Can A Drone Monitor Park-based Physical Activity?

In a park, a UAV observation is conducted in three steps: 1) an operator plans the flight path by considering boundaries, obstacles, and park users and collects contextual information such as weather or park conditions, 2) after flying the UAV to an appropriate height, the operator sets flight waypoints on the pre-planned path, and 3) the UAV automatically flies through the waypoints and records the area. After the on-site flights, an assessor collects data on park users from the recorded videos. Additional assessor watches the same video to test inter-rater reliability. Every UAV operation follows the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety regulations, and the researcher obtained permission from both IRB (approved; July 29th, 2016) and a municipal park department.