On a Wing and a Dare
- By Nick Houtman
The Vapor, built by Pulse Aerospace of Lakewood, Colorado, can fly as high as 15,000 feet and be flown autonomously or under the control of a ground-based pilot. In a trial run near Corvallis, Michael Wing used the unmanned aerial system to study imaging techniques in a search-and-rescue operation. (Photo: Chris Becerra)
On a warm afternoon last summer in the hills west of Corvallis, three Oregon State University students went hiking in the McDonald-Dunn Forest when they became “lost.” A few scattered belongings — a backpack, shoes, a shirt — marked their trail in an emergency response exercise. Rather than send out a full-scale operation on foot in the steep terrain, a rescue team launched an unmanned aerial vehicle, the suitcase-sized Vapor made by Pulse Aerospace of Lakewood, Colorado. With all the whoosh and whir of an electric lawnmower, it hovered over the hills, took thermal-infrared and visible-light photos and sent back a video stream to a laptop in an SUV parked in a clearing.
The results showed that aerial devices can effectively assist in an emergency. While concerns over privacy have driven much of the recent public debate in Oregon and elsewhere, such machines are proving their worth in fighting forest fires, managing farm fields and monitoring the environment. Most people call them drones. Insiders call them unmanned aerial systems (UAS). In any case, they are likely to transform our use of the skies in the near future.
Oregon has been recognized for more than a decade as a hotbed of UAS development, says Belinda Batten, Oregon State engineering professor and a former program officer for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. That reputation began with Insitu, a company in the Columbia River Gorge. “Insitu is one of the global leaders in these autonomous vehicles,” says Batten. “Because of them being where they are, there’s an entire supply chain in the Hood River area: component pieces, the avionics, cameras, autopilots. The motors are being made at Northwest UAV in McMinnville.” Additional UAS companies are located in Central Oregon, including Kawak Aviation Technologies and PARADIGM.
Commercial UAS flights are currently illegal, but the Federal Aviation Administration allows research testing with a permit, known as a Certificate of Authority. PARADIGM, a Bend startup, has arranged for FAA approvals and facilitated projects for OSU, including the search-and-rescue operation in the McDonald-Dunn Forest and a summer-long analysis of potato fields in Hermiston.
Now, as the federal government plans to open the nation’s airspace to planes without a live pilot onboard — whether operated by software or a person in a distant control station — Oregon State is partnering with businesses, economic development organizations and state government to create an Unmanned Vehicle System Research Consortium. OSU scientists, engineers and students are testing UAS over potato fields, vineyards, forests, beaches and ocean waters. Inspired by bat wings and butterflies, they are designing new aircraft with lightweight carbon composites, sensors and flexible membranes.
Researchers hope to grow an industry that developed largely for military applications and already employs more than 400 people in Oregon. It has an annual statewide economic impact estimated at $81 million, according to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, AUVSI.
Assistant Professor Michael Wing, left, and graduate student John Burnett are modifying and testing off-the-shelf components in their search for low-cost aerial imaging platforms. (Photo: Bryan Bernart)
Michael Wing, the appropriately named OSU coordinator of the research consortium, is developing cooperative UAS research projects with two Oregon companies: Portland-based HoneyComb Corp., which designs systems for agriculture and natural resource management; and VDOS LLC of Corvallis, which focuses on the environmental, military and humanitarian applications of UAS.
“For HoneyComb, partnering with OSU means that we have the support of research programs operating under authority of the FAA,” says Ryan Jenson, CEO and co-founder. VDOS conducts manned and unmanned aerial flights in Alaska and other parts of the Pacific Rim, says Seth Johnson, the company’s UAS manager who anticipates collaborating on technology and educational opportunities such as student internships.
Northwest UAV has already embarked on research with OSU aimed at increasing the fuel efficiency of its UAS motors, and at least one new business has emerged from the university through the Oregon State Advantage Accelerator program. Michael Williams, a junior in the College of Business, has created Multicopter Northwest to market his aerial platform to professional photographers and filmmakers.
