2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this research, multiple uses of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are explored to attract lower-level undergraduate students to conduct research in the Aerospace Education and Research (AERO) lab. Lower-level undergraduate students are often interested in getting involved in research but do not have a clear understanding of the expectations. In this study, undergraduate students are involved in several projects that utilize sensors including thermal imaging, RGB camera and infrared camera mounted on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to capture and analyze data. In one project, students use thermal imaging sensors mounted on a UAS to identify Foreign Object Debris (FOD) on asphalt e.g. runways. Thermal imaging and the You Only Look Once (YOLO) Artificial Intelligence (AI) based object detectors are developed and utilized. In another project, students integrate vision processing into a UAS to assist in the evaluation of damage to homes after a natural disaster like hurricane; to help automate the process of damage assessment so volunteers and damage relief programs can spend more time tending to people. In another project, radiometric thermal imaging is used to acquire precise temperature information, applying physical analysis and computational methods to properly detect and diagnose potential structural or electrical faults in photovoltaic arrays. This thermal data is used to reliably identify defects such as hot spots, microcracks, and conductor failures with considerable accuracy and consistency. In another project, students perform a real-time vehicle detection and counting framework that integrates the state-of-the-art YOLOv12 object detection model with aerial imagery acquired from a UAS platform. Details of all these projects will be discussed. Additionally, student learning, feedback and areas of improvement will be highlighted.