A marine Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) facility: Building capacity for high-resolution remote sensing and analysis of marine and coastal ecosystems

无人驾驶飞机系统(UAS)，也被称为无人机，在海洋科学中的使用正在增长，填补了海岸线或船只调查与被占领的飞机和卫星收集的航空图像之间的空白。无人机支持跨海洋环境的按需、高分辨率数据收集，同时降低成本和人类风险。促进海洋科学进步的潜在应用是巨大的，包括改变海岸线的研究，测量海洋水质，计算海鸟和海龟等动物的数量，评估动物的健康和行为，甚至采样个别鲸鱼的呼吸。尽管无人机被证明对海洋科学和保护任务有用，但几乎没有人支持研究人员将无人机纳入他们的科学研究。同样，几乎没有旨在培训学生在海洋科学和保护项目中使用无人机的项目。该项目通过建立一个研究和培训设施来解决这些差距，该设施将提高NSF资助的研究人员和美国东海岸科学界其他部门使用无人机研究和保护海岸和海洋系统的能力。该项目将i)改变现有建筑的用途和翻新，为UAS研究创建工程、计算和可视化/培训/拓展实验室；ii)使UAS机队多样化，以提高该地区科学界可用的能力；iii)为该设施产生的产品开发数据分析、可视化和存储框架。与操作UAS相关的许多挑战将受益于这一集中化的区域海洋设施，包括美国联邦航空局的许可和许可、特定于海洋的采样方法的开发和部署、维持运营的社会许可证、集中数据存档以及建立一个用于传感器、计算和可视化工具开发的场所，以满足沿海和海洋研究人员的科学需求。UAS设施将能够研究人类在海洋生物栖息地活动的生态系统后果，包括动力学和过程。这一新的采样能力提供了从可见光到红外和高光谱波长的航空图像，以及其他地理参考传感器数据，包括光探测和测距(LIDAR)和合成孔径雷达(SAR)。无人机现在也被用来采样大气现象(风、气溶胶)，甚至可以用来采样单个鲸鱼的呼吸。潜在的沿海应用范围从改变海岸地貌到海豹和海龟等海洋脊椎动物的种群动态和行为的研究。存档的地理空间参照数据对于沿海地区与风暴事件和海平面上升有关的变化的长期研究将是非常宝贵的。该设施将为杜克大学工程和生物专业的学生提供实践传感器和计算开发经验，并将支持向专业人士以及本科生和研究生开放的夏季研究方法培训课程。该设施还将支持当地社区的海洋科学互动，并建立STEM外联倡议，包括当地公立学校航空俱乐部和当地男孩和女孩俱乐部的暑期项目。

The use of Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as drones, in marine science is growing, filling a gap between shoreline or boat-based surveys and aerial imagery collected by occupied airplanes and satellites. Drones enable on-demand, high resolution data collection across ocean environments, while reducing costs and human risk. The potential applications for promoting the progress of marine science are vast, including studies of changing coastlines, measuring ocean water quality, counting animals such as seabirds and sea turtles, assessing the health and behavior of animals, and even sampling the breath of individual whales. Despite their demonstrated utility for marine science and conservation missions, there is little support for researchers to integrate drones into their scientific studies. Similarly, there are few programs designed to train students to use drones in marine science and conservation programs. This project addresses these gaps by establishing a research and training facility that will enhance the capacity of NSF-funded researchers, and other portions of the scientific community on the US East Coast, to use drones for the study and conservation of coastal and marine systems.
 This project will i) repurpose and renovate an existing building to create engineering, computational, and visualization/training/outreach laboratories for UAS research, ii) diversify a fleet of UAS to increase capabilities available to the scientific community in the region, iii) develop a data analysis, visualization, and storage framework for products generated by the facility. Numerous challenges associated with operating UAS will benefit from this centralized regional marine facility, including FAA licensing and permitting, development and deployment of marine-specific sampling methods, maintenance of the social license to operate, centralized data archiving, and by establishing a locus for sensor, computational, and visualization tool development in response to the scientific needs of coastal and marine researchers. The UAS facility will enable studies of the ecosystem consequences of human activities in marine habitats, including dynamics and processes. This new sampling capability provides aerial imagery from visible to infrared and hyperspectral wavelengths, as well as other geo-referenced sensor data, including light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). UAS are also now used to sample atmospheric phenomena (wind, aerosols) and can even be used to sample breath from individual whales. The potential coastal applications range from studies of changing coastal geomorphology to population dynamics and behavior of marine vertebrates such as seals and turtles. Archived, geospatially referenced data will be invaluable for long-term studies of change related to storm events and sea-level rise in coastal areas. The facility will enable hands-on sensor and computational development experience for students in engineering and biology programs at Duke, and will support a summer training course in research methods open to professionals as well as undergraduate and graduate students. The facility will also support marine science interaction in the local community and established STEM outreach initiatives including local public school aviation clubs and summer programs at local the Boys and Girls Clubs.