Drone Lab Equipment & Facilities
The Drone Lab has an extensive set of drones, sensors, facilities, and supporting equipment for drone-based research and teaching. The list of our equipment and facilities changes often as we acquire new drones and sensors and expand our work.
Our active fleet is primarily US/Allied-manufactured drones and sensors that are NDAA compliant and or Blue-list UAS. We have drones and sensors that can meet current federal rules and funding requirements including the American Secure Drone Act and the Department of Interior’s OPM-11. For future acquisitions, we are only purchasing NDAA compliant or Blue/Green listed drones and sensors. We do still use our older DJI drones for training new pilots.
The links below are for facilities and equipment statements that were used in a recent (and successful!) grant application. They may be useful if you need to include Drona Lab equipment and facilities in a grant proposal.
Drone Lab Equipment
Current Drone Fleet
| Drone | Primary Uses | NDAA/Blue? |
|---|---|---|
| Freefly Astro Max | General workhorse, imagery and lidar | NDAA Compliant |
| Freefly Astro Max Blue | General workhorse, imagery and lidar | Blue List |
| Freefly Alta X (Coming soon!) | Heavy lift, long endurance | Blue List |
| Wingtra One | long endurance VTOL, large area mapping | NDAA Compliant |
| Wingtra Ray (Coming soon!) | long endurance VTOL, large area mapping | Blue List |
| Hylio AG-230 | Agricultural spraying and seeding | NDAA Compliant |
| DJI Matrice M210 with dual camera mounts | RGB and multispectral imagery, mapping | No |
| DJI Mavic 2 Pro | Pilot training, basic RGB mapping | No |
| DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral | Multispectral imaging, mapping | No |
| DJI Phantom 4 Pro | Pilot training, basic RGB mapping | No |
| DJI Inspire 1 | Photography, videography | No |
| DJI Mavic Mini | Pilot training | No |
| Various FPV drones and tiny whoops | Pilot training, fun! | No |
Sensors
| Sensor | Type/Use | NDAA/Blue |
|---|---|---|
| Yellowscan Surveyor Ultra 3 | Lidar with camera module | No |
| Freefly Flux O1 (coming soon!) | Lidar with camera module | Blue List |
| Micasense RedEdge-M | 5-band multispectral | NDAA |
| Micasense RedEdge-Blue | 5-band multispectral | NDAA |
| Sentera 6X (coming soon!) | 5-band multispectral plus RGB | NDAA |
| Sony LR-1 | 64MP RGB | Blue List |
| Optris P1 | Thermal IR | No |
| Freefly LR1 Thermal Pro (coming soon!) | Thermal IR | Blue List |
| Wingtra | 48MP RGB | Blue List |
| DJI Zenmuse x5s | 20MP RGB | No |
| DJI H20T | Thermal IR, RGB | No |
| Deleaves sampling tool | Tree vegetation sampling | No |
GNSS Equipment
- Emlid Reach RS3 (set as RTK base station)
- Emlid Reach RS+ (set as RTK rover)
- Emlid Reach RS (set as RTK base station)
- Emlid Reach-M RTK (2 modules)
- Various tripods and survey poles
- 24″ iron-cross-style pvc-cloth ground control targets (qty 20)
- 48″ iron-cross-style pvc-cloth ground control targets (qty 10)
Power Equipment
- EcoFlow Delta Max 1.3KWh battery bank (for field charging)
- Renogy 100W solar panel
- Miscellaneous LiPo battery chargers
Miscellaneous
- More props, batteries, motors, etc. than you can shake a stick at!
- 3D printers
- Basic tools, maintenance, and fabrication equipment
Drone Lab Facilities
In 2016, the UI completed construction of the Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) as the central hub of interdisciplinary research. The IRIC is an open and shared interdisciplinary research facility available to all faculty members across all colleges and activities.
The IRIC is home to the UI Drone Lab, a 260-ft2 shared research space dedicated to the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS, i.e., drones) for research and teaching. The UI Drone Lab is a collaborative effort of UI faculty and staff from five colleges and units across the University, with the goal of supporting the use of UAS and UAS-mounted sensors in high-quality research and teaching across the UI through a shared pool of drones, sensors, software, support equipment, and knowledge.
Drone Pilots
Most of the faculty and students affiliated with the Drone Lab hold a FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot rating and have extensive experience piloting drones and planning/executing drone missions for data collection. The Drone Lab can provide pilots and drone flight services for other UI research projects or classes. See the Services page for more information.
UI’s UAS Committee
The UI’s UAS Committee ensures safe and legal operation of UAS by University faculty, staff, students or third parties. The UAS Committee was established by the UI Vice President for Research and Economic Development to assess and approve all proposed UAS flights for compliance with state and federal laws, UI policy, risk, and ethical concerns. Many of the Drone Lab faculty are standing members of the UAS Committee.