about it, so that if something happens, they are prepared
- Herb: would like to know about the pilots as well, can get extended permit
- Matt: https://www.faa.gov/uas/educational_users/
- Matt: (pasted from Zoom chat)
"Educational Institutions
There is also a statutory provision (P.L. 115-254, Section 350 (PDF), as amended by P.L. 116-283, Section 10002) that clarifies that education and research uses of drones for educational purposes can be operated under the rules for recreational flyers. This includes programs for institutes of higher education, programs run by JROTC, and educational programs chartered by a recognized Community Based Organization.""
- Herb: able to oversee non-licensed people if you are licensed
- Herb: there's a good place to try flying - north of Marana

links for website
- Drone Approval request
- https://risk.arizona.edu/campus-safety/drones-on-campus/drone-approval-request
- Risk management ["Drones on Campus"](https://risk.arizona.edu/campus-safety/drones-on-campus)
- college of architecture has a dept. drone along with protocols, links to UA policies, etc
- https://capla.arizona.edu/student-resources/tools-resources/drones
- Kamel's course ['Precision Observation with Drones'](https://vip.arizona.edu/ABE385.php)

https://www.faa.gov/uas/educational_users/
Educational Institutions:
- _There is also a statutory provision (P.L. 115-254, Section 350 (PDF), as amended by P.L. 116-283, Section 10002) that clarifies that education and research uses of drones for educational purposes can be operated under the rules for recreational flyers. This includes programs for institutes of higher education, programs run by JROTC, and educational programs chartered by a recognized Community Based Organization._

### Wrap up
Next meeting date: April 26

- Send out new link in updated, log into Google and reset the date - this should generate a new invite

## Feb 22 2021

Andy French, Andy H, Kamel Didan, David LeBauer, Chris Jarchow, Sahand Sabet, Mazin Saber, Rosa Bevington, Mark Siemens

### Agenda

Starting meeting - 5 minutes
Review of web site state - 10 minutes
Guest speaker: Sahand Sabet - 30 minutes
Finish up and schedule next meeting - 5 minutes

Follow up - Chris Jarchow could present how he gets sub-cm accuracy from Drones; trying to replace ground surveys w/ drones.

## Jan 25 2021

Attendees: Chris Schnaufer, Mazin Saber, Rosa Bevington, Joe Wagner, Kamel Didan, Martin Porchas, Andy French, Matt Rahr, Wim van Leeuwen

### Agenda

* Introductions - 10 minutes (anticipating new people joining)
* Quick updates on web site status - 5 minutes
* got a domain and template setup at [drones.arizona.edu](https://drones.arizona.edu/)
* Rosa and Kamel have pictures that she can share; Rosa offered to help w/ website content
* People section ... who wants to be included in profile page?
* Joe Wagner presentation - 20 minutes
* Open discussion, bring your topic - 15 minutes
* Wrap up - 5 minutes

### Notes

- Decided to change meetings from biweekly to monthly ...
- Joe Wagner, Maricopa Co. Flood Control District "Cave Creek Dam Mapping District"
- using [ContextCapture software](https://www.bentley.com/en/products/product-line/reality-modeling-software/contextcapture)
- products: LAS, geotiff DEM, mesh / TIN
- what are best practices?
- accuracy: horizontal 2cm accuracy, vertical ~4cm (RMSE)
- no rtk gps on drone itself, relies on ground control points + onboard gps.
- [Propeller AeroPoints](https://www.propelleraero.com/aeropoints/) ~$7200 for a set of 10 + $600/y data subscription
- RTK gives 5cm accuracy; requires base station for better accuracy
- Uses pix4d or dronedeploy for planning
- [litchi app](https://flylitchi.com/)
- Rosa uses [Bad Elf](https://bad-elf.com/collections/bad-elf-flex) GPS system for GCPs; ~$5k hardware + no subscription cost. sub-cm accuracy for locating GCPs
- ? what is the minimum required sampling
- much less GCP

## Jan 11 2021

Attendees: Ethan Orr, David LeBauer, Matt Rahr, Kamel Didan, Rosa Bevington, Mazin Saber, Chris Schnaufer, Andy French, Andy Honaman, Martin Porchas

### Notes

Review of last meeting
- official purpose of the group
- list resources and help make them available
- place for people to go to get information about drones, how to use drones, who is using drones, how to analyze data
- make it easier for users to find what they need

Matt Rahr - drone group website
- UA quickstart template, can build this out very quickly
- Example: Andy Honaman leads GIS user group on campus; got the user group website up online uagis.arizona.edu
- previously had a drone website on older version of quickstart; had a rolodex of self-registered drones on campus. Make, model, sensor platform, if available to fly for college / collaborators
- news, calendar, search, people
- url: drones.arizona.edu
- should have a designated content wrangler ...

Open questions
- how will we gather content / data?
- who will be in charge of making sure content remains 'fresh'?

Comments
- (Kamel) how can we expand beyond the current group - invite others?
- should be reaching out to find out who wants to be a part of this
- aerospace and mechanical engineering
- invite presenters / host seminars
- heavy drone users on campus: Bill Smith, Wim Van Leeuwen, Jeff Gillian
- (Chris) should be as open as possible; will get a regular zoom meeting as well
- anyone can sign up for listserv here: http://calsmail.arizona.edu/mailman/listinfo/uas
- could send out an email to AES

#### News and updates:

- Kamel - adding transponders to drones. Need to have an identifier associated with drones.
- No longer need wifi connectivity, just require radio broadcast system to broadcast location; will not be in effect for a few years. To be published in Jan 2021, then users have 30 months (middle of 2023) to comply
- applies to > 0.55 lbs to < 55lbs
- in academia / research & education, can act as hobbists don't need to comply w/ same rules for commercial drones. Now, rules have changed so hobbists also need to go through FAA to fly in any controlled airspace. FAA doesn't require part 107 but UA does (good question for risk management).
- University has liability insurance for damage to property
- Andy - UTM ([UAS Traffic Management System](https://www.faa.gov/uas/research_development/traffic_management/
))
- centralized database for drone flights, to avoid delays in processing requests
- will affect logistics in near future https://uavcoach.com/remote-id-reaction/
- PD&C's drone-captured flythrough of main campus
https://maps.arizona.edu/aerial360s/
- risk mgmt documents (e.g. these? https://risk.arizona.edu/campus-safety/drones-on-campus/drone-approval-request)

TODO:
- [ ] write up a blurb about the group
- [ ] find places to post it
- [ ] set up website (Matt R)
- [ ] add calendar events
- [ ] Ethan will post link to site on AES site
- [ ] reach out to Aerospace & Mech Eng to invite to this regular meeting
- [ ] Invite someone from risk management to speak to our group

## 2020-12-14 16:00PM (CST)
(Copied from https://hackmd.io/1TpYIJszTgGwqalhMApi_g?view)

[Previous meeting notes](https://hackmd.io/qmEvvCivSd-92Vla01-XVw?view)

## Agenda
* Introductions - 5 minutes
* Official Q&A time: bring your questions for the group at large: 15 minutes
* Work on official purpose of group: 20 minutes
* Open time: discuss what you're working on at this time; presentations; discussions; etc.: 15 minutes
* Figure out next meeting date/time and wrap up (proposed - January 11, 2021 @ 4:00PM AZ time): 5 minutes
---

## Introductions

## Group Obectives
(Expanded upon from last meeting)
- Education: Provide a forum for learning
- Teach each other about what we are doing, how we do it,
* protocols & best practices
* flight / data capture logistics
* data transfer
* software
- Legal aspects
- insurance, license to fly
- Resource availability (drones, processing power, people, etc)
- Insurance and liability
- Help: answering questions and providing help
- Growth: capture methods and processes for others to use
* capture best practices so others can learn from them
* connecting people
* grant proposals
- Dissemination: provide information on what’s available from and through this group
- Local workshops / groups where we can present our activities to others on campus
- [RISE Symposium](https://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/rise/) (run by Mitch Mitch McClaren)
- CALS (Formerly run by Sangita)
- AIR Arizona Institutes for Resilience (AIR) (formerly inst. of the envt) Kim Ogden, Pete Waller
- UA GIS user group on campus - they have monthly meetings. Andy H. is trying to build the GIS community on campu
- Integration: integration with different groups/organizations/scientists

# General Areas of Interest for Group

- Research applications
- Other aerial platforms
- what is available on campus?
- esp. what sensors are being used?
- what expertise exists on campus?
- hardware available for shared pool?
- Legal
- Liabilities & Insurance
- regulation
- would be useful to have a group that consolidates this information
- group could facilitate getting over these hurdles
- nat'l defense auth. act will prevent use of DJI (!?) what are other options? Might be able to be grandfathered in, e.g. if already registered. Currently fuzzy.
- flight registration https://skyvector.com/
- Shared protocols
- End-to-end process for flying (from obtaining permission through post-flight)
- Apps, processes, storage, data management
- Grant proposal assistance
- tying into / calibrating other sensing platforms, e.g. satellite calibration; planes; MAC field phenomics

## Possible starting points?

- Gather information on what UA offers to drone users and make public. Get a list of what platforms and sensors are available on Campus: a working document: include costs
- Develop and provide high-level overview of processes for flying drones (from obtaining permission through post-flight)
- Begin identifying and providing information on processing captured data by data type (AgiSoft, QGIS, etc): availability, licensing, where to get more information. Open source information as well
- Define how help can be asked for and responded to: listserv? Online forum?
-

## Open questions:

- What online presence should we have & how do we make it available?
- MS Teams, Confluence (ask Matt Rahr), OSF
- Meeting notifications,
- Notifications of related activities of interest on campus and beyond
- Database of resources on campus
- people
- platforms
- sensors
- research activities
- protocols
- software, pipelines
- licenses - Wim bought a 30-45 Pix4D licenses, integrated w/ ArcGIS but don't permit remote desktop
- campus Agisoft license on HPC is free, can also be used on laptop - see Tyson
- UA has an ArcGIS license that anyone can use
- data storage & publications
- David, Tyson have a 300 TB storage node on CyVerse
- CyVerse has a soft-cap of 10 TB free storage, this will go away after the project ends from NSF in 2023

## Follow up:

- Confluence and/or web site for holding documents
- On campus visit from someone to talk about campus saftey and liability insurance (Herbert Wagner).
- Sign up as SIG Special Interest Group on campus https://confluence.arizona.edu/display/UIPR/IT+SIGs

---

Links:
- https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/
- https://risk.arizona.edu/campus-safety/drones-on-campus/drone-approval-request
- https://skyvector.com/
- If you wanted to become a SIG Special Interest Group on campus this site might help https://confluence.arizona.edu/display/UIPR/IT+SIGs
-

## Nov 2021

### Agenda

- Introduce Agenda - 2 min
- Introductions
- Introduce Proposed objectives of group w/ discussion - 8 min
- optional presentations 5-10 min each
- After presentations, participants are welcome to further discuss what they're working on, 5-10 minutes each
- Determine frequency of and best times for meetings - 5 min
- Wrap up - 5 min

We have some ideas for objectives of the group, but we would love to get everybody's input.

Proposed Objectives (pertaining to):
Education: each meeting has at least one presentation on the work someone is doing or focus on an aspect of using drones. (a methodology presentation for example)
Help: develop a community to answer questions and provide help for drone users
Growth: develop ways of capturing best practices and methods so that others can make use of and/or adapt them

### Notes

**Introductions**

- Chris: background in image processing, works with David
- Emily: works w/ Chris organizing the group and working on drone processing pipeline
- Jeff Gillian: Arizona Remote Sensing Center, drone pilot, works on photogrammetry; mapping and monitoring. RGB, Hyperspectral, Lidar, works on a number of projects.
- Kamal Didan: Prof in BE. Background in remote sensing. Teaches class on drones w/ focus on engineering aspects. Interested in validating satellite w/ drones. Has lots of drones.
- Eric Lyons: Plant Science; co-PI of Cyverse. Here to learn. Ag2PI USDA coordination of animal to plant ag genome to phenome.
- Andy French: works w/ Paul Brierly and Martin Saber
- Data pipelines for site specific investigations
- validation of satellite data that is becoming increasingly high res. Would be great if group could come up with improved data pipelines
- Mark Siemens: BE, stationed in Yuma. New to Drones - specialty is ag mechanization. Interest in image processing, has worked on crop / weed differentiation for development of automated weeding system.
- Paul Brierly: Runs YCEDA public / private partnership. Has been trying to build up drone technology program. Rosa Bevington is Drone pilot, also Martin and Mazin Saber. Works w/ A French on satellite validation. YCEDA provides $10k grants.
- what opportunities are out there and what events?
- Mazin Saber: postdoc w/ Charles Sanchez. Ground truthing using Drones. Deploys EC stations around Yuma to measure ET and compare w/ satellite imagery.
- Matt Rahr: Assoc dir. AES. Likes drones, mostly uses for videography. Team develops web and mobile apps to enable research.
- Travis Simmons: Undergrad student at College of Coastal Ga. Uses drone imagery + gantry data.
- Emmanuel Gonzalez: 2nd y student of Duke Pauli works on gantry data; work on image processing, extracting features from gantry data

**Group Objectives**

What can we do to help each other out, expand reach of what we do, make use of each other's research

Education:
- teach each other about what we are doing, how we do it,
- protocols & best practices
- flight / data capture logistics
- data transfer
- software

Growth:
- capture best practices so others can learn from them
- connecting people

Kamel Didan:
- Legal aspects; DOE requires very specific safety / operational plans.
> [name=schnaufer] There are Federal, State, and local rules and regulations, in addition to organization rules and regulations, that need to be followed when flying drones
- Accessing resources. Would be helpful to have an inventory of who has what and is willing to share
- Drones
- Sensors
- Calibration panels / tarps
- Algorithms
- Computing infrastructure
- Insurance for Drones
- Paul B: says UA requirements for insurance are so challenging (e.g. per flight) that it made it difficult to actually get research done. A group like this could provide feedback and push UA to streamline the proceedures.

Paul Brierly:
- Rosa has good information on getting approvals
- Not everyone in the university should have to buy a drone. This group could be a resource for the University ... others could write us into a grant proposal that funds some set amount of flight campaigns. Would centralize infrastructure
- The group can go after grant proposals.
- Is on the board of Arizona Aerospace - focused largely on drones
- A great output of the group would be to maintain a list of people and resources. Who does what / fits in where.

Eric Lyons
- Tyson is key CyVerse person helping to analyze, manage, and process drone data.
- Management of drone data ... making it FAIR

Chris
- drones are a type of remote sensing; lots of problems are similar to other sensing platforms: satellite, tractors, gantry, IOT / climate / soils

Andy French:
- In Yuma, manned aircraft aer more useful for monitoring at the water district (>> field) scale. Eg. groups of growers contract to collect data, and CyVerse / UA could help with data processing.
- Single band Thermal IR, 4 band multispectral RGB+NIR
- NASA is developing SPG hyperspectral sensing mission. Drones and data pipeline would be useful in a science proposal for validating SPG data. 5 years from now there will be a need to bridge gap between satellite data and the details that you can see from aircraft and drones. Can position well to get nasa funding?

Emmanuel:
- providing growers with tools to detect disease as drone is flying through, and tag images during flight

Paul
- holy grail is: can you detect specific stress (not just stress directly) days before?

Mark Siemens
- interested in training wheat vs weed detection algorithm
- Emmanuel had some ideas
- Andy says "Mark: Cotton Inc is working the same science question you might contact Ed Barnes at CI"

Others to invite
- Tyson Swetnam
- Wim Van Leeuwen