Tools and datasets for unmanned aerial system applications

Abstract

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have rapidly transformed environmental monitoring by affording distributed and frequent observations at high spatial resolutions. The pervasive use of such platforms is impressive and UASs have rapidly become an indispensable addition to the toolkit available to researchers and practitioners globally. However, the ubiquitous spread of UASs has also been paralleled by a plethora of platforms and techniques to process data and extracts environmental variables. From off-the-shelf commercial toolboxes to custom-built routines, UAS end users have to orient themselves among innumerable platforms and resources, and this hampers accurate comparisons to more established approaches. In this chapter, we identify a common workflow for most popular UAS applications from raw data to output benchmarking and comprehensively report available protocols and software tools. Further, we present several data resources for a thorough comparison of existing techniques. Finally, we illustrate state of the art and challenges of multisource studies that merge data from diverse monitoring platforms. This work represents an important effort towards the harmonization of existing UAS methodologies and the standardization of UAS-based measurements.