Award winning program utilizes Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle's to test payload in a simulated disaster area.

Article content provided by Professor Anne Marchant, Department of Applied IT

GMU UAV is an undergraduate project in the Department of Applied IT at George Mason University in which students build and test the payload for an Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to perform surveillance of a simulated disaster area. The project won an award for “Best Use of Technology” at the Innovations 2007 Conference held at Mason in April. The payload was flown on a radio controlled helicopter at the Prince William Campus of George Mason. This was done in the context of IT 353, Information Warfare and Defense Technologies, a course designed to prepare students to work in the defense industry. This project was first done in the Fall of 2006, and it was so successful that the program was run again during the Spring 2007 semester with an expanded mission.

The class was divided into teams and assigned four main mission objectives: 1) Create a composite aerial map of the disaster area with a web cam. Pictures will be downloaded post-flight and displayed on the project website. Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry will be used to identify photos. 2) Store GPS telemetry to produce a map of the flight path to be displayed on the project website post-flight. 3) Using a wireless connection, receive, display, and store GPS telemetry and streaming video from the aircraft. Produce a moving map in real time. Report the altitude to the pilot. 4) Build a flexible, well documented platform that can be built upon by future classes. Team structure was designed to simulate a work environment. Teams included Project Management, Quality Assessment, Flight Team, Hardware Team, Mission Objective 1, Mission Objective 2, Mission Objective 3, Post Processing 1, Post Processing 2, Public Relations, Documentation, Website, Tiger Team (assist other teams and setup “disaster area”).

There were both technical and non technical objectives. The technical goals included writing scripts for an embedded Linux system, working with GPS data, and practice creating and securing wireless networks. Further, the project encouraged the development of problem solving skills, teamwork, communication skills, time management, and an appreciation for the project life cycle. The program was assisted by two volunteer mentors, Will Marchant, who has worked in the UAV industry and Marsh DeHart, who is an expert R/C helicopter pilot. Working with two engineering professionals helped students to understand the value of good work practices such as the use of checklists and engineering logs. The helicopter payload included a GPS unit, wireless web camera that produced both streaming video and still images, a GumStix™, Linux based microprocessor with wifi card, and associated power supplies. The groundstation included a wireless router and four laptops.

Mason student, Ronald Tran, commented, “...the UAV project forced me to stay on track and meet deadlines because all of the students depended on each other to get their work completed. Every student had a role and it had to be completed effectively in order for the UAV project to be a success. I learned how to manage my time more efficiently because there were numerous meetings outside of class. Most importantly, I learned to communicate more effectively with other students." The project has generated a great deal of interest and discussions are under way to use the UAV platform to collaborate with researchers at three different universities. Beyond the obvious applications of surveillance of disaster or conflict areas, the platform may be useful for such applications as geological or archaeological survey work.

How can we find out more information about this project? 
See the project “wiki” website at http://www.gmuav.com for pictures, video, and a map of the flight path.

Or contact Professor Anne Marchant in the Department of Applied IT in the Volgenau School of Information Techology and Engineering directly at: amarchan@gmu.edu

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