Calling all drone pilots and unmanned vehicle operators: the ailing Indian River Lagoon needs you.
Finding new ways to collect data using drones in the air, and unmanned vehicles in the water and on land,may offer the best opportunities to quantify the Indian River Lagoon recovery efforts by determining which solutions work best.
Commercial drone operator Todd Hillhouse of Melbourne spearheaded the effort to establish the local chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVSI). He put out the plea for new members and new ideas April 18 at the Marine Resources Council (MRC) Lagoon House in Palm Bay.
The 45-year-old AUVSI is devoted to advancing the unmanned systems and robotics community. Serving more than 7,500 members, the group also supports science and math education by providing AUVSI Foundation SeaPerch kits to area middle and high schools.
In her introduction of Hillhouse and the useful river drones idea, MRC Executive Director Dr. Leesa Souto noted breakthroughs possibly needed to make the idea more feasible, including adding to the length of flights, increasing the size of payload, and the need for a large volume of computing required after data was collected.
“It’s going to take all of us to bring the lagoon back. We could use them for things like monitoring harmful algae blooms like we’re having now,’’ she said.
For every challenge, Hillhouse had a possible solution either conceivable in the near future, or already in the works. He remains optimistic drone and remotely-operated technologies could be a big part of the solution in the lagoon.
The biggest limitation so far is the FAA’s 55-pound total weight limit for a commercial drone, he said. Helicopter-like drones also can only fly about 35 minutes under 400 feet. The solution? Fixed-wing drones with rear propellers have much longer flight times and greater payload capacity. They may eventually go beyond line-of-sight operation and higher than the 400-foot ceiling, Hillhouse said.
LIDAR pinpoint accuracy for exact location, and multispectral and infrared cameras mounted on the vehicles, could help verify problems or monitor areas over time to see if solutions to the lagoon’s problems are working. They could be sent out after rains to monitor areas with septic tanks to see which systems need important repairs first.
As for data processing volumes, new computer applications are coming out which use cloud computing for increased efficiency, he said.
“We need data to know what’s going on in the river. If data is the new oil, then these autonomous systems are the wellheads. We need ways to collect the data efficiently,’’ Hillhouse said.
Technically a subsidiary of AUVSI’s Florida Peninsula Chapter, the local group will serve as an umbrella to talk drone possibilities with representatives from the commercial, defense, academic and government sectors.
