University of Nebraska - Lincoln

The University of Nebraska - Lincoln has founded two separate divisions of drone research within their campus. Their Drone Journalism Lab has established a focus on the study and use of drone technology to satisfy the changing needs of journalism. Their other program is the NIMBUS Lab, where research on drone monitoring systems and other technologies takes place.

The two labs often collaborate with each other and with other departments within and outside the university.

Drone Journalism Lab
The Drone Journalism Lab was founded by Professor Matt Waite from The College of Mass Journalism and Communication at UNL in November 2011 to "research the ethical, legal and regulatory issues involved in using pilotless aircraft to do journalism." Students and faculty of the program both build drones and study their potential use in modern journalism.

In October 2012, the Lab posted a video on Youtube showing footage of a drought survey that they performed in partnership with the NIMBUS Lab, taken by a UAV. The FAA soon became aware of this video and on July 10, Waite received a letter from the FAA stating that the program required a certificate of authorization to continue using their drones because they were a public agency. This letter and a similar letter that University of Missouri received, led Waite to host the first Drone Journalism Conference in 2013.

Their students and faculty contribute news stories, analysis and other content regarding drone journalism to their blog and their Youtube channel.

NIMBUS Lab
The Nebrasaka Intelligent MoBile Unmanned Systems (NIMBUS ) Lab researches "technology in software and systems engineering, robotics and sensor networks... to develop more capable and dependable UAVs". The lab is supported in part by grants from Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, Ascending Technologies, and UNL support.

The NIMBUS Lab has partnered with many other organizations including University of the Pacific, UC Berkley Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, UC Berkley Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, and several groups within UNL.

Reducing Failure Rates of Robotic Systems
This project involved alleviating the challenge of manually monitoring anomalies in a robotics system by implementing a software that would automatically infer invariants to avoid system failures. The project resulted in reduced system failures in various complex situations for a system designed to land a UAV on a moving platform.

Robotic Water Sampling
Water monitoring poses a significant challenge to scientists because water sources and contaminants cover an immense area and are quickly changing. For these reasons, static sensors are often not sufficient to guage the variable state of aquatic envrionments. The objective of this research is to create an a mobile aerial water sampling system to reduce costs and environmental impact in the field of aquatic ecology. The researchers also developed semi-autonomous systems that would allow non-expert operators to interact with robotics while insuring the safety of the operator and the environment. This system will be deployed with water scientists to perform field studies in watersources in Nebraska and California. Throughout these studies, the cost effectiveness and and capabilities of the system will be assessed while technological advances are slowly implemented. They also aim to educate scientists, students, and the public about the impact of using robotic systems for research through a series of videos, courses and articles.