Guidance for the Use of UAS During Suboptimal Environmental Conditions

TxDOT uses unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for various applications in Texas such as highway mapping, bridge inspection, crash site data collection and real- time traffic monitoring. Environmental conditions including wind, rain, mist, smoke, and ambient lighting affect both the flight operations of the UAS aircraft and the quality of the data being collected. However, due to logistics, scheduling, and urgency, UAS flights may need to be performed during suboptimal conditions. To better understand these effects, this research will address key challenges of UAS operations in suboptimal conditions, provide guidance for UAS flight operations in suboptimal conditions, and recommend settings, procedures and workflows to ensure data quality collected by UAS in suboptimal conditions. This research includes a literature review of the state of the art and the state of the practice, simulation and laboratory tests, preliminary field testing of UAS flight operations and data collection in different suboptimal environmental scenarios, post-flight analytics and assessments, and the development of recommendations and guidance for UAS operations in suboptimal conditions.

• Record URL:
  https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/project=0-7063

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $655148
• Contract Numbers:

  0-7063

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483
• Project Managers:

  Glancy, Chris

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System
  3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135

  Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi

  6300 Ocean Dr.
  Corpus Christi, TX  United States  78412
• Principal Investigators:

  Quiroga, Cesar

• Start Date: 20200103
• Expected Completion Date: 20210831
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Real time information; Unmanned aircraft systems
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01744095
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Texas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 0-7063
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 25 2020 3:36PM