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UAS 409

I. Course Title: Unmanned Aerial Systems - Advanced Flight Operations

II. Course Number: UAS 409

III. Credit Hours: 4 credits

IV. Prerequisites: GEOL 100, or GEOL 120 and 121, or GEOS 250, and/or permission of the instructor.

V. Course Description: 

Prepares students for careers that require maintaining and flying Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), also known as drones. Potential applications include geological mapping, geospatial science mapping, geophysics, archeology, engineering, forestry, agriculture, infrastructure, criminal justice, and disaster response, to mention only a few. Included are specifics of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, types of unmanned systems, mission planning and flight operations. The course primarily trains students to work with a variety of drones of different sizes, from lightweight to heavy-lift aircraft for larger payloads. Instruction begins with training for manual “stick-and-rudder” piloting skills and transitions to overall mission planning and safety, to flight programming for fully-autonomous flights to gather remote spatial data and intelligence.

Note(s): Applied Learning designated course.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have become important tools for collecting high resolution imagery for a variety of applications in private, public, and commercial sectors. UAS can also serve as aerial platforms for other types of sensors including thermal, multispectral, laser, and more. Students will be introduced to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations regarding the commercial use of UAS and to aircraft safety and maintenance.  Manual flight skills for UAS will follow, then mission planning strategies for optimizing flight results, then planning autonomous remote data collection missions. Professional writing is emphasized, as all project assignments are submitted in the form of industry-grade memo reports, including figures and appendices. The course allows students to develop and strengthen skills that are presently in high demand in industry.

Arrangement of topics is as follows:

Getting Started 

  1. Overview of FAA Regulations for commercial UAS operations
  2. Flight Logs and why they are critical
  3. Models and types of UAS aircraft

Pre-flight Operations

  1. Flight preparation, checklists, safety briefings
  2. Setting aircraft defaults using DJI Go4
  3. Aircraft maintenance and updates
  4. Exercise: timed aircraft preflight preparation

Manual Flight (Stick & Rudder)

  1. Manual flight including assisted flight options
  2. Flight simulators and small training aircraft
  3. Exercise: basic stick-&-rudder flight test and certification

Simple autonomous flight programing 

  1. Examples of mission planning and execution
  2. Pix4D Capture for programming simple missions
  3. Pix4D Cloud for simple image processing
  4. Exercise: campus mission planning

Flying a Complex Programmed Mission on Campus

  1. Introduction and preflight briefings
  2. Pix4D Capture campus vertical mission planning
  3. Exercise: individual missions and written report

Programming Missions in Ground Station Pro

  1. Introduction and preflight briefings
  2. Ground Station Pro campus oblique mission planning
  3. Exercise: individual missions and written report

Final Project Proposal [due last week of class]

  1. Introduction
  2. Final project requirements and expectations
  3. Project approval
  4. Exercise: execute individual missions

Fixed-Wing Mission Planning with eMotion3

  1. Overview of complex eMotion3 mission planning
  2. eMotion3 flight simulations and recording
  3. Exercise: individual mission proposals and written report

Fixed-Wing Missions on Campus

  1. Introduction
  2. Mission approvals
  3. Exercise: individual missions and written report

UAS Drone Rodeo [Agility Course]

  1. Introduction
  2. Practice sessions ongoing through the semester
  3. Timed skill tests

Final Project Presentations

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

The course will include three hours of lecture time and two hours of laboratory time. Lecture time will emphasize the aircraft maintenance, firmware updates, principles of manual (stick & rudder) flight, mission planning and optimization, and remote autonomous missions for both rotor and fixed wing aircraft. A mix of in-person and online lectures will be used. Laboratory time will involve a series of primarily outdoor exercises designed to develop skills necessary to successfully collect aerial imagery and spatial data from a variety of sensors. Manual flight skills will developed through agility obstacle courses simulating real-world scenarios and tested during the UAS Drone Rodeo.

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

The goal of this course is to prepare students for careers that require knowledge and experience conducting safe flight operations in real-world settings using unmanned aerial systems (UAS), also known as drones. Specifically, students will become proficient at manually flying UAS, planning missions in accordance with FAA regulations, and programming remote autonomous missions for different types of aircraft. Students will also develop oral and written communication skills by preparing professional industry-style reports for mission proposals and for delivering UAS mission results to superiors and clients.

Objectives: Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

  • 1. Explain the basics of working with UAS including:
  •         a. FAA regulations
  •         b. Types of UAS
  •         c. Mission Planning
  • 2. Maintain and update flight firmware for a variety of rotor and fixed-wing unmanned aerial systems
  • 3. Fly a UAS through a timed agility course, simulating real-world mapping conditions
  • 4. Program and conduct successful remote autonomous UAS data collection missions.
  • 5. Present processed results in the form of industry-standard reports that include:
  •         a. Mission Objectives
  •         b. Mission Planning
  •         c. Document compliance with all local and federal regulations
  • 6. Propose, plan, fly and fully document a mission related to her/his major as a final project

VIII. Assessment Measures:

The student will be assessed according to her/his competence demonstrated in completing: (1) ten maintenance, manual flight, mission planning, and autonomous flight exercises, (2) a final exam, (3) a final project with written report, (4) professional quality of written submissions and, (5) a presentation based on the final project suitable for a professional conference or forum.

Review and Approval

August 2020

March 01, 2021

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