Welcome to the website for the UNmanned Vehicle and Atmospheric Investigation Lab (UNVAIL) led by Dr. Kevin Adkins at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. Our research involves investigating the surrounding physical world using the advantages that uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), colloquially referred to as drones, provide. Ground-based sensors, such as those attached to meteorological towers, are fixed, appreciably spaced, not easily moved and only offer insight into the near-surface environment.
In contrast, an instrumented UAS offers the ability to make on-demand measurements in a more continuous manner with high spatial resolution across vast horizontal and vertical distances, including at intermediate heights between the domains of ground-based sensors and manned aircraft operations. This lowest layer of the atmosphere, directly influenced by the Earth's surface, is the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and this is the domain of direct interest in the majority of our lab investigations.
In addition to better understanding this historically undersampled portion of the atmosphere, we are also interested in better characterizing this region in order to enable new aviation operations. To date, traditional aircraft have quickly passed through the ABL en route to higher cruising altitudes. However, burgeoning advanced air mobility (AAM) operations now envision this domain for sustained aircraft operations.
Welcome to UNVAIL!
Latest News
Newest Lab-Developed VTOL Takes Flight
The newest lap-developed VTOL UA takes flight. The design, development and construction of the UA was spearheaded by graduate student Robert Moore.
Lab Team Plans For Field Investigation Of Convective Initiation During The North American Monsoon.
Researchers are looking forward to returning to the field this coming summer. Plans are shaping up for a multivehicle investigation, on the Colorado Plateau this July and August, of convective initiation during the North American Monsoon.
Newest UA Arrives!
We are excited to have received our first VTOL UA from Censys Technologies, the Sentaero v2VTOL.
Lab Presents at the 101st American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting!
The lab presented: MOVE: A Mobility Virtual Environment for Planning, Rehearsing, Collecting and Visualizing Atmospheric Observations Using MUltiple Coordinated Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, at the 21st Symposium on Meteorological Observation and Instrumentation at the 101st AMS Annual Meeting.
Lab Team Wins The Student Research Symposium
Dr. Adkins Selected As The COA Researcher Of The Year
Dr. Kevin Adkins is selected as the 2020 ERAU College of Aviation Researcher of the Year
Lab Members Complete LiDAR Training!
Two lab faculty members and students recently completed LiDAR training with LiDARUSA
Come Join Us!
We are currently recruiting undergraduate and graduate students to join the UNVAIL.
If interested, please contact Dr. Adkins at kevin.adkins@erau.edu.
ERAU Eagles Provide Archaeologists Continuing Education and Help Archive Historical Sites
Dr. Adkins Joins Panel Discussion at NBAA on Future WX Needs for AAM
Dr. Adkins joins NASA and FAA personnel to discuss the needs and challenges associated with weather for advanced air mobility at NBAA-BACE
Dr. Adkins gives invited talk at the University of Tulsa on 'Drones for Aerial Observations'
Dr. Adkins announces an exciting new special issue in the journal Drones: Weather Impacts on Uncrewed Aircraft.
Dr. Adkins serves as guest editor for this special issue, along with colleagues Drs. Jamey Jacob and Joachim Reuder. We would love to receive your submission!
UNVAIL team tests UAS observational strategies at the IBHS Research Center
UAS observational strategies were investigated at the state-of-the-art IBHS wind tunnel in Richburg, SC
UNVAIL Team's publication, Go with the Flow: Estimating Wind Using Uncrewed Aircraft is selected as volume cover article and is patent pending!
UNVAIL Team publishes results of field campaign validating the General Urban Area Microclimate Prediction tool (GUMP) funded by NASA and presents results at ISARRA conference in Bergen, Norway
Lab Information
Location: MicaPlex 111
Lab Directors: Dr. Kevin Adkins
Contact Us: To speak to someone about this lab or any of our facilities, call us at 386-226-6100 or 800-862-2416, or email DaytonaBeach@erau.edu.