When is a drone not a drone? Performing meaningful scientific work with the AggieAir Unmanned Aerial System

摘要

Current aerial drones are platforms for weapons orsurveillance, providing actionable intelligence or targetedstrikes. Although similar in many respects, the AggieAirUAS is not a drone. AggieAir is designed to targetscientific remote sensing applications, and has been usedto provide meaningful scientific data for many ecologicalapplications, including precision agriculture, wetlandvegetation mapping, and river monitoring for fish habitat.This poster introduces AggieAir from a scientificperspective and shows how key differences from otherUASs allow collection of significant scientific data, used inmeaningful ways.