Have been working with folk over in CBER the past couple of months on a really cool new method for capturing eDNA samples. After tests in the lab a few weeks ago, this week we took to the field under the guidance of a great MSc student in CBER who had planned 4 days of flights to capture data around grassland and wooded areas.

The air based eDNA researchers are developing a bunch of really interesting ways of measuring biodiversity and really draws together the benefits of multiple disciplines being in the same building. The conversations have been driven by ecologists but have included us from the Bartlett, the robotics people in Engineering and supported by the awesome technicians in the light fab workshop.

This project is a great example of the kind of work I hoped I would be able to partipate in when joining UCL. I love working with researchers from other specialisms and learning about how they work. I love the fact that I am learning from MSc students and new postdocs from other disciplines. I also recognise what a privilege it is to be continually learning.

We had a full day of flying on one of the hottest days of the year. I haven’t checked the total flight time for the day yet but we recharged the 4 Matrice 4E batteries at least once during the day. The video on Vimeo shows the setting for the research. The first section is over grassland which was easier to prep for, the latter half was over woodland which required some on site planning on the day.

Video of flight on Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/1100687066

What I learned;

• prep via google maps is critical but is really hard to understand the 3D nature of the space - on arrival plan for a recce flight to get the lay of the land - flyover the area being analysed, get some video that you can then look at on the controller and spend 10 mins looking at it;
• second, the collision avoidance whilst maintaining route on the Matrice 4E is awesome - I think a previous drone might have got lodged in a tree on one of our initial flights - a little bit too close for comfort but also highlights this stuff is actually quite hard;
• third, the terrain follow had me stumped again - didn’t quite work how I thought it would (drone was trying to fly into the ground so expected flight height was obviously wrong!) need to work out what I am doing wrong with the AGL settings.

Was also first time flying with another GVC qualified person in the field so was great to be able to get the second drone up to get some film of the other drone in action. I have a new found appreciation of how hard it is to film a small object moving around in 3D space from another object in 3D space. Still, maybe 10 seconds of the 5 minutes captured were useful!

I have 2 days more of flying at a different site and then Joanne will be solo for the last one. Am looking forward to getting some insights into the process being used for lab work since already have a head full of ideas on how to make capture process a little easier after watching Kat and Peggy working with sterilised samples in a field. Really exciting project - looking forward to seeing how this develops.

This last picture shows the Kites checking out the drone - had to make sure we were not disturbing them…

In other news: we hit 10 Mega Watt Hours generated from our house solar this week.

Screenshot of energy generated.

And students are in the final phases of prep for their exhibition opening next week!

Poster advertising CE Exhibition