Measure Ground Control as a SSoT for Mission Planning, Flight Records, and Maintaince of UAS

Introduction

In this lab, we explored Measure Ground Control.  This is a software platform that is advertised as the “most complete software platform for drones,” and it is used as the SSoT (Single Source of Technology) solution for Purdue’s SATT UAS DJI fleet.  The reason why this software is popular in the industry and many educational programs like this one is due to how easy it can make everyone’s life by having the flight mission planning, execution, and record keeping in one place.  This makes it extremely easy to keep the projects organized without having a bunch of applications to keep track of what has which feature. With every UAS project, the planning starts in the office and should never begin at the site. The main reasons for this, is to ensure that the equipment is reliable, estimating the time it takes for the data collection, to processing, to delivery, and then informing the customer of this timeline, and lastly, to ensure that the necessary components of the project are covered with the operations. This post will walk you through the various aspects of this popular platform, and how this would actually be used in the industry.

Overview

To start, a little information about the company might be helpful.  The about section on their website states that Measure is an aerial intelligence company that enables enterprises to realize the transformative benefits of drone technology. With end-to-end program management, user-friendly flight control, and in-platform data analysis, their comprehensive software solution, Ground Control, helps businesses save thousands of hazardous man-hours and create millions of dollars in operational benefits.  To learn more about the solutions that this company provides, their products can be explored here.

As previously mentioned, the product that will be explored today is the Measure Ground Control.  To start, the app can be opened on the device (iPad in this case). This will lead to a screen with four options: Airspace Map, Settings, Fly, and Flight Plans.  This can be seen in Figure 1: Starting Menu.

Figure 1: Starting Menu

The Airspace Map will be explored first.  After tapping on this option, your location appears on the map with the various airspaces overlaid that may be near you.  This can be seen in Figure 2: Airspace Map.

Figure 2: Airspace Map

From this map, it shows the city and state of your current location along with the longitude and latitude in the bottom left hand corner.  In the right hand corner, it shows the weather and temperature, the rules and advisories, and the legend. Each one of these can be expanded to show more information about each of these.  An example of what the weather looks like can be seen in Figure 3: Weather.  This makes it extremely useful, as the hourly weather can be viewed for the next four hours.

Figure 3: Weather

The middle icon of the Hazard symbol (Rules & Advisories) is critical to look at, as the various restrictions of operations that may exist will appear here.  The symbol will actually change color due to the level of advisories and rules in the area. The only advisory at my location for FAA Part 107 certified, is the nearby airport of Nelund Field, so this symbol is yellow.  This can be seen in Figure 4: Rules & Advisory.

Figure 4: Rules & Advisory

The map shows a slight yellowish tint over my location.  The information of what this means exactly can be seen by tapping the last symbol of the map (Legend).  The yellow area indicates it is within the vicinity of an airport. With the advisory mentioned earlier of being near Nelund Field, this makes sense why my location has a slight yellowish tint.  The legend can be seen in Figure 5: Legend.

Figure 5: Legend

To better show the area I am at, I zoomed out to show the surrounding area.  This can be seen in Figure 6: Overview of Location.  With this view, the busiest airport in the area, South Bend International Airport, can be seen with the hazard symbol changed to red, as the rules and advisories are heightened for this area.

Figure 6: Overview of Location

With this view being so zoomed out, the rules and advisories for the area are extensive.  This can be seen in Figure 7: Rules & Advisory of Overview.  

Figure 7: Rules & Advisory of Overview

One of the most helpful tools provided in this section is the ability to request flight authorization (LAANC or Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability).  With some of the rules and advisories seen above, there are restrictions that do not permit the operation of a UAS, or require flight authorization.  One of these is the prohibited airspace above prisons, but one that could get authorization would be flights in a controlled airspace (depending on the class and the details of the flight).  This is where the Request Flight Authorization button can be tapped (for more information, click this link). This feature works alongside AirMap to automatically request flight authorization (LAANC) in the FAA controlled airspace. After tapping on the button, a screen will appear that looks like the one in Figure 8: Flight Authorization.   

Figure 8: Flight Authorization

As mentioned in the introduction, the planning process should never begin at the site.  The chances are slim as well that the current location of the UAS professionals’ trailer is at the site, so this is where the search bar in the top center comes in handy.  The location of the site can be searched. Two of the most frequent sites of data collection that Dr. Hupy and other students operate are the Purdue Wildlife Area and Martell Forest.  Both of the airspace maps of these sites can be seen in Figure 9: Purdue Wildlife Area and Figure 10: Martell Forest.  

Figure 9: Purdue Wildlife Area

Figure 10: Martell Forest

As quickly indicated by the green hazard symbol along with no overlay of color, no rules and advisories are published for these locations.  Although glancing out it there are none, it is always smart to check. The assumptions ended up being correct, and this can be seen in Figure 11: Purdue Wildlife Area - Rules & Advisories and Figure 12: Martell Forest - Rules & Advisories.

Figure 11: Purdue Wildlife Area - Rules & Advisories

Figure 12: Martell Forest - Rules & Advisories

Going back to the main menu screen, the next icon is the Settings icon.  These settings will allow the user to adjust general settings such as the maximum altitude, maximum distance, and low battery warning threshold, or adjust more specific settings such as ones that pertain to the camera, mapping, gimbal calibration, IMU calibration, and compass calibration.  These can be crucial to the success of a safe and efficient operations, as without proper configuration and calibration, the UAV has the potential to fail or be inaccurate enough to cause safety issues such as failure to return properly to an adequate takeoff and landing space.This can be seen in Figure 13: Settings Menu.

Figure 13: Settings Menu

The third icon on the main menu screen is Fly.  This will display the video feed of the on-board camera equipped on the drone along with all of the flight features and functions that can be used when manual flight operations are conducted.  Since there is no UAV currently connected to the app, the screen in Figure 14: Fly Screen is black with a disconnected status at the top left. 

Figure 14: Fly Screen

This screen would be the one used when conducting the operation itself.  To know what each one of these flight settings indicate, a diagram has been pulled from their site and can be seen in Figure 15: Measure Ground Control Flight Settings.

Figure 15: Measure Ground Control Flight Settings

To assist in the accuracy of the data captured, various flight modes can be selected with advanced camera modes.  These modes can be seen below in Figure 16: Different Flight Modes, and the meaning of each of these modes are explained on their website.

Figure 16: Different Flight Modes

One of the other helpful aspects of this screen can be seen with the map view in the bottom right hand corner.  The views can be toggled between the flight video feed and the map view by simply clicking on it. This can be extremely helpful if the exact location of a spot is needed in the field.  This view can be seen in Figure 17: Map View from Fly.

Figure 17: Map View from Fly

The fourth and final icon from the main menu screen is Flight Plans.  This enables a pilot to plan and execute a choreographed flight, or set of flights, ensuring repeatable, standardized, and auditable data collection in the field.  This feature tends to be the most popular method for data collection in the industry. The app features two autonomous flight modes, grid flight and way-point mode. This can be seen in Figure 18: Flight Plans.

Figure 18: Flight Plans

To start a flight plan, simply tap on the desired mode.  For this demonstration, I selected Grid Mode, but both processes are similar.  This brings up the menu in which a new flight plan can be created, or saved plans/nearby plans using the grid mode can be selected.  This can be seen in Figure 19: Grid Flight.

Figure 19: Grid Flight

After tapping New Flight Plan, it prompts for a name of the plan and the drone camera.  I decided to name this plan after the location I would be using for this flight plan if I did.  It would be beneficial using the naming pattern talked about in previous labs to know exactly which sensor was used, the altitude flown, location, and the date flown at a quick glance, but since this is just an example, I just named it after the location.  The sensor that would be used, for this example, would be a sensor attached to the DJI Matrix that the UAS program uses which is the Zenmuse XT2 Thermal 13mm lens. This can be seen in Figure 20: Naming New Flight Plan. 

Figure 20: Naming New Flight Plan

The name seen above is a spoiler of the location chosen for this lab which is the Beverly D. Crone Restoration Area.  This may look familiar, as this area was used in the last lab (Using Arc Collector).

Side Note: To show another step that would be important before conducting the actual operation, would be to check this location in the Airspace Map (talked about earlier).  This can be seen in Figure 21: Airspace Map of Beverly D. Crone Restoration Area and Figure 22: Rules and Advisories of Beverly D. Crone Restoration Area 

Figure 21: Airspace Map of Beverly D. Crone Restoration Area

Figure 22: Rules and Advisories of Beverly D. Crone Restoration Area 

After the naming and the sensor selected, the next screen shows setting the flight location.  This is where the address is entered in which the map will center on it. This can be seen below in Figure 23: Flight Location Address.

Figure 23: Flight Location Address

Next, the flight area and settings can be adjusted and entered in.  The default settings of it can be seen in Figure 24: Flight Area and Settings.

Figure 24: Flight Area and Settings

The area can be moved by pressing and holding the center of the grid and releasing it once the desired area has been reached.  This movement can be seen in Figure 25: Grid Moved.  

Figure 25: Grid Moved

To expand the area, this can be done two ways.  The first way is pressing and holding the white circles, however, this will lead to the area to no longer be symmetrical.  The other way and easier in my opinion if the area is uniform, is to press and hold the right angles right behind the circles.  This adjusts the area smoothly which can be seen in Figure 26: Area Adjusted.

Figure 26: Area Adjusted

The adjustments that can be made are the settings of the flight.  It is important to know that these can change the flight time of the operation and the accuracy of the project.  An example of how the altitude affects the flight time can be compared in Figure 27: Altitude of 100 ft, Figure 28: Altitude of 200 ft, and Figure 29: Altitude of 300 ft.  The flight with the altitude of 100 ft has a flight time of 1 hour and 42 minutes while the flight with an altitude of 200 ft is reduced with a total flight time of 29.38 minutes, and lastly, the flight with an altitude of 300 ft having a total flight time of 19.04 minutes.

Figure 27: Altitude of 100 ft

Figure 28: Altitude of 200 ft

Figure 29: Altitude of 300 ft

The overlap of the path is another setting that will increase or decrease the flight time while increasing or decreasing the accuracy of the project.  The more overlap, the more time it will take, but the accuracy will be better and vice versa. These can be compared below in Figure 30: 40% Overlap (10:17 minutes), Figure 31: 60% Overlap (15:36), and Figure 32: 90% Overlap (1:4245 hours).

Figure 30: 40% Overlap

Figure 31: 60% Overlap

Figure 32: 90% Overlap

The last feature that will be talked about is the Terrain Following which is the icon next to the altitude.  This feature allows the drone to automatically follow terrain adjusting altitude as necessary using a set tolerance level.  With this, there are 3 tolerance levels that can be selected, being Low - 10m, Medium - 5m, and High - 1m. This feature can greatly increase the level of safety, as it can avoid CFIT, or Controlled Flight into Terrain. This can be seen below in Figure 33: Terrain Following.

Figure 33: Terrain Following

This changes the display of the flight area to indicate the lower and higher elevations.  This can be seen in Figure 34: Terrain Following Flight Area.  Side Note: The first time I actually attempted this, the app ended up crashing on me, making me restart.  This is something that could be improved with a potential update.

Figure 34: Terrain Following Flight Area

If the user wishes to change the settings of the Gimbal Angle, Drone Direction, End of Flight Behavior, or Crosshatch, this can be accessed by clicking Advanced Options.  This can be seen in Figure 35: Advanced Options.

Figure 35: Advanced Options

The flight can then be saved which can be seen in Figure 36: Flight Saved.

Figure 36: Flight Saved

The flight plan can then be seen under My Saved Plans.  This can be seen in Figure 37: My Saved Plans.

Figure 37: My Saved Plans

Conclusion

Mission planning, record keeping, and equipment maintenance are so crucial to UAS operations, as this allows for an efficient and safe operation to take place. With SSoT platforms such as Measure Ground Control, it significantly improves the organization and streamline of an UAS project, as multiple platforms are no longer needed to be multi-tasked which decreases the level of risk involved. Measure Ground Control is an extremely useful platform, and the use of it will likely increase as the drone industry grows.