by Kathrine Schmidt
Last Modified: Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 9:30 p.m.
THIBODAUX - Its wingspan is only five feet. But officials and researchers hope this tiny unmanned plane, dubbed the CyberBug, can help enhance research on coastal issues as well as bring a new industry and jobs to the area.
After more than two years of working to bring Unmanned Aerial Systems technology to the Houma-Thibodaux area, researchers are preparing for its first test flights for the cutting-edge data collection system this summer, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We feel it is very important for this region," said Balaji Ramachandran, assistant professor of geomatics at Nicholls State University and lead researcher on the project. "It can bring in a lot of growth in the southern part of the state."
Originally used for military surveillance and monitoring, unmanned planes have expanded in their use to include scientific research, search- and-rescue missions, fisheries, traffic or damage to power lines. A host of local groups, including Nicholls, the Houma-Terrebonne Airport, Fletcher Technical Community College, the South Central Planning and Development Commission and the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority have all been working on the project, a natural fit for the Houma-Thibodaux area because of its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, supporters say.
The system is made up of a "bird," or unmanned aircraft, that is controlled by instruments on the ground. Cameras and other monitoring systems collect images and other data and transmit them back to on-land systems.
Houma's first plane, a hand-launched model, will be set off from barrier islands to help map coastal data and monitor bird habitats. Researchers believe it will be the first civilian UAS flight in Louisiana.
"The demonstration is just to get the public's interest," Ramachandran said. "The reason we picked the barrier islands is because our biological scientists are already working on restoration projects. That's very important."
The plan is to continue with at least one flight per month to contribute to the research throughout the first year of its operation, Ramachandran said.
The pilots for the project, Houma-Terrebonne airport director Earl Hicks and local aviator Darryl Christen, will attend training in Utah for the project this week.
But it took some major investments and effort to get the project to this stage.
First, the team needed a network upgrade to transmit the signals from the plane to a station on the ground, and then in turn share it with other universities in the state.
In 2007, a $73,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security built up the wireless connection between Nicholls and Fletcher Technical Community College. This February, a connection was finished to the high-powered LONI network at Tulane University from Nicholls, thanks to a grant from the Delta Regional Authority with the help of South Central Planning and Development Commission.
They also bought the CyberBug bird, made possible with a $40,000 grant, a hand-launched craft that can stay in the air for just over an hour.
If the initial flights are successful, the scientists hope to progress to larger birds launched from boats, eventually moving to large-scale models that would take off from a runway at the airport. The airport set aside 150 acres off Moffet <0x000a>Road several years ago to be available for UAS projects and potential businesses.
Their aim: Make Houma an attractive and competitive spot for larger government contracts and private-sector UAS development, according to George Rey, a consultant on the project with COTS Technology in New Orleans, who reported on the topic to the Houma-Terrebonne Airport Commission in April.
Some of those opportunities, he suggested, could include hurricane research done by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or flights that could inexpensively monitor power lines for damage for power companies.
Terrebonne Parish's economic-development group is already working to pursue some of these chances. Hicks, along with Michelle Edwards, who handles business recruitment for the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority, attended a UAS trade show near Albuquerque last December.
Since the airport began pursuing the project a few years ago, TEDA has been working to search out business prospects for research, development and manufacturing in that sector, Edwards said.
"I think it offers an opportunity to diversify into emerging technologies of the future," Edwards said. "It offers us an opportunity to get into research and development areas for specialized technologies that are not in the oil and gas industry.
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