Robison, Zachary Bryan & Womeldorf, Zachary Howard

UW-EAU CLAIRE | GIS III|SPRING 2014

Small Unmanned
Aerial Systems
Mission Planning
for ArcGIS 10


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Background:
Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) is an exploding, international industry. Today UAS is
commonly used for cost-effective gathering high detail imagery of certain areas of interest. However,
current mission-planning software lacks the ability to perform certain simple tasks or consider
fundamental functionalities of the small Unmanned Aerial System. Our goal is to create a user-friendly
tool for mission planning which considers the varied needs of our end users. Specifically, this will account
for turn radius of a fixed-wing UAV, sensor field-of-view scale, and resolution requirements of the user.
The end user will input the study area and camera specs to the tool. For the purposes of
development, a sample area of interest will be developed for Eau Claire, for the purposes of testing and
debugging. Our target audience is people using sUAS for remote sensing and other uses. These users
may want to know the most efficient route to gather their imagery; our tool will create a mission flight
plan with information regarding the imagery they require. There is no free basic flight planning software
for UAS users, our software will provide ArcGIS users with the ability to create a flight plan for optimal
image gathering.


Data:
The integral data to successfully running this tool will vary from user to user, therefore user data
input is a necessary feature of this project. We will require the end user to provide or digitize their study
area as well as provide basic camera information. There is some concern about user inaccuracy in this
data entering process, which will have to be accommodated for in development. Finally, users will also
need to input the turn radius of their craft, where applicable.
While developing the tool, imagery and an Area of Interest (AOI) from the area surrounding Eau
Claire, WI will be selected for testing. Data will be used from ArcGIS online databases as well as user input.
These data sources are very accessible as they are public.
The user input data will be location based, the FAA requires that any small UAV remain at least a
5 mile distance from any nationally recognized airport (UAS Fact Sheet). The regulations set forth by the
FAA restrict commercial use of UAS without a Certificate of Authorization (Wing et.al.). The airport
location can be retrieved from an airports feature class. Our end users may potentially not have access
to these data sources from their device, as a result we will package the locations of airports with our tool
as a point feature class and buffered polygon.

2

Project Approach:
There is no one tool in existence to create a simple flight plan for sUAS. This will be addressed by
first developing a workflow that uses existing geoprocessing tools to develop an effective flight plan.
Then, this workflow will be scripted such that a user can develop an optimal flight plan with only a few
input specifications.
The initial step in creating the tool is using the input study area as the AOI. As the tool will be
designed to create an optimal flight route, it will need to be overlaid with a path that will provide imagery
cover for the entire AOI of necessary resolution. When the user inputs the focal length of the camera and
the altitude at which they are flying, we can use geometry to determine the field of vision necessary for
each image, with required overlap. From this and the AOI, we can create a fishnet overlay of the AOI with
each grid cell representing the non-overlapping portion of each image. Each center point of a cell will
represent the center of an individual image.
The point feature resulting from the fishnet overlay will be used to run the point to line script.
This script creates a line from point to point that can be used as a path. This will be the focus of our
project, as the current script provided by Esri does not allow for much variation. Also the script requests
a sequential entry of points for creating a line from point to point, this presents a significant challenge.
Solving this problem is foundational to our mission planner.
This will be the basic process for our tool, however, much editing needs to be done. The point to
line scripts original code will be edited to fit our end goal, currently the script runs by connecting each
point by line in sequential order. Our end goal will need to run by starting at a specific point and creating
the line to the next most efficient point. Also, turn radius is a consideration that needs to be input by end
users to the tool and accounted for in the path making process. Lastly, the tool will compare the AOI and
determine whether it is co-incident with the Five-mile buffer around airports, and prompt the end user
with a warning that they may be in restricted airspace.


Expected Results:
The final product of the tool will be a mission flight path that covers the entire study area. This
flight path will process the following criteria:
Image resolution The tool will ensure proper overlap for aerial ortho-mosaicking
Turn radius The flight path will allow for the turn radius of the craft
No-fly zones The tool will warn users of off-limits airspace
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Modifiability The tools script will be available for editing
For our test site, in Eau Claire Wisconsin, we expect to see a start location near a road, a mission
that efficiently covers the AOI while allowing for adequate resolution and overlap, and a prompt that
explains to users the proximity to restricted airspace of the AOI.


Conclusion:
The technologies of the future are rapidly advancing, and there is a need for effective software
that manages the requirements of todays sUAS pilots. Current software packages do not allow for simple,
foundational considerations that are integral to the work that sUAS pilots do. Our tool will not only
consider the need for accuracy, resolution, turn radius and legality, but will also be open source, which
allows for easy modification as technology (and the law) continues to evolve. Our end users will be able
to rely on our product for its ability to perform these tasks, and their ability to tailor it to their individual
needs. Development of such a tool that operates in a simple GIS environment such as ArcGIS will thus
answer the needs of industry while providing a base for further tool development by others.


References:
Aber, J. S., Marzolff, I., & Ries, J. B. (2010). SFAP Survey Planning and Implementation. Small-format
aerial photography principles, techniques and geoscience applications (pp. 119-137).
Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
Fact Sheet Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Federal Aviation Administration. January 6, 2014.
Wing, M. G., Burnett, J., Sessions, J., Brungardt, J., Cordell, V., Dobler, D., et al. (2013). Eyes in the Sky:
Remote Sensing Technology Development Using Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Practice of
Forestry, September 2013, 341-347.