What are the current goals of your project?

The goal of the internship is to investigate how to optimize path planning and on-board decision making so the UAV can collect the best data with its limited battery.

What accomplishments has your project made so far?

The project I am working on, Streamflow, aims to automate the United States Geological Survey (USGS) task of measuring river flow rates across U.S. rivers. The project uses a UAV equipped with advanced optics to measure flow rate from visual and thermal data. One broad goal of my internship is to develop the data processing pipelines that allow us to understand the flow rate of a river.

So far, I’ve implemented several scripts necessary for efficient processing of the data collected by the UAV, such as a script to interpolate water flow rates where the measurements are missing. Currently, I am building a system to stabilize the video feed from the UAV by using data collected from its IMU. This involves several steps such as the measurement of intrinsic parameters of our cameras, which I have accomplished, as well as an implementation of the mathematics that transforms images based on this data.

What impact has this internship had so far?

I think this internship will be instrumental in shaping my career. Before beginning this internship, I had questions about whether I should pursue a PhD for a career in research or simply enter industry. Thanks to the wonderful environment at Ames Research Center, I have been able to observe what a career in cutting edge research looks like, as well as get advice from people who have walked the path before me. My experience here is motivating me to continue my education even further and has provided me with connections to make the process easier.