{"id":35691,"date":"2015-06-17T09:54:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T19:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=35691"},"modified":"2021-08-19T15:40:20","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T01:40:20","slug":"nasa-grant-will-help-establish-protocol-for-drone-use-in-scientific-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/06\/17\/nasa-grant-will-help-establish-protocol-for-drone-use-in-scientific-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA<\/abbr> grant will help establish protocol for drone use in scientific studies"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"\"
UH<\/abbr> Hilo researchers, county officials and scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in front of an active Puna lava flow on October 22, 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

University of at Mānoa<\/a> and UH<\/abbr> Hilo<\/a> researchers will be collaborating on a research project funded by NASA<\/abbr><\/a>. UH<\/abbr>’s project will develop capability at the university for data collecting via unmanned aerial vehicles or UAV<\/abbr>s through observations of active volcanism in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the aim of the UH<\/abbr> grant is two-fold—to study the active volcanic processes (lava flows and gas plumes) in Puna on Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island using UAV<\/abbr>s and, while doing so, to develop capability and protocol to use UAV<\/abbr>s to do other types of scientific studies. The latter will be of benefit to all UH<\/abbr> researchers.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/abbr> 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<\/abbr> team is awaiting confirmation on the exact amount they will receive; they requested $749,696. The award covers a three-year period.<\/p>\n

Principal investigator of the UH<\/abbr> project is Peter Mouginis-Mark<\/strong> from the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Geophysics and Planetology<\/a> at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa. Co-investigators from the institute include Robert Wright<\/strong> and John Porter<\/strong>. Ryan Perroy<\/strong>, assistant professor of geography at UH<\/abbr> Hilo, is a co-investigator on the project.<\/p>\n

Building on Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo research<\/h2>\n

The Hilo team, which also included Jonathan Price<\/strong>, associate professor of geography, Nicolas Turner<\/strong>, cyber computer programming analyst at the UH<\/abbr> Hilo Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization Laboratory<\/a>, and Arthur Cunningham, consultant for aeronautical science at UH<\/abbr> 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.<\/p>\n

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

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

For more on this research, read the UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—By Susan Enright<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers from UH<\/abbr> Mānoa and UH<\/abbr> Hilo receive grant from NASA<\/abbr> to study drone use in scientific endeavors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[170,652,92,858,14,9],"class_list":["post-35691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-hawaii-institute-of-geophysics-and-planetology","tag-puna-lava","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uav","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","entry","no-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35691"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146768,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35691\/revisions\/146768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}