Unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), or drones, have broad applications. TRB hosted a webinar on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 from 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern that explored UAS applications for surface transportation agencies. The webinar addressed how UASs can be implemented within state departments of transportation and what their applications are. Presenters discussed challenges and opportunities regarding using UASs for data collection and identify potential impacts on future applications.

This webinar draws on research from the NCHRP Domestic Scan Program, Project 20-68A, Scan 17-01: Successful Approaches For The Use Of Unmanned Aerial System By Surface Transportation Agencies.

The slides and a recording are available.

Webinar Presenters

• James Gray, U.S. Federal Highway Administration
• Basil Yap, North Carolina Department of Transportation
• Colin Brooks, Michigan Tech Research Institute

Moderated by: Emanuel Banks, Arkansas Department of Transportation

Webinar Outline

1. Perspective on UAS
2. Agency organization around UAS and the applications of UAS
3. Data collection / integration for UAS
4. Potential impacts on future applications
5. Question and answer session

The first 60 minutes of the webinar will be for presentations and the final 30 minutes will be reserved for audience questions.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Identify UAS use cases that have been proven nationally and are ready for implementation into traditional workflows
2. Locate resources made available by the Federal Highway Administration to facilitate the adoption of UAS within these technical use case
3. Describe specific uses of UAS, including herbicide application, geotechnical support, construction monitoring, bridge inspection, and traffic monitoring
4. Identify recommended methods of recording data quality to ensure appropriate use of collected data

Professional Development Hour Information

A certificate for 1.5 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) will be provided to Professional Engineers (PEs) who register and attend the webinar as an individual. For approved webinars, TRB’s webinar program awards Registered Continuing Education Provider (RCEP) Professional Development Hour (PDH) credits associated with participation only to the registered individual and not to other members of a group that view the webinar together. To receive PDH credits, please register as an individual and sign into the webinar from your personal computer. After doing this, you may join your group in a meeting room. To be eligible for the credits, individuals must remain signed in for the entire webinar, including for any question and answer session following the presentations.

Registration is available until just before the webinar starts. Once the webinar starts, you will be unable to submit your registration. Individuals that are registered for a webinar but do not receive their confirmation emails due to their organization’s internal firewalls should contact the TRB Helpdesk for assistance in signing in.

Please check with your licensing board to ensure that TRB webinar PDHs are approved by your board.

This webinar was developed in October 2019. TRB has met the standards and requirements of the Registered Continuing Education Program (RCEP). Credit earned on completion of this program will be reported to RCEP by TRB. Complaints about registered providers may be sent to RCEP, 1015 15th Street, NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20005.