Displaying items by tag: UAV

Last year in November, our group led by Barry Osmond hosted a LIFT (light induced fluorescence transient) meeting in Wollongong.  The second meeting was held in Germany hosted by the Forschungszentrum Jülich IBG-2: Plant Sciences. The University of Wollongong, HRPPC at CSIRO in Canberra and the Forschungszentrum Jülich are developing protocols for measuring canopy photosynthesis using these new LIFT chlorophyll fluorometers.

Next stop was a 2 day workshop on Innovative optical Tools for proximal sensing of ecophysiological processes (OPTIMISE) in Milan. This was funded by COST which is an intergovernmental framework promoting European Cooperation in Science and Technology, through coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level.

On what felt like one of the hottest days this year, I was joined by my fellow lab members and a few other researchers for the universities first remote control and drone demonstration. I brought along my large hexcopter, my tricopter and a number of other aircraft to demonstrate the potential of these machines for research and other applications.

Prior to the demonstration Melinda Waterman had her first flying lessons on a simulator, followed by some brave first attempts flying a helicopter. No injuries and no crashes and with any luck the tricopter will be flying over Antarctica with the lab at the controls.

Hopefully one of many demonstrations to come!