An outdoor scientific data drone Ground Truthing Test Site

As unmanned aerial systems (UASs) become ever more ubiquitous with National Airspace (NAS) commercial and civilian operations, test sites and proving grounds need to be developed and heavily researched. Small UASs are being used as remote sensing systems, on demand, at the personal level, thus “personal remote sensing” scientific data drones urgently need Ground Truthing Test Sites beyond compliance adherence. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established six national UAS test sites and there are numerous amounts of indoor test sites found in literature and research; however, the national UAS test sites may be out of range for most researchers or exclusive and indoor test sites lack the variability and testing capabilities for GPS that an outdoor test site has to offer. The Mechatronics, Embedded Systems and Automation (MESA) Lab at the University of California, Merced has begun development of an innovative outdoor test site for small scientific data drones. Careful adherence to FAA regulation is achieved through the use of a hangar and netted structure, ensuring all flights are in an enclosed environment while maintaining an adequate and crucial GPS signal. The convergent thinking, design and development are presented in this paper.