Independent Project Proposal

On the Big Island of Hawaii, there is a trail that traces the whole western coast. This trail combines three kinds of Hawaiian Trails: surviving elements of the ancient Hawaiian trails that were created to move across the coastline, trails that developed on top of the traditional routes after the europeans made contact with Hawaii, and the recently created pathways that were built to link these historic segments. Because a large section of the trail was essential for mobility of the ancient Hawaiians, there are many archaeological sites scattered upon it that were used by ancient Hawaiians. For this project, we are planning to use an aerial drone (phantom 2) outfitted with GIS, cameras, and infrared detectors to locate, map, and inspect these archeological sites along the Ala Kahakai trail. We will focus our efforts near the the Kohala research station, located near Kawaiihai. The text of my full proposal is located below:

Drone Mapping Independent Project Proposal

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to map the Ala Kahakai trail near the coastal research station by use of aerial drones. It is also to gather information about archaeological sites, such as their size, location, physical description, and function at time of creation. This geographic data will possibly be put into Hawaii County’s GIS (Geographic Information System), wherein location data is stored digitally and easily accessible to the entire Hawaii community. Our group also wishes to expand the drone project from the singular use of cameras, which a past group of students (Hiro Ueno and Bo Bleckel) have already outfitted onto the drones, to other types of equipment (primarily infrared cameras and GLS [global locating system]). Using the information we gather, we would like to create a map of a section of the ala kahakai trail to post online or submit to appropriate cartographers. Any other students who were studying the ala kahakai coastline would benefit from the data we gather if the nature of their project was similar to ours or if they required maps of the ala kahakai coastline. Perhaps, if the drones are efficient, more students who study the coastline would use them in order to easily gather geographic information.

What will you measure: Locational information from the drones instruments describing the position and state of the Ala Kahakai trail and archeological sites along side of it. These could be in the form of still visible images, video, or infrared images. Since we want to map the trail, it is necessary that we measure the latitutudal/longitudal location of the drone for refrence at the exact time that the camera shots are taken. With these aerial shots, it would be possible to find new archaeological sties near the ala kahakai trail that were previously not documented.

How will you measure it: Imaging devices on the drone + GLS (Global locating system) to measure longitude/latitude of the drone as it flies. HD cameras and infrared cameras are some of the possible imaging devices that can be used on this project to gather data of the locations of sites near the Ala Kahakai trail.

Tools/Resources needed:

-Multirotor (8/10 prop)

-UHD Camera (Panasonic GH4, Hero 4?)

-Infrared Camera

-GPS Receiver

-3 axis Gimbal

-FPV System

Impact: This project will help the Hawaiian government and citizens by providing accurate information about the Ala Kahakai trial, an important historical trail that extends the whole of the Hawaiian coastline. It will benefit the coastal research station, at which the drones will be based, by providing new type of information about the trail along side the other information the operators of the station have already gathered.

Legacy: Students who receive this project in the future can continue to use the drones to map more of the Ala Kahakai trail, to which there are still many unrecorded sections. They could possibly rebase the drones to image a totally different section of the island entirely.