Local Government Policy and Planning for Unmanned Aerial Systems

This research identifies key state and local government stakeholders in California for drone policy creation and implementation, and describes their perceptions and understanding of drone policy. The investigation assessed stakeholders’ positions, interests, and influence on issues, with the goal of providing potential policy input to achieve successful drone integration in urban environments and within the national airspace of the United States. The research examined regulatory priorities through the use of a two-tiered Stakeholder Analysis Process. The first tier consisted of a detailed survey sent out to over 450 local agencies and jurisdictions in California. The second tier consisted of an in-person focus group to discuss survey results as well as to gain deeper insights into local policymakers’ current concerns. Results from the two tiers of analysis, as well as recommendations, are provided here

What Are the Thirty Most Populous Cities in California Doing to Regulate Unmanned Aircraft Systems?

This report presented and analyzed a list of local legislation to address the question, “what regulations do the thirty most populous cities in California have in place to manage the usage of drones?” It can serve as a guidance document for local agency administrators seeking to develop regulations for drone operations

INSPIRE Newsletter Spring 2018

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/inspire-newsletters/1002/thumbnail.jp

Colored Petri net modelling and evaluation of drone inspection methods for distribution networks

The UAV industry is developing rapidly and drones are increasingly used for monitoring industrial facilities. When designing such systems, operating companies have to find a system configuration of multiple drones that is near-optimal in terms of cost while achieving the required monitoring quality. Stochastic influences such as failures and maintenance have to be taken into account. Model-based systems engineering supplies tools and methods to solve such problems. This paper presents a method to model and evaluate such UAV systems with coloured Petri nets. It supports a modular view on typical setup elements and different types of UAVs and is based on UAV application standards. The model can be easily adapted to the most popular flight tasks and allows for estimating the monitoring frequency and determining the most appropriate grouping and configuration of UAVs, monitoring schemes, air time and maintenance periods. An important advantage is the ability to consider drone maintenance processes. Thus, the methodology will be useful in the conceptual design phase of UAVs, in monitoring planning, and in the selection of UAVs for specific monitoring tasks

Design and Validation of Cyber-Physical Systems Through Co-Simulation: The Voronoi Tessellation Use Case

This paper reports on the use of co-simulation techniques to build prototypes of co-operative autonomous robotic cyber-physical systems. Designing such systems involves a mission-specific planner algorithm, a control algorithm to drive an agent performing its task; and the plant model to simulate the agent dynamics. An application aimed at positioning a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in a bounded area, exploiting a Voronoi tessellation algorithm developed in this work, is taken as a case study. The paper shows how co-simulation allows testing the complex system at the design phase using models created with different languages and tools. The paper then reports on how the adopted co-simulation platform enables control parameters calibration, by exploiting design space exploration technology. The INTO-CPS co-simulation platform, compliant with the Functional Mock-up Interface standard to exchange dynamic simulation models using various languages, was used in this work. The different software modules were written in Modelica, C, and Python. In particular, the latter was used to implement an original variant of the Voronoi algorithm to tesselate a convex polygonal region, by means of dummy points added at appropriate positions outside the bounding polygon. A key contribution of this case study is that it demonstrates how an accurate simulation of a cooperative drone swarm requires modeling the physical plant together with the high-level coordination algorithm. The coupling of co-simulation and design space exploration has been demonstrated to support control parameter calibration to optimize energy consumption and convergence time to the target positions of the drone swarm. From a practical point of view, this makes it possible to test the ability of the swarm to self-deploy in space in order to achieve optimal detection coverage and allow unmanned aerial vehicles in a swarm to coordinate with each other

Common Ravens

Damage Management Methods for Common Ravens Type of Control -- Available Management Options Exclusion -- Often ineffective or impractical Fertility Control -- None available Frightening Devices -- Effigies • Pyrotechnics and propane cannons • Lasers and flashing lights Habitat Modification -- Bale and bury garbage • Install dumpsters with secure lids • Remove or bury dead livestock • Remove abandoned houses, sheds, and barns to eliminate nesting structures Nest Treatment -- Allowed with proper Federal and State permits; Egg oiling or addling and nest destruction Repellents -- Methiocarb (EPA Reg. No. 56228-33) • Methyl anthranilate (food-grade grape flavoring agent) Shooting -- Allowed with proper Federal and State permits; Requires use of non-toxic/non-lead ammunition Toxicants -- Compound DRC-1339 Concentrate (EPA Reg. No. 56228-29, 56228-63); May only be used by USDA Wildlife Services employees or people working under their supervision. Trapping -- Allowed with proper Federal and State permits; Live-trapping with modified soft-catch #1½, #2 or #3 coil-spring trap

Making the Most of United States v. Jones in a Surveillance Society: A Statutory Implementation of Mosaic Theory

article published in law journalIn the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Jones, a majority of the Justices appeared to recognize that under some circumstances aggregation of information about an individual through governmental surveillance can amount to a Fourth Amendment search. If adopted by the Court, this notion sometimes called "mosaic theory"-could bring about a radical change to Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, not just in connection with surveillance of public movements-the issue raised in Jonesbut also with respect to the government's increasingly pervasive record-mining efforts. One reason the Court might avoid the mosaic theory is the perceived difficulty of implementing it. This article provides, in the guise of a model statute, a means of doing so. More specifically, this article explains how proportionality reasoning and political process theory can provide concrete guidance for the courts and police in connection with physical and data surveillance

Strafford county 2018 annual report of the commissioners, treasurer, other county officers and the Strafford county delegation Strafford county, New Hampshire for the year ending December 31, 2018.

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a county in the state of New Hampshire

Estuarine Vegetation Assessment and Analysis of Trends for the Minnamurra and Crooked Rivers

Macrophytes (mangroves and saltmarsh) provide important ecosystem services which contribute to the overall health of estuaries. As such their extent and distribution are used as key indicators for overall estuary health. GIS has been used by coastal managers to determine the extent and distribution of macrophytes. Constant advancements in technology bring about new techniques and methods for mapping, often rendering older methods obsolete. Utilising GIS, the extent and distribution of mangrove and saltmarsh communities within the Minnamurra River and less studied Crooked River were assessed. Current 2020 mapping of mangroves and saltmarsh communities using high resolution aerial photography was conducted. Changes in the extent of mangroves and saltmarsh between 1960 and 2020, were determined using aerial photographic interpretation. A comparison between the use of high-resolution aerial photography and ultra high-resolution drone photography within the Crooked River was also conducted. Analysis identified that there are currently 167.99 ha of mangroves and 23.14 ha of saltmarsh within the Minnamurra River. Within the Crooked River there are currently 0.37 ha of mangroves and 3.37 ha of saltmarsh. The encroachment of mangroves and expansion of Casuarina into saltmarsh was noted to have occurred across both rivers. A number of mechanisms were proposed for the observed mangrove encroachment including sea level rise, subsidence and auto-compaction, altered nutrient regimes resulting from agricultural practices and altered tidal regimes as a result of extended periods of estuary closure. Comparison between the use of high-resolution aerial photography and ultra high-resolution drone photography, showed an overall greater precision for the digitising of mangroves with the use of drone photographs

Domestic Surveillance of Public Activities and Transactions with Third Parties: Melding European and American Approaches

[abstract] In most countries, government surveillance of activities that take place in public is not regulated or only lightly regulated. Similarly, in most countries police efforts to obtain records of everyday transactions usually requires, at most, a finding that the record is “relevant” to an investigation. Arguably, these rules should change now that technology – cameras, drones, computers, and the like – has made both visual surveillance and transaction surveillance easier and cheaper. Technology allows creation of “panvasive” systems that scan across and record the activities of large groups of persons and mining the accumulated data