Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A New Approach for Coastal Habitat Assessment

Transcription

1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A New Approach for Coastal Habitat Assessment David Ryan Principal Marine Scientist WorleyParsons Western Operations

2 2 OUTLINE Importance of benthic habitat assessment. Common techniques for aerial mapping Advent of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for high resolution work UAV classes, applications and sensor types Case study: Port Hedland, WA Limitations WP Future directions

3 3 BENTHIC HABITAT MAPPING Critical-path for EIA under the EPAs Guidance Statement EAG3. Focus on coastal and intertidal areas (e.g. mangroves, seagrasses, saltmarshes). Optical and hyperspectral mapping now routine. Key issues include cost of data capture and mapping at scales appropriate to the biota.

4 4 Commonly Used Habitat Mapping Techniques Sensor/ Platform Worldview-2, GeoEye1 Frequency Resolution Relative Cost Sub-weekly m, multispectral 10K+ per scene Quickbird Weekly m 5K+ per scene Aerial Survey e.g. HyMap, Hyspex, LADS, Shoals Sonar Survey Low, based on aircraft mobs. Low, based on vessel mobs. Depends on survey characteristics 100K+ per survey. HSE Risk! m 50K+ per survey Ground work Based on field staff mobs. Very high Varies; HSE Risk!

5 5 UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVs) First developed for military applications (e.g. Predator, Reaper). Advanced motion and positioning sensors. Compact computing power. Commercial applications: Police, SAR, crop assessments, news footage, real estate, coast watch etc.

6 6 Class Advantages Disadvantages Applications Vertical Take Off & Landing (VTOL)/Rotor Fixed wing Hover and vertical take-off; maneuverability. Larger payloads; longer ranges. Difficult to pilot, complex guidance software. Low maneuverability. Blimp Low cost. Susceptible to high wind speeds; slow. Targeted sampling. Systematic aerial photography. Limited aerial photography.

7 7 WorleyParsons Involvement: Driven by the need to collect regular high resolution imagery for aerial extent mapping (mangroves, seagrass, saltflats). Health and safety issues are high for manned flight. Costs are high for regular aircraft or satellite imagery (e.g. Dredge plume). WP successfully switched from diver-based to ROV coral monitoring. Hierarchy of controls: eliminate the risk!

8 8 WORLEY UAV: DRAGANFLYER X6 Designed for optical and TIR cameras 6 rotors for precise manoeuvrability 11 onboard stability sensors, including three gyros, three accelerometers, three magnetometers, one barometric pressure sensor, and one GPS receiver. Software for sensor integration and stability control GPS hold and navigation function for accurate photography. Real time telemetry display

9 9 Aspect Dimensions Mass Payload Maximum Speed Endurance Ceiling Motion sensors 11 Max Wind Speed Cameras Specifications 91 x 85 x 25 cm 1000 g 500 g 50 km/h 20 minutes 2,500 m 30 km/h 14.1 MP Leica mm optical Thermal IR Digital video recorder

10 10 SENSOR TYPES OBLIQUE CAMERA

11 11 SENSOR TYPES ORTHOPHOTO

12 SENSOR TYPES OTHER Thermal InfraRed (forward looking) Hyperspectral Air quality sampling (dust, hazardous gases) 12

13 POSITIONING TECHNIQUES GPS position hold. Use of ground control points (GCPs). Video transects, similar to towed underwater video analysis, effective for intertidal benthic habitat mapping. Advances in the ability to geocode images without the need for ground control points (GCP). Differential GPS, motion sensors and lens distortion models (e.g. Xiang & Tian, 2011). 13

14 Assessing Intertidal Impacts Scope: repeat survey of mesoscale mangrove and samphire health quadrats Assess change in extent and canopy cover Also monitor dredging activity and plume extent Rapidly and frequently survey inaccessible areas with low health and safety risk!

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25 LIMITATIONS Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Legal Requirements Business plan and concept of operations Safety case and Risk Assessment Agent/manufacturer training certification Private Pilots Licence (theory examinations only) Class 2 Medical Certification UAV Controller Certificate Maintain flight and operations maintenance manuals 25

26 WHERE TO NEXT? Generation of 3D point clouds through stereophotography or LiDAR. Routine marine fauna observation (MFO) including cetaceans and turtle nesting activity (fixed wing). Minor oil spill contingency tracking. Hyper-spectral vegetation classification Detailed engineering inspections (e.g. Pipelines, offshore structures, thermal imaging). Health and safety intervention 26

27 Thank you Questions?