Low-cost drone system for analyzing elevation

The relatively recent advancements in the design and costs associated with unmanned aerial vehicles (e.g. quadcopters) opens up new opportunities for collecting environmental data. For example, while high resolution elevation data is important for understanding the spatial distribution of risk associated with flooding, it can be costly to collect using traditional methods. The costs can be prohibitive for example for remote coastal communities with limited resources. This paper describes the preliminary design of a system for use with a quadcopter drone that is capable of collecting elevation and location data and creating a digital elevation model. The system consists of a sensor package of a microcontroller, Light Detection and Ranging sensor (for elevation), geospatial data from a Global Positioning System (for latitude and longitude), and a process for using spatial mapping software to convert the collected data to an elevation model. The paper will show the preliminary results from the sensor package and software tools, as well as analysis comparing the results to traditional methods.