The successfully conducted the first at-sea unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) delivery to a Ohio-class, ballistic-missile submarine on October 19, 2020, in cooperation with the University of �鶹��ý Applied Research Laboratory (ARL). This re-supply was one of four U.S. Strategic Command expeditionary logistics events in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands with USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730).

The UH ARL worked hand-in-hand with Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Navy Sailors, Department of Navy civilians and U.S. Air Force airmen to develop best practices and training protocols. UH ARL developed and conducted training exercises with personnel to ensure the sailors-turned-UAV pilots were ready for the re-supply event.

“This effort is emblematic of how collaboration between Navy stakeholders and UH scientists and engineers can rapidly evolve the capabilities of small unmanned systems,” said Margo Edwards, UH ARL director. “ARL at the University of �鶹��ý is proud to be a part of this effort and cherishes our relationship with the submarine community.”

The project is the latest collaboration between UH ARL and Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

“We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with the University of �鶹��ý Applied Research Lab team on the first at-sea UAV delivery to a ballistic-missile submarine,” said Rear Adm. Blake Converse, commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. “Our sailors, civilians and airmen learned a great deal in this academic and operational environment. They are all making a difference, demonstrating our ability to meet U.S. Strategic Command’s expeditionary logistics requirements—anytime, anywhere.”

ARL was established in 2008 as a Navy-sponsored lab and is one of 13 university-affiliated research centers within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In 2019, UH and ARL were awarded a $77.2 million, five-year contract from the DoD to conduct research, development, engineering, and test and evaluation of programs.

The University of �鶹��ý played a key role in an important milestone for the . For the first time ever, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) delivered supplies to an underway submarine, the USS �鶹��ý, a mile off the coast of Oʻahu.

The project is a collaboration between the U.S. Pacific Fleet Submarine Force and the UH Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) that owns and operates the UAV. A five-pound payload consisting of circuit cards, medical supplies and food was successfully delivered.

“A large percentage of parts that are needed on submarines weigh less than five pounds, so this capability could alleviate the need for boats to pull into ports for parts or medical supplies,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Keithley in a .

Rear Adm. Blake Converse, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Submarine Force, agreed and commended the joint effort saying it, “has resulted in delivering necessary supplies to submarines that can save time and money, allowing us to stay in the fight.”

“I see our role at the ARL as protecting those who protect us, whether thatʻs the military, first responders or our planet,” said Margo Edwards, UH ARL director. “This was a great first step toward a viable concept of operation that could be a game-changing capability for the fleet.”

The project began more than a year ago when Navy officials approached UH ARL with the concept. Josh Levy, UH ARL UAV specialist, provided more than six months of extensive UAV flight training to the four Navy volunteers assigned to the project who would ultimately fly the successful mission. “I tried to make the homework tougher than the test, and that approach yielded success,” said Levy, a UH Mānoa graduate with a masters degree in marine biology.

In addition to the extensive training program, Aricia Argyris, UH ARL mechanical engineer, developed and refined innovative technology, specifically, a “snag” pole and payload release mechanism, for the UAV under the mentorship of Ted Ralston, UH ARL UAV director.

The opportunities are here in Mānoa, and I encourage students to seek them out and take advantage of them.
Aricia Argyris

Born and raised on �鶹��ý Island, Argyris interned at the lab before being hired full time after graduating from UH Mānoa with a mechanical engineering degree in 2018. Less than a year into her new job, she used additive manufacturing techniques to rapidly mature the technology, enabling the Navy sailors to recommend modifications to the custom-designed components on demand.

“I have always had a love for robotics and I wanted to do something that involved creating, designing and building. I was lucky enough to find this job opportunity with UH Applied Research Lab,” said Argyris. “The opportunities are here in Mānoa, and I encourage students to seek them out and take advantage of them.”

Argyris did, and now the U.S. Navy may start using UAVs to deliver supplies to submarines at sea on a regular basis because of her work supporting the collaboration between the UH Applied Research Laboratory and the U.S. Navy.

Planning for future workforce needs, the launched four new courses this semester to establish a , a first step in the university’s long-planned .

The certificate program focuses on training in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and offers new courses this fall that include hands-on classroom and field work in an introductory course on unmanned aerial systems (UAS), robotics (building and flying UAS), simulated missions and flying techniques.

UH Hilo students who complete these four courses plus three upper-level geography classes in data interpretation, remote sensing and information systems receive a certificate in unmanned aircraft systems. According to the UH Hilo Course Catalog, “Graduates of the UAS certificate program will possess a skill set valuable in the unmanned aerial data collection field.”

“Unmanned aircraft are becoming more and more popular, with the potential being recognized by new industries every day,” said Arthur Cunningham, coordinator of the UH Hilo aeronautical science program.

More on the new UAS courses

In the introductory UAS course, students learn operational principles, laws and theory about UAS, and conclude with receiving a Federal Aviation Administration remote pilot airman certificate (Part 107) with small UAS rating, which is a pilot license to operate unmanned aircraft commercially.

Licensed aircraft operators could potentially get jobs working with companies or government agencies for infrastructure inspections, real estate photography, agricultural mapping, natural disaster assessment, natural resource surveys, law enforcement or research in almost any field that uses sensors or cameras.

“UAS works well with my bioengineering background because these aircraft are able to collect data from a large plot of land using cameras, chemical sampling and water sampling,” said instructor Roberto Rodriguez. “This is especially useful for agriculture as a time and money-saving technology.”

For more on this program and the future of the aeronautical science program, .

—A UH Hilo Stories article written by Jamie Josephson, a public information intern in the Office of the Chancellor

from �鶹��ý Department of Land and Natural Resources, July 19, 2017.

Researchers at the are part of large collaborative effort to combat , a fungal disease threatening to kill off the most important tree in �鶹��ý Island’s ecosystem. With 75,000 acres of the island’s ʻō��ʻ�� forest now showing symptoms of the disease, federal and state agencies and non-profit partners are using an array of high technology to detect its spread.

UH Hilo’s team of researchers is headed by , an assistant professor in the . The team of researchers is using a UAV off the side of Stainback Road, one of the epicenters of the infection. The team spends about 25 percent of their time flying a UAV for rapid ʻō��ʻ�� death mapping and detection.

The home base for the team is .

Perroy says the UAV has been in use in the battle against rapid ʻō��ʻ�� death for about a year and a half.

“It’s very good for monitoring changes in the forest on an individual tree basis, because the resolution of the imagery is so fine that you can see individual leaves and branches,“ Perroy explains.

This allows researchers not only to see changes over areas already infected by the fungus, but to detect suspected new cases. As valuable as the UAV imagery is, Perroy says it’s very difficult to fly over ʻō��ʻ�� forests every month and see the rapidity of tree decline.

“It’s not the best day when we come back and we see more and more trees down since the last time we flew,” he says. “Our efforts are one piece of the larger effort to better understand the disease and better protect our forests.”

All of the researchers and managers working to combat Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death agree that their collaborative efforts are about the only silver lining to what is a serious threat to �鶹��ý’s most important native tree. ʻŌ��ʻ�� protect the state’s watersheds by providing a sponge-effect to allow rainwater to slowly seep into underground aquifers. They also help prevent erosion and the spread of invasive species and they are culturally significant and prized in lei making.

Read the from the �鶹��ý Department of Land and Natural Resources to learn more about the other collaborative agencies working on the Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death project.

—From

—By Susan Enright

and researchers will be collaborating on a research project funded by . UH’s project will develop capability at the university for data collecting via unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs through observations of active volcanism in �鶹��ý.

Specifically, the aim of the UH grant is two-fold—to study the active volcanic processes (lava flows and gas plumes) in Puna on �鶹��ý Island using UAVs and, while doing so, to develop capability and protocol to use UAVs to do other types of scientific studies. The latter will be of benefit to all UH researchers.

NASA awarded $11.25 million to universities in 15 states for research and development in areas such as remote sensing, nanotechnology, astrophysics and aeronautics. The UH team is awaiting confirmation on the exact amount they will receive; they requested $749,696. The award covers a three-year period.

Principal investigator of the UH project is Peter Mouginis-Mark from the at UH Mānoa. Co-investigators from the institute include Robert Wright and John Porter. Ryan Perroy, assistant professor of geography at UH Hilo, is a co-investigator on the project.

Building on �鶹��ýHilo research

The Hilo team, which also included Jonathan Price, associate professor of geography, Nicolas Turner, cyber computer programming analyst at the UH Hilo , and Arthur Cunningham, consultant for aeronautical science at UH Hilo, were highly successful in helping Civil Defense map the Puna lava flow as it encroached on Pāhoa town nearly cutting off the main highway into the district.

The UH team working on the NASA grant will be building on that work, not just for continued study of lava activity, but to create a protocol for UAV use that all UH researchers could utilize.

“The most important thing is that we will be learning how to fly our vehicles legally in collaboration with NASA,” says Mouginis-Mark. He and Perroy will be working closely with NASA to develop the protocol so that the scientific research done with UAVs is legal under federal guidelines. “Our work will set up protocol so UH researchers can do other research with UAVs.”

For more on this research, read the .

—By Susan Enright