Episode 1 — A Day in the Life of an Autonomous Drone:
A commute into the heart of Greenland
A drone sits idle, recharging on a docking station — a small, solar powered device which can be laid out on any flat surface.
Once a request has been made using the Flyingcarpet mobile app, it blinks awake and registers its assigned task. This initial human interaction — the requesting of the drone — is the first and last it will have with a person. Any drone that has been initiated into Flyingcarpet’s decentralised network is now able to carry out tasks autonomously. The network is built onto the Ethereum Blockchain for security assurance (vital for autonomy) and to ensure value is distributed to all participants. Just like a daily commuter, the drone rises up and sets off to work.
The drone itself is powered by AI, and is able to constantly learn about and refine its functions.
In this particular instance, the request has been made by Arctic scientist Joseph Cook, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sheffield. He is trying to accurately map the melting of glaciers and the presence of dusts, soots and microscopic algae that might be accelerating the melting process.
Across several years and sites, Cook and various colleagues have been mapping the impact of climate change using a combination of personal grit, satellite imagery, and people-operated drones.
Apart from the obvious challenges of working in a cold and remote environment, the main challenges faced when collecting data are that measurements need to be made within a small window of time each day, when there are few shadows and the angle of the sun is relatively constant.
This has usually included setting up and manually flying a drone, while also making ground measurements to verify this drone data. Yet with a measurement window of just a couple of hours, every minute is precious.
Now, Cook is able to deploy a network of autonomous drones powered by AI and renewable energy. Automating the flying process frees up precious time for needed ground measurements, meaning the team are able to gather better quality data, and more of it. Man and machine, side by side.
Using its high-definition cameras the requested drone, on its daily commute, is able to navigate through Greenland’s landscape to reach its destined location with unparalleled geographic precision. As it travels, it has been collecting visual data throughout its entire journey there, including thermal mapping and detecting weather patterns.
Once the drone arrives at an exact longitude-latitude, it is able to capture a series of videos and imagery that has higher ground resolution than satellites, and covers more ground than researchers can manage on foot. The drone acts as a bridge between these two data sets — satellite and human study — validating each and creating a refined and comprehensive data set.
Using modern imaging systems and software, the drone can provide researchers with 3-D models of the ice surface, as well as multispectral imagery that can be used to identify and map the various materials that make up the glaciers. This information can then be used to monitor precisely how the glaciers are changing over time in a warming world.
All the data collected by the drone, such as these 3-D maps, can be transmitted back to the team’s base in real-time. This allows the data to be immediately stored or even analysed on-site, and enables the researchers to focus their time and energy on ground measurements, or even on other experiments, hugely increasing the value of a science campaign and the quality of the data collected.
Once our drone has completed its job, it heads back to a nearby docking station to reconnect to the Flyingcarpet Network, ready for a well needed rest and recharge. It may have finished up a shift in Greenland, but there’s a fisherman in Quebec’s most North-Eastern tip that needs some assistance…
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Drones can facilitate all kinds of transformative research and enrich the process of data collection. They will add dimensional layers to our world map never seen before, bridging our understanding of our natural world and how we can protect it. And if they can act autonomously within a secure, decentralised network…the sky’s the limit.
Note: this particular use case hasn’t been carried out yet. However, more information about Joseph Cook and his (real life) research can be found here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/staff/cook_joe/home
