The Philippines SHARE Program in Aerial Imaging

G.  Tangonan,  N.  Libatique,  C.  Favila,  J.  Honrado,  D.  Solpico  Ateneo  Innovation  Center  

This presentation is about our ongoing aerial imaging research in the Philippines. We present various aspects of our work such as the aircrafts we use, how we acquire and deliver our results to various stakeholders, and some use cases where this technology can be applied. This aerial imaging capability was developed by the Faculty and students of Ateneo de Manila University, working out of the Ateneo Innovation Center. Let me give you an overview of the capabilities we developed and the different uses cases we have demonstrated. We hope that this will provide you with a new capability for program management and productivity forecasting in Thailand.We are very proud to be a partner with Thailand in the SHARE program for several years now. Out of the spirit of sharing, we are grateful to our hosts, Dr. Anan and Dr. Asanee, for inviting us here today.

Recent  Results  Obtained  in  Three  Regions  of  the  Philippines

In the last two years, have travelled extensively all over the country utilising aerial platforms to address various needs. We have engaged many partners in aquaculture, agriculture, and local government. The wide variety of interactions gives us important insight into how to optimise our equipment, field operations and post processing of imagery for different applications.Here we show our fixed wing drone being launched and the local collaborators we have that provide ground truth data for better understanding of imagery.

Present  Inventory  and  Capabilities  of  Unmanned  Aerial  Vehicles

models:  both  fixed  wing  and  multirotor  platforms  

powertrain:  5000  to  10000mAh  lithium  polymer  batteries  

flight  time:                                                                          15  to  25  min.  -­‐  multirotor                          45  to  60  min.  -­‐  fixed  wing  

resolution:  3  to  20  cm  per  pixel  

coverage  (typical):                                                                      3  to  4  sq.  km.  at  10cm/pixel  using  fixed  wing  

altitude:  100  to  500m  

payload:  regular  and  modified  consumer  cameras  

Our aerial platforms include both fixed wing and rotary UAVs. We are mainly using customised platforms, which we engineer ourselves, that are optimised for the specific applications like agriculture and disaster risk reduction. Shown on the right side are other operational characteristics describing our field units.Most of the work we describe here are for fixed wing aircraft. The craft are battery powered, flight times are 45 minutes to one hour. We fly at altitudes of 100 m to 500 m and the attainable resolution ranges from 3 to 20 cm. Typical flights can cover 3-4 square kilometers in these times. The aerial imaging crew is four to five technical staff.

Flight  Planning:  Sample  Mission

Autopilot:          3DR  APM  2.6  

Software:  Mission  Planner  

Payload:        Canon  EOSM  w/  22mm  lens  

Altitude:  400m  

Overlap:  80%  

Sidelap:  65%

parameters  computed    by  software  based  on  

user  input

area  of  interest

So how do we get the data? Shown here is a sample mission plotted in Mission Planner, the software we use in the field. The red box is the area we want to map and we tell the software other parameters such as the model of the camera we’re using, altitude, and desired overlap and sidelap. It then generates the waypoints indicated by the green pins and computes the necessary flight parameters such as trigger time and distance between legs. every shot of the camera anticipates the next stage of image stitching, so we use high overlap between images to minimize the chances of missing areas. We program autopilot software so the UAV executes this Flight Plan automatically. Shown below are some important flight parameters that are crucial to successful mission planning and execution.

Lake Resource Management

San Pablo , Laguna : Monitoring Fishkills , Aquaculture Output and many more

DOST-­‐AIC  Aerial  Imaging  Consortium

calculating  density  and  tracking  ownership  of  fishpens  in  Lake  Palakpakin

Here is an example from the SHARE project in which we show an aerial image of a crater lake, Lake Palapakin in San Pablo, Laguna. This lake is covered with fish cages where the fisherfold raise tilapia. We have developed a completed lake management system which links the aerial imagery with sensors on the health. In this way we can monitor the health of the lake, the development in the area, and effects of weather and climate change in lake areas. It shows the power of combining aerial imagery with ground truth data taken from instruments and the local stakeholders. This is done in the same spirit that your excellent program in CyberBrain for agriculture/aquaculture.

Web-­‐based  Decision-­‐support  System

Web-­‐based  decision  support  system

AB

C

Conductivity

DO

We  integrate  all  the  data  gathered  by  the  sensor  network,  by  the  UAV  and  by  the  stakeholders  into  a  web  decision-­‐support  application.  In  the  design,  the  user  can  view  the  aerial  maps  of  the  lake  area  taken  at  a  particular  date.  Data  that  can  be  overlaid  on  the  map  including,  but  not  limited  to,  bathymetry  data  gathered  by  lake  researchers,  fish  pen  trackers  to  identify  their  registrations  and  floating  field  servers  deployed  in  different  locations.  We  can  also  display  the  24/7  sensor  data  from  each  field  server  when  a  particular  field  server  is  selected.  The  user  can  also  view  the  photos  and  notes  taken  by  the  stakeholders  at  a  particular  date.  With  this  decision-­‐support  system,  the  stakeholders  can  interact  with  each  other  in  making  plans  for  the  lake,  crafting  policies  and  mitigating  impacts  of  disasters  on  the  lake.  This  system  can  help  counteract  the  complex  problems  in  the  management  of  the  lake  resource.  Recently  we  completed  the  aerial  imaging  of  all  the  Seven  Lakes  in  San  Pablo  Laguna.  We  are  now  in  the  process  of  putting  deploying  field  servers  in  all  the  Lakes.

Photo  by  PhilRice

Final  Product    -­‐  Delivery  of  Aerial  Imagesdistributed  through:  • plain  printouts  • map  layouts  with  GIS  

software  • soft  copies  for  uploading  to  

websites  • online  viewing  platform  

After the mission, the photos acquired are stored and fed to a stitching software to generate aerial maps of the study sites. We distribute it to our partners and stakeholders through printed and electronic means. The resulting data from the stitching software can stretch from a few hundred megabytes to several gigabytes depending on the mission characteristics. This can make it hard for some users to view it in their personal workstations. With that in mind, we have developed an online delivery platform which we’ll demo on the next video slide.

Online  Data  Delivery  Platform

Here, the user can select which area he or she would like to view. Under a location, it can also contain several maps based on when the mission was taken. There are also lightweight GIS tools which the user can utilize to place markers and other information related to the site. The user can append the database with useful information on the database. The video shows how planners and forecasters can add ground truth data to the information system. In this way we can go from image taking to user interaction in a span of a few days.

Mangrove Reforestation Management with UAVs

Aerial Surveys for Determining Mangrove Reforestation Areas

Let us now give you some actual use cases as examples. We hope you see that in Thailand very similar use cases can be studied and analyzed, using the same technology developed locally by Universities like Kasetstart. In this example we were contracted by the World Food Programme to map the coastlines and river tributaries in Aparri, Cagayan to help state universities and local government units in their mangrove reforestation efforts. Where there were mangroves rice fields are protected, without the mangroves much of the rice crop was being lost to flooding. After receiving the images, planners were able to draw in the yellow shaped above as priority areas where mangroves needed to be planted. This is a state of the art tool for Mangrove Reforestation programs using aerial imaging.

Precision Agriculture with Near IR and RGB Cameras

dual  camera  setup  (Canon  S100)

VIS NIR

We’ve had many partners that are involved with agriculture research and there is increasing interest in the use of multispectral cameras to monitor their field plantations. The chlorophyl in healthy plants reflect near infrared light strongly during the different growth stages. One popular parameter is the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index which measures the relationship between visual and NIR reflectance.

To this end we developed our own low cost near infrared imaging platform by modifying consumer grade cameras. The infrared blocking filter was removed and a filter was attached to get the NIR signal. The Near IR camera and a regular RGB camera are flown by the UAV to get multispectral data.

Figure A shows satellite imagery that covers around 2 square kilometers. Many agriculture programs rely on satellite images exclusively, but you notice that the satellite imagery has very low resolution - tens of meters at best for available sources.In contrast you our high resolution images in Figures B to D greatly complement and enhance the image taken in the particular area. We can distinguish different crops and the different stage of development of the crops with high resolution. This data can be compared to ground truth data taken from individual farms, together they can give good estimates of future crop yield.

Sample Dual Camera Output: Rice Field Mapping

VIS NIR

*study  conducted  in  partnership  with  IBM  and  WWF  Philippines

Shown here is a very sample output of our multispectral platform taken with a team of researchers from the WWF for Nature Philippines. These are taken in a 1000 hectare area in Isabela Province, composed mainly of rice fields. It shows the regular visual map on the left and a single band, greyscale image on the right for the NIR.

*study  conducted  in  partnership  with  IBM  and  WWF  Philippines

NDVI  

NDVI Maps for Monitoring Crop Performance

Histogram

classification  map  based  on  NDVI  values

Ground  and  Aerial  Sensor  Scatter  Plot

Given the two maps, we can compute for the NDVI and see the prevalent growth stage during the mission. Our measurements were also correlated with ground NDVI measurements deployed by our partners.

In this particular example, we can see a big part are in the newly planted stage, signified by the brown patches, and another major part is in the vegetative stage, shown by the green shapes. It allows us to see the distribution of these growth stages and allows us to have yield estimates given a particular planting season.

damage  extent  mappingstructure    classification

*ground  truth  data  and  figures  c/o  our  partners  in  Catholic  Relief  Services

Use Case: Disaster Damage Assessment

baseline  map

We were also asked to map a coastline after typhoon Haiyan for damage assessment. Our partners used our maps as baseline to distribute with their ground teams to classify structures and to assess extent of the damage per household.

Use Case: Infrastructure Monitoring

farm-to-market road planning and progress monitoring

2012 2013 2014

Here is a unique use case that deals with the development of farm to market roads in the Philippines. Illustrated here is the use of UAVs in community planning in Javier, Leyte. The Mayor of Javier designed and proposed a farm to market road, using aerial images taken by our team. He was able to design the placement of a bridge over a river that had not been mapped before. He was able to even count the number of trees that had to be uprooted during construction. He was able to make right of way decisions, while designing the road. Our maps were valuable in design of the road and bridges in 2012, we returned in 2013 and 2014 to document from the air the progress of this major local program.Here is pretty clear evidence of the potential for aerial imaging in government programs that involve public private partnerships in infrastructure development.

Thank  you  for  your  kind  attention.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.We are very happy to have been invited to this important meeting.