Researchers at Kansas State University in Manhattan have developed a prototype for an unmanned aerial vehicle to collect environmental data, as part of a three-year project that began last fall with a $597,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The sensing tool, which will comprise digital cameras, spectral radiometers and other remote sensing instruments, will be able to fly low to the ground and at low speeds. The vehicle has many potential environmental and civilian applications, including producing high-resolution data about small groups of plants, checking smokestack emissions and measuring the movement of gases between the ground and the atmosphere.