As part of its National Robotics Initiative 2.0 program, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Oklahoma State University’s (OSU) drone program a $1.49 million grant.

Awarded to OSU researchers He Bai, Rushikesh Kamalapurkar, Jamey Jacob and Matt Vance and former faculty member Balaji Jayaraman, the grant, which is the only grant of its kind awarded in Oklahoma, will be used to fund research that uses UAS technology to estimate wind conditions in differing environments.

The OSU team will use UAS to measure differing wind conditions in various environments, as part of OSU’s Tier 1 Research Initiatives involving UAS in public health and safety. According to the researchers, the idea is that a UAS on a set flight path can report wind conditions using the magnitude and direction of deviation from its preset flight path. The project will also look into how the safety and efficiency of UAS operations can be improved based on wind estimates.

Having worked on research projects for the NSF, NASA and Oklahoma Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), the research team is keenly aware of the need for better methods to model and predict wind and estimate UAS trajectory in different wind environments. A number of companies have experimented delivering packages via UAS, so these methods are considered extremely important to the continued progression of UAS traffic in urban environments.

While entities such as NASA are working on an unmanned traffic management (UTM) system to provide virtual drone highways, weather data from those environments must be collected and interpreted efficiently so that it can be relayed to pilots and traffic management in real time, so that multiple vehicles can safely occupy the small spaces of urban environments. The system could also be beneficial for urban air mobility or air taxi applications, as well.

The team plans on focusing on information that will be useful to UAS pilots and how to use the vehicle, in collaboration with other nearby vehicles, to analyze and predict the wind phenomenon it is experiencing and communicate that information back to the pilot for adjustments.

The team will use several resources such as the new Excelsior laboratory and indoor drone aviaries, as well as simulation facilities and outdoor flight facilities; all of which are available through OSU and the Unmanned Systems Research Institute.

The OSU team is hopeful that this four-year project will serve as a foundation to better understand wind and weather phenomenon that UAS encounter in urban environments.