News
Inland Northwest Research Alliance (INRA) January 2004 Newsletter
January 2004 Highlights:
1) Study Examines Relationship Between National Laboratory and Host Communities
2) UAVs Take Flight Over Idaho
3) INRA Speaker’s Bureau
4) UAF Student Finds Home Away From Home
Welcome to the Inland Northwest Research Alliance. INRA is a coalition of eight universities, working with a Department of Energy National Laboratory. They provide business, industry, government and students with education and research resources never before available in the Northwest. INRA provides the entire nation with opportunities that reach from classrooms to boardrooms.
UAVs Take Flight Over Idaho
By Kathy Gaten, INEEL
The plane banked and turned over the shimmering desert as the ground crew squinted up intently, silently watching every wing tilt. It seemed to pick up speed as it approached the cracked and weed-encroached runway but perhaps it was just the perspective from a breathless bystander. No landing gear lowered from its belly as it neared, and no warning cries came from the crew. It landed hard into the wind, skidding across the tarmac before coming to rest quietly just at the edge of the sand and sagebrush. No pilot emerged from the cockpit. One crew member approached the plane, picked it up and carried it back to the command center, already crowded with computers and crew.
This flight was just one of hundreds that INEEL’s unmanned aerial vehicle team flies during operations of its several research and development projects.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs in the parlance of the experts, look somewhat like the hobby planes flown by aviation aficionados worldwide. But these UAVs, explained project manager Scott Bauer, have a special purpose.
"It’s the mission that makes the difference," said Bauer, sounding like the National Security Division employee that he is. "We’re working with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Future Combat Systems Communications program to prove that small, low-cost UAVs can carry the payload and perform a potential future application."
The UAVs used by Bauer and his team are not quite off-the-shelf systems. They include sophisticated avionics that unleash the birds from constraining RF controls to roam the skies for hours, on predetermined flight paths. But before the military risks soldiers and battles on the reliability of the relatively tiny planes, Bauer and team members Mark McKay, Matt Anderson and Jodie Boyce are out on the Idaho National Guard Orchard Training Area, launching, flying and landing plane after plane.
Many groups are involved in the UAV arena, from cutting-edge airframe and avionics designers to various branches of the military. So why is the INEEL not only conducting R&D projects for DARPA but also beginning construction activities to build its own UAV airfield?
"We are focused on small, low-cost, disposable planes, the under-50-pound class," said Bauer. "We think that’s where the greatest cost to benefit will be for UAVs in the future. We take the airframes and payloads that industry has developed, integrate the components, and independently and objectively prove if they can perform the missions of our customers. That’s specifically what we are doing for DARPA in the FCS Communications project."
The recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan saw a surge in specialized UAV missions, using larger, advanced and more expensive models such as the Predator and Global Hawk. As avionics and fabrication methods become less expensive, a new role is emerging for small, low-cost UAVs that brings new possibilities for communications, sensory and intelligence gathering to the ground warfighter.
And that’s where INEEL expertise comes in. Autonomous flight – where the UAV is flown though computer programs and sensors rather than pilot-operated line-of-sight RF signals – is comparatively new, particularly using the sophisticated yet low-cost avionics such as Piccolo (Cloud Cap Technologies) that Bauer and the team have installed. In what is believed to be a first-ever event, in early July the team autonomously flew five UAVs from a single ground station and operator within the same two-kilometer airspace. This feat speaks to the level of autonomy that the new low-cost systems are providing.
"If we can do five, why not ten?" said Bauer. Their goal is not setting a Guinness World Record, but increasing the ability of the small planes – which can carry only small payloads and are vulnerable to mishap – to complete their assigned missions.
Bauer describes the potential for complex assignments with multiple UAVs carrying out a collaborative task. He said this would require self-adjusting among the fleet. If one fails, is reassigned or crashes, the remainder must still carry on.
Planes do crash. Everyone on the team had his favorite phrase. Takeoff is optional; landing is mandatory. It’s not a matter of if, but when. But the UAV team minimizes the risk by running each operation as thoroughly as if the small planes were manned. Their Flight Ops Checklist is followed every flight.
Their procedures are "clear, concise and consistent."
Bauer knows that the more experimental the airframe, avionics or payload, the greater the risk. But he also knows that if you don’t fly, and don’t do the missions, the technology won’t mature. The team gets its greatest insight by putting the research to practice.
The UAV team is conducting some experimental research of its own. According to Bauer, communications, power and propulsion are the three limiting issues confronting future abilities of UAVs. Funded through INEEL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, the INEEL team is targeting commercial wireless communications for research and civilian efforts. They are using cell phones to fly a highly autonomous "bird" or to augment cellular coverage.
In a test earlier this year, they used a cellular CDMA 1x connection through the Internet, to an intranet, and controlled a UAV flying in Idaho from a remote location.
"Everyone has talked about using cellular, but we put it into practice," said Bauer. "Throughput and reliability will only get better as cellular infrastructure improves."
The INEEL knows the significance of cellular infrastructure, having just this year – in partnership with Bechtel Telecommunications – established the Wireless Testbed. Bechtel selected the INEEL’s 890-square-mile site, in part, for its relatively free RF space. Yet its National Telecommunications Information and Administration test station status allows the INEEL to transmit at all but a few frequencies. These same attributes make it an ideal location for a UAV airfield. Add to that extremes in temperatures, winds, miles of rough terrain and a concentration of experts and applications, and you have all the necessary ingredients to field test robust systems for the military.
While Jerry Harbour recognizes the importance the military plays in UAV technology development, he also sees enormous potential for myriad peacetime scientific applications. Harbour is the acting manager for the Human, Robotic and Remote Systems organization, home to UAV team members McKay and Anderson and hotbed for much of the INEEL’s robotics work.
"So much in science research is gathering of data, and collecting good data has been expensive," said Harbour. "UAVs today are smaller, cheaper and can be loaded with powerful sensors. When you add a long loiter time, you have a mobile scientific platform, perfect for hundreds of scientific applications."
Loiter time is the ability to stay aloft in an area. Some UAVs, even small, inexpensive ones, can circle a site for hours. Studies conducted in remote or dangerous locales – such as when assessing pollutant effects on delicate coral reefs, elephant migrations across the African veldt or awakening volcanoes on Pacific atolls – are all ideal applications for UAVs.
"You can’t do these things with satellites," said Harbour. "They flash by and are gone. Manned aircraft is very expensive and sometimes dangerous. UAVs are perfect."
According to Harbour, surveillance by UAV could help monitor those environments that are subject to slow onset or creeping disasters that are not easily discernable to the naked eye. Harbour envisions combining UAV platforms with the INEEL’s award winning Change Detection System to create a powerful tool to detect almost imperceptible changes in a landscape.
Closer to home, Harbour and his robotics experts are working to apply UAV technology at the INEEL on such applications as remote environmental monitoring to range fire observations.
"It’s not the UAV that’s so great," said Harbour. "It’s what it can do."
INRA Speaker’s Bureau
One of INRA’s support programs is the Internal and External Speaker’s Bureau. Speaker’s Bureaus are opportunities for speakers either at INRA universities or outside of the university systems to share information and knowledge with the INRA community.
Participants in the Internal Speaker’s Bureau are defined as INRA faculty or INEEL staff. Video conference facilities located at each of the eight campuses and INEEL allows simultaneous delivery to the nine locations. For non-video conference speaking engagements, INRA will consider providing travel support for the event on a case by case basis.
Participants in the External Speaker’s Bureau are defined as people who are neither INRA faculty members nor INEEL staff members.
The INRA University Programs Coordinators (UPC) are the contact for this program. If this interests you, please contact your “UPCs: The Links to INRA”.
The University Program Coordinators (UPC) are liaisons between INRA and their respective INRA University. Also, the UPC’s role is to function as a communication conduit to help build new research and educational programs between the INRA members.
The UPCs:
• are INRA’s primary point-of-contact at each campus
• have one representative from each of the eight main campuses (shown in table)
• have various positions within their respective universities to which they devote 75% of their time, with the remaining 25% committed to this position. Half of each quarter time position is paid by INRA, and the other half by the university.
• work under the oversight of each university’s Vice-President/Vice-Provost for Research
• work closely with the INRA Executive Director to facilitate INRA program initiatives and INRA-wide collaborations
• work with each other to facilitate the preparation of multi-institutional research team proposals relevant to the INRA mission and strategic goals
• will distribute INRA information, calls for proposals, and other notices to appropriate faculty.
Boise State University John R. (Jack) Pelton [email protected]
Idaho State University Larry Ford [email protected]
Montana State University Al Cunningham [email protected]
University of Alaska Fairbanks David Barnes [email protected]
University of Idaho Gary Hagen [email protected]
University of Montana Tony Rudbach [email protected]
Utah State University Ron Sims [email protected]
Washington State University David Yonge [email protected]
UAF Student Finds Home Away From Home
Reprinted courtesy of University of Alaska Fairbanks
Graduate student Neil D’Cunha left his culture and climate behind in Mangalore, India when he decided to pursue his master’s degree in geological engineering. Just a year before his graduation from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in 2002, he was introduced to the possibility of coming to America and attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks for his graduate degree.
"In the third year of my undergraduate degree, I had begun exploring various master’s programs, but hadn’t heard of UAF," said D’Cunha. "Just as I began my application process one of my professors suggested I apply, and I decided to go for it."
D’Cunha had only been at UAF for one year when he applied for and received a two-year, $65,000 subsurface science fellowship through INRA.
D’Cunha is researching enhanced methods of remediation, or clean-up, of contaminated groundwater at UAF’s School of Mineral Engineering (SME).
"The research conducted here is excellent and there is absolutely a wealth of opportunities for graduate students interested in genuine research," D’Cunha said.
Even with an abundance of academic opportunities, D’Cunha admits it was a big change coming to Fairbanks from a semi-cosmopolitan community in southern India where the average temperature from October to February is around 80 degrees F. He was a bit apprehensive in the beginning but now says he feels right at home.
"The climate of Alaska was a constant worry for me until I actually experienced winter," said D’Cunha. "But I found it was absolutely no trouble as long as I had warm clothes. The best feeling I ever get about Alaska is when my flight lands in Fairbanks. I get the feeling that I have reached home."
One reason D’Cunha feels at home at UAF is that he’s not alone. As of fall 2003, there were more than 250 international students at UAF, about 100 of those in engineering programs. Out of the 98 international students in engineering, nearly two-thirds are from India. The number of Indian students in Fairbanks is likely to increase as UAF signed a memorandum of understanding in 2003 with India’s University of Pune to formalize a student-faculty exchange program.
"Our students and faculty benefit from expanded opportunities to pursue common interests with colleagues from all points on the globe," said UAF Provost Paul Reichardt. "Because of the quality of our programs we were able to add a Ph.D. in engineering in 2001. The advanced degree will help us meet the needs of our students both in the state and around the world."
D’Cunha plans to complete his Ph.D. in 2007 and eventually teach at the Indian Institute of Technology. He credits his scholastic success to Debasmita Misra, his faculty advisor in UAF’s geological engineering department.
"I found graduate school a little difficult the first semester, but my advisor helped me to get over my initial challenges," said D’Cunha. "He changed the way I look at things, and his support has motivated me to do my best."
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