Unmanned aircraft systems can improve survey data collection

Joseph D. Eyerman; Dorota S. Temple; Stephanie Anne Eckman; Stephanie Anne Eckman; Joseph Eyerman; Dorota S. Temple

Unmanned aircraft systems can improve survey data collection

By Stephanie Anne Eckman, Joseph Eyerman, Dorota S. Temple.

June 06, 2018 Open Access Peer Reviewed

DOI: 10.3768/rtipress.2018.rb.0018.1806

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Abstract

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, will disrupt many industries in the next 5 to 10 years. In this research brief, we speculate about how UAS could be used in survey data collection to make survey data more accurate and/or less costly. We put forth three ideas for how UAS can be used to improve surveys in the future to (1) supplement survey data with UAS photo and sensor data; (2) deliver survey hardware to selected respondents, and (3) detect and enumerate housing units for sample selection.

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