UAS Mission Planning Fundamentals

Introduction

Planning out a mission is a delicate processes that needs to be planned for before heading out into the field. Mission planning is a plan created with software that creates a path for the UAS to fly.  It is best practice to make a few different plans before heading to the site; where it can be fine tuned to anything that was missed.  This is a great place to utilize geospatial data if there is any available.  This could include DEM, DSM, or topographic maps.  It is also good practice to check on the weather before heading out into the field and once at the location to make sure the conditions are within reason.  Another question that needs to be asked is about cell service.  This is important because data can be used with cellular service or it can be downloaded beforehand.  It is also beneficial to ask about any EMI issues that could be present that the landowners may know about like power lines, underground metal or cables, or power stations.  One last thing before heading out into the field, everyone needs to agree on one type of units, whether metric or American (Imperial), it does not matter as long as everyone understands.

Methods

Before Flight Checks

 First off, before leaving make a checklist that has everything that needs to be brought with.  This includes tablets, laptops, drone, weather devices, etc.  Also make sure that all devices are charged to full capacity to ensure everything last the maximum amount of time once into the field.  The next subject to think about is to know the vegetation and terrain of the area of interest.  Is the AOI have high relief, or does the AOI have large vegetation that can affect what altitude can be flown at. There may also be the possibility of obstacles like cellphone towers or large silos that need to be known to create a doable mission plan.  It is also important to make and use a checklist to ensure all supplies are brought with.  along with checking all of the equipment in the field before take off to prevent any problems and keep everyone safe if something were to go wrong.

Next, fine tune the mission plan to anything that may of come up/go over the mission plan with everyone in the crew and get a final check on the weather, and to look for any power lines or anything that may be have been missed. It's also important that everyone in the crew knows how to get to a hospital if anything wrong happens; this is a very important safety issue because someone in the confusion of the moment may go the wrong way, therefore making this known is imperative.

Now, that the drone is set up and final checks have taken place it's time to get an elevation of the launch site. and confirm the mission being used.

Finally, take off with the mission software and give 100% attention to make sure all problems can be dealt with as it happens.



Software Demonstration

For this demonstration Bramor's C-Astral Pilot C3P Software is used.  It has an amazing layout that can easily be used on tablet in the field making this easier than bringing a whole laptop with.  The icons to change mission plans, insert wind, or to draw new missions are easily used and quick.  This makes changing the mission plan fast and easy to do on the fly.

For this simulation, I created three different types of missions along the Bramor test field and one location in North America.  The three different types are waypoints, corridors, and an area coverage grid.  The way points are pretty much straight lines that the drone will follow from the first to last (Figure 2 and 3). The corridor is creating an area around waypoints to get more coverage (Figure 4 and 5).  The last is having the ability to create any shape which will then create a grid mission for the drone to fly over (Figure 6,7,8,9,10). One of the cool features that this program comes with is showing that when flying to low the map will show a red area where the drone could fly into a mountain or something.  This make it easy to change the height or direction of flight.  Another cool feature is having the ability to export straight to Google Earth or ArcGIS Earth which can show the flight path in a 3D view.  This is great for showing anyone that needs to see or approve of the project because it creates a cool graphic of the flight path.


When first planning the mission there are a few factors that need to be account for.  For example the wind strength and directions.  For example if it is 5m/s at 015 degrees.  The best plan would be to take off into the wind to give the the drone the best advantage it can have. on the mission planning software there is a home-point, takeoff, rally, parachute, and land point on the map.  These are important when starting a new mission.  Therefore, with the wind above the best way to have the drone take off is having it positioned Southwest of the home location.  Also, a nearby rally point needs to be created.  The rallypoint is where the drone will fly to after to start its descent and or if manually operated due to an error will fly to this spot to wait for its next command. The next point is the landing spot.  For this position it is recommended to fly with the wind therefore having the landing in the northeast is recommended. There is a parachute icon connected to the landing spot.  With this program the parachute is automatically deployed taking into account the wind getting it to land in the correct spot.  This spots can be seen in Figure 2.

Figure 1: The mission settings. 

Figure 2: Way Point for flight path and showing the take off, landing, rally, home, and parachute icons.

Figure 3: Way Points 3D in ArcGIS Earth

Figure 4: Corridor Flight path 

Figure 5: Corridor flight path in 3D

Figure 6: Grid creation for flight path. 

Figure 7: Top view of flight path from figure 6

Figure 8: 3D view of Grid created flight path

Figure 9: Flight path created in North America. (My Neighborhood).

Figure 10: ArcGIS Earth view of flight path. 

My perspective

I thought this was an easy-to-use program that can be changed on the fly and has a lot of integrated variable that help make the process faster.  I liked that it was easily exported into ArcGIS Earth to show people the flight path in 3D.  I also liked that there were three different ways to create and manipulate the flight path.  It also makes for a great program having the ability to show where a drone will hit if it is not flown high enough or given enough time to gain elevation. I did not like that if i wanted to watch the whole mission go through the simulation I had to wait the full duration, but I feel that will be an easy fix in future updates.  I also thought this program looked easy to use on a tablet as it has large icons, easy to draw the mission plans and everything was just laid out and organized well. This makes it easier for the user to make the changes needed faster.  I did not enjoy having everything flashing at me when i opened up the program and would rather have a notification icon or something else to make easier to comprehend, although this is a very minor complaint.  This program really brings everything that is needed for mission planning software and is a solid program as I did not find any glitches when using it nor did I find any glitches when opening it in the 3D view.