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Week 2: Skydio Field Outing

09/03/2025

For this week’s lab, flight crews worked on honing flight skills for the Skydio 2+ drone system. This was accomplished by first setting up, including checking the weather, flight equipment, and personal abilities. The weather was found to be fine with manageable winds and clouds heights that worsened with time. The study area was the Purdue Turf Farm, and it contained obstacles such as trees, buildings, and fences around the borders. An image of this area can be found in Figure 1, and a view of the actual turf can be seen in Figure 2. LAANC airspace authorization was acquired for this flight because of its proximity to the delta airpace, and an image of this is found in Figure 3. Initial setup also included the designation of PIC and VO roles as well as determining the airworthiness of the UAS.

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Figure 1: Study area

Figure 1: Study area

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Figure 2: Weather and flight area

Figure 2: Weather and flight area

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Figure 3: LAANC authorization

Figure 3: LAANC authorization

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The flight in question included the use of the waypoint and keyframe tools as well as a series of nadir images to understand the camera and flight characteristics of the system. First, a series of pictures were taken straight down at the operators every 25’ AGL up to 200’ AGL with one image zoomed and one not at each height. Images of this action can be seen toward the end of the lab. The waypoint tool was practiced, and it essentially allows the drone to fly to predesignated points on a map with GPS guidance. A view of this setup can be seen below in Figure 4 with three waypoints selected. A flight was then conducted to fly between them, which appear as squares on the controller view. Figure 5 shows the keyframe tool selected and being used in flight, which is essentially like the waypoint tool with added parameters such as roll, tilt, and speed changes, making for a more customizable automated flight path. Both tools could be potentially useful in a number of scenarios.

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Figure 4: Waypoint map

Figure 4: Waypoint map

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Figure 5: Keyframes in flight

Figure 5: Keyframes in flight

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As seen below, ground sample distance (GSD) is a large deal in UAS. The further the camera is from the ground, the worse the image quality will appear in the case of this lab. A comparison between Figures 6 and 7, both at 25’ AGL, and Figures 8 and 9 can be seen. In the lower shots, it is apparent that less area is photographed, but more detail is given on individual objects. For the highest altitude images, the opposite is true. It is important to understand the relationship of GSD to the field of view (FOV) and the mission’s goal to achieve the best results. A full version of this lab’s report is available upon request.

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