Drone Images Help Student 和 研究er Soar
丹Lauritzen is at home on the range, in U of I’s 无人机实验室
Cattle moseying down a trail. Sagebrush dotting the horizon. Robots whirring overhead.
This isn’t a scene from a sci-fi movie. This is where University of Idaho junior 丹Lauritzen conducts his research.
Lauritzen, a double major in 牧场的保护 和 Fire Ecology 和 Management 在 College of Natural 资源, has wanted to pursue a career in range ever since he won the Idaho State Rangel和 Assessment as a high school junior in Hagerman.
He transferred to U of I in 2018 和 quickly linked up with 杰森·卡尔, principal investigator at the university’s 无人机实验室. 在卡尔的指导下, Lauritzen uses drone technology to explore the impact of cattle grazing on willows at Rinker Rock Creek Ranch — a newly acquired U of I property near Hailey. Lauritzen uses software to analyze hundreds of drone images 和 “stitches” them together to generate 3D computer models of the vegetation 和 terrain.
“For me, the coolest part is that nobody has done this before,” Lauritzen said.
Creating replicas of a l和scape that can inform l和 management is what qualifies Karl 和 Lauritzen as pioneers.
Doing research to keep that place intact not only for myself but for future generations’ enjoyment is something that I’ve strived for in my college career. 丹Lauritzen
“There’s a gap between taking a photo with a drone 和 combining hundreds of images together to create a three-dimensional model,卡尔说。. “Flying a drone is the easy part. Making a 3D representation of the ground that contains high-quality data is hard.”
Lauritzen uses the 3D models to measure willow canopy volume pre- 和 post-grazing. Then, he compares his findings to measurements taken by field researchers. He’s found the drone models yield accurate results in less than half the time — including image processing — than field measurements. Lauritzen presented his work at the Society for Range Management’s national meeting in February 2019 和 is a co-author on a forthcoming publication with Karl.
Beyond Anyone’s Imagination
Lauritzen is excited by the prospects drones offer to the scientific community.
“The opportunities for using drones are beyond anyone’s imagination,” Lauritzen said. “例如, instead of sending people up a steep slope with a bunch of equipment to monitor soils or vegetation, 我们可以驾驶无人机. Risk, cost 和 time can all be reduced.”
Applications for drone research extend far beyond forage; from targeted pesticide application to mapping wildfire fuel breaks to replacing helicopters used to survey spawning salmon, out-of-the-box solutions for natural resource management are seemingly endless.
Lauritzen’s enthusiasm for drone research is strengthened by his dedication to rangel和 science.
“I grew up in southern Idaho 和 was outside all the time,” he said. “Doing research to keep that place intact not only for myself but for future generations’ enjoyment is something that I’ve strived for in my college career.”
丹Lauritzen has learned to create images 在 无人机实验室 that provide accurate information for scientists, 作消遣的人, 和 ranchers who rely on range.
本文由 林赛·洛迪, College of Natural 资源.
2019年4月发布.