Abstract

Drone Mapping Independent Proposal Project

Abstract: The Big Island of Hawaii is a wonderful and beautiful place. There are many sights to be seen here on the island, one of these sights is Ala Kahakai trail along the Kohala coast line. This trail was used by the Hawaiians frequently for many reasons such traveling or trading. Because of this reason, there are many archeological sites there that have not been discovered yet or mapped out. Our goal with this independent study is to use the drones that are fitted with cameras and GIS to be able to locate and map this sites along the coast. Our base of operation will be at Kohala research station located near Kawaihae.

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to map Ala Kahakai trail by the coast through the use of drones. To also gather information on the archeological sites and their purpose for being there. This information will then be potentially placed Hawaii County’s GIS, where it could be publicly viewed by anyone and everyone in the Hawaiian community. Our group also wishes to expand and grow this drone project from the past group of students who we inherited this from by updating the equipment on the drone to enhance it’s performance. Also, using the information we have gather through this project, we would like to make a map of Ala Kahakai coast to post online so that anyone that would want to study the Ala Kahakai coast would benefit from it. I will work on this project with my teammates Abe Binder an Jack Solomon.

What will we measure: We will measure locational information from the drones describing the position and state of Ala Kahakai trail and the sites along the coast. This information will be in the forms of photos, videos, and infrared images. Also since we want to map the trail, we will have to measure the longitude and latitude locations of the drone at the extract time of each shot.

How will we measure: We will use imaging devices on the drone and the GLS(Global Locating System) to measure the longitude and latitude of the drone. We could also we HD cameras and infrared cameras as possible ways of gather information on the locations of the sites near Ala Kahakai.

Tools/Resources:

-Multirotor (8/10 prop)

-UHD Camera (Panasonic GH4, Hero3 or 4)

-Infrared Camera

-GPS Receiver

-3 axis Gimbal

-FPV System

Impact: The impact that this project will have on the Hawaiian community is that it will help the Hawaiian government and the citizens by providing information on the Ala Kahakai trail that extends of the whole Hawaiian coast. It will also help the coastal research station by providing new information of the trail and archaeologist sites that are found along the trail.

Legacy: Since I am a junior, I will continue to work on this project next year to improve this project next year. After that students who take over can continue map the Ala Kahakai coast or if they chose to, they could decided to map an entirely different area of the Island.