AT209 First weeks

This semester I was assigned to teach AT209 Civilian Unmanned Systems. I was assigned this fairly late in the summer, one week before classes started, and was very fortunate to have the assistance of Dr. Hupy and Zach Miller for course planning. AT209 is the third course in the UAS major and the first course in the UAS minor. The objectives for this course are as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     This course is about utilizing Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as an applied tool in civilian market-based applications. Although piloting, mission planning, and crew resource management fundamentals will be integrated into the curriculum, the key focus will be on proper data collection, processing, and analysis. Safety and ‘drone ethics’ will also be stressed throughout the course. The course is not designed to make you an expert in UAS, but for you to have a strong foundation upon which to pursue UAS applications in the workplace, or further graduate research.  

      The course will be taught with a mix of labs and lecture, with hands-on learning applied as much as possible. Students should expect to become familiarized with basic concepts that relate to becoming an FAA Part 107 commercial pilot. Students will also learn core fundamentals of using UAS for applied Geospatial Data applications.  

  

Students should expect to complete a robust series of readings and online tutorials outside of class sessions. These materials will be fundamental for understanding what the weekly material covers. The student should expect to complete pre-class quizzes on these materials, thus ensuring that all students are aware of what will be covered in the weekly class period. Overall, the objective of this course is to instill the following skills:  

• The ability to think of UAS data collection in a geospatial manner  
• The ability to critically think of what type of platform is best suited for the given task/goal, and how best to collect that data with the proper sensor.  
• The fundamental difference between Radio Control aerial platforms, and those that allow the use of autopilot/ground station technology.   
• How to survey Ground Control Points (GCP) using current GPS technology, as well understanding the limits of GCP points   
• Construction of technical style reports in a web or blog based format.  Construction of instructional materials, in both written and video format 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In order to teach these objectives we decided to base the lectures and labs around an in depth exploration of sensors and FAA part 107 preparation. Sensors were chosen as the focus of this class to ensure that the students have a comprehensive undersanding of sensor operation either early in the major or immediately in the minor.

The first weeks of the course are an investigation of digital photography. We decided to begin with digital photography because of the pervasive nature of digital cameras on UAS platforms. The lectures for this section focus on manual settings for digital cameras. While most digital cameras have good automatic settings, it is important for the students to understand how to manually correct for bad images in data collection. We designed a lab excersize intended to provide students an opportunity to investigate the effects of these settings using a DJI Mavic 2 Pro and DJI Mavic Airs. Using iPads provided by Purdue the students took a picture at each aperture, ISO, and shutter speed available on the vehicles.The students saved these images to their own student folders, and will be using those photos in labs focusing on image processing.