Eyes In The Sky

With springtime sunshine comes the opportunity to fly. On one of the first rainless days of the season, a group of students gathers around a pickup truck on Western Michigan University's Parkview campus. Pulling several large cases down from the back of the truck, they proceed to unpack the drones that would soon rise into the air around them.

Enrolled in one of two new unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) graduate certificate programs, the students are gathered for their practicum field day. Launched in May in coordination with WMU’s Aviation Sciences and with Extended University Programs, these graduate programs pave the way for students to become certified as pilots of remote small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). One of these new certificate programs delves into the geological and environmental sciences applications of drones, while the other explores their geospatial applications.

Drone being flown by WMU students outsideOn this particular day, students in Dr. Charles “Jay” Emerson’s course in the Department of Geography learn about using the new technology in digital photogrammetry. Emerson lays out the “mission” for the day: understand the Federal Aviation Administration’s requirements for their flight.

The ultimate goal for these scholars of miniature unmanned aircraft, though, will be to create a 3D model of the location by processing the digital aerial imagery and measurements collected from the drones.

During pre-flight preparations, students walk around the grounds dropping three-foot square yellow pads that will provide exact GPS coordinates to the drone. “Each pad is powered by a solar panel and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour for it to know its exact GPS location,” Emerson says. While the pads are calibrating, Emerson instructs the students on how to program the drones to follow a methodical flight pattern.

Students Graeme Timmeney, Michael Hayosh and Matt Galovan say they had little experience with drones before taking Emerson’s class but have learned how to apply the technology to their specific professional interests.

“I’m taking this class because I could use this in my career as an environmental consultant,” says Hayosh. The value of UAVs in environmental science might be as simple as using them to visually locate blockages in rivers and streams while piloting them from dry land, or they can be equipped with sophisticated technology like thermal sensors that can be used remotely to monitor water temperatures.

Elevating lives

Two students holding wifi tiles

During pre-flight preparation, students walk around the grounds dropping three-foot square yellow pads that will provide exact GPS coordinates to the drone. Each pad is powered by a solar panel and takes about 45 minutes to an hour for it to determine its exact GPS location.

UAV technology can also help to improve lives by providing geographical demographics for state social service programs. By understanding where target populations exist within a given zip code, for example, social service department managers are able to direct funds exactly where they are needed most.

Precision agriculture – the concept of using new technologies to increase crop yield while lowering the levels of traditional resources needed to grow crops – is another example of the practicality and applicability of drone technology. Kevin Haynes is currently enrolled in the certificate program and plans to pursue his doctorate, with hopes of ultimately becoming a human geographer who can train others and extend the societal benefits of UAV tech.

“Precision agriculture has been proven to increase crop yields and decrease the cost of things like fertilizer and pesticides,” Haynes says. “It’s being used in developing nations a lot; it’s a big deal for increasing agricultural yields and decreasing overhead for farmers.”

“If you look at how developing nations have seen the rise of technology, it has accelerated in certain areas,” adds student Skye Leake. “Looking at cell phones for example, large areas of Africa completely missed the landline era because they don’t have that infrastructure in place. So rapid adoption of something like drone technology could really help a society leapfrog past some of those pitfalls and could be a big benefit.”

Exploring new frontiers

Emerson and his teaching partner in the certificate program, Dr. Adam Mathews, assistant professor of geography, have worked with drones for a number of years. Emerson says the mix of online and face-to-face instruction in their courses provides an attractive option for both working professionals who wish to utilize drone technology and more traditional WMU students.

Geographers are in demand by governmental planning departments and environmental agencies, private-sector engineering firms and public utilities. The enhanced skills earned through the certificate programs, as well as the technology itself, bring a new dimension to data collection for employees in these areas as well as to those in a growing list of private industries ranging from construction to insurance.

The use of “piloted aircraft for collecting aerial imagery can be costly and sometimes prohibitive,” Emerson explains. “The type of precision available through GPS-enabled drones makes them ideal for carrying instruments that can be used to create high-resolution maps and 3D models of land and structures.”

View this story and more in the 2019 issue of WMU's Arts and Sciences Magazine.