Montana's diverse terrain and weather create unique problems for MDT Maintenance crews. Hazardous areas need to be monitored to assess risks such as avalanche and rock-slide sites. MDT Maintenance and MDT Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program would like to explore a portable, fully automated drone solution nicknamed ‘Drone in a Box’. This drone would monitor and or map hazardous sites remotely to reduce crew exposure and assess potential dangers to the traveling public.
The Drone in a Box concept has been around for over a decade but only recently have we began seeing commercially available products. Most Drone in a Box solutions come with an untethered drone and operates remotely using a set of preprogrammed instructions telling the drone when to take-off, what flight path to follow, and when & where to land. Data collected during these operations is able to be accessed remotely, with the option to live stream the data in real-time. MDT Maintenance and MDT UAS Program management propose to deploy a Drone in a Box at one (or more) MDT locations where avalanche danger is common to monitor and map snow-pack over time.
This research would propose to answer the following questions: 1) Is a Drone in a Box solution a cost effective and safer alternative to having maintenance crews physically inspect those areas? 2) Can the Drone in a Box solution be a reliable tool to collect the actionable data MDT needs to make accurate decisions? 3) Can mapping snow pack with a Drone in a Box solution in avalanche prone area's help predict occurrences to better prepare for incidents? 4) Can a Drone in a Box solution be an effective asset in assessing flooding issues during spring runoff?
Proposed: Topic Statement
Project Overview
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