SnowSampler: An Autonomous UAV for Penetration-Based Snow Stratigraphy Measurements on Steep Slopes

Abstract
Snow stratigraphy measurements provide important information for determining snowpack stability. However, acquiring these measurements, especially on high-aspect slopes, remains a high-risk task due to the exposure of the operator to the intrinsic avalanche hazard. Therefore, to date, little to no snow stratigraphy measurements have ever been acquired on high-risk slopes. In this work, we propose a novel solution that combines an autonomous aerial robotic system that can deploy an SMP-like measurement device into steep slopes. We achieve this by using an adaptive landing leg that allows reliable autonomous landing and taking off from steep slopes of up to 45 degrees. The vehicle uses a digital elevation map to automatically orient the vehicle’s heading and landing gear. We evaluated our system on a deployment over two snow-covered slopes located in Davos, Switzerland. We demonstrated that the vehicle can successfully take snow stratigraphy measurements by landing on arbitrary locations on the terrain up to 38 degrees.

- Paper: https://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-scie...
- Code: https://github.com/ethz-asl/adaptive-...