Sunday, December 13, 2020

New fast workstation and sUAS capability for School of Earth and Space Exploration course development

Overview

Our geoscience courses have benefited from plenty of course development, especially lately as we have moved online and virtual. I recently was able to invest SESE course fees to build out our capabilities for high resolution mapping and 3D work. Javier Colunga built a nice and fast Windows workstation, and we also purchased a Mavic Pro 2 sUAS system. The descriptions are below for reference.

Workstation description

We have been building these "gaming" style fast desktops for a while and this latest incarnation is powerful for graphics intensive and 3D work, especially structure from motion photogrammetry (e.g., Johnson, et al., 2014 and GSA short course).
Here is a short description of the hardware (cost approx. $5k):

  • CPU: Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 32-core/64-thread (with a premium cpu cooling solution)
  • Main Memory: 128GB DDR4 3600
  • Graphics Card: GeForce RTX 2080 Super
  • Storage: Samsung 1TB M.2 NVME OS drive, additional 4TB hard drive
  • Operating system: windows 10 Enterprise
  • Input: Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
  • Monitor: HP 27 inch 1440P
Here is the main software installed:
  • Google Earth Pro
  • Matlab R2020a
  • Camtasia 2020
  • Cloudcompare
  • Agisoft Metashape
  • ArcGIS 10.7
  • QGIS
Here is more description, how to connect remotely, and a sign up sheet. LINK

sUAS description

For SESE, we have purchased a DJI Mavic 2 Pro (actually the FlyMore combo so it has a nice case and 3 batteries). This is a nice mapping and aerial documentation system.

Devin Keating has been helping to get the system into production mode. He has built a nice documentation of the system and its use. He also registered it with the FAA so we have a tail number. See this LINK. To operate it, one should have the part 107 Remote Pilot certification. And, there are ASU oversight requirements as well.

Recent course related work using this type of system (and computed on the nice workstation described above):


Warford Ranch volcano (Arizona) sUAS mapping

Virtual field geology exercises for GLG451 Field Geology I Spring 2020

Material for virtual exercises for GLG452 Field Geology II at Camp Tontozona AZ

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