Based in Bristol, AG Surveys has been collecting topographic beach surveys around the country as part of England’s Environment Agency’s coastal monitoring campaign. In the first integrated approach of its kind in the program, AG Surveys uses the Trimble UX5 unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with a Trimble/Applanix GNSS receiver along with photogrammetry software. The UAS-based system has not only... read more
Pesticides, fertilizers and water are the most important means to enhance agricultural crop production. The prevalent infestation of fall armyworm in China has resulted in reduced yields, threatening food security and the livelihood of smallholders. It’s impractical to conduct manual spraying over farmlands larger than 5 hectares, and this also runs both the risk of wasting large amounts of pesticides... read more
Site-survey preparations for a windfarm of 20 300-foot tall wind turbines might have been quite complex for a location in a 2,500-foot-high valley in the Swiss Alps. However, the contractor decided to use a drone with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability supplied by Wingtra to speed up the work and produce highly accurate geo-referenced data. Although multirotor drones are... read more
The UAV market has been growing rapidly for the past several years, especially in the U.S. with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 107 regulations becoming active in August 2016. Before then, it was impossible to tell what systems were real and would weather the marketplace, and which were just a dream. Multicopters dominate the marketplace. (DJI’s M600 — out since... read more
The ability to capture and evaluate truth on the ground through aerial imagery is an ever-growing industry, thanks to the proliferation of UAVs and access to imagery on demand and online. Yet obstacles remain that could prevent organizations from capturing location intelligence. For organizations that require timely, accurate and current aerial imagery, an additional capture program outside of drones could... read more
The ASTRALiTe Edge is a small-scale topographic and bathymetric scanning lidar that can detect underwater objects, measure shallow water depth and survey critical underwater infrastructure from a small UAV platform. The patented 2-in-1 topo-bathy Edge can see beneath the water surface at depths of 0–10 meters. It is self-contained with its own INS/GNSS, battery and onboard computer. It weighs under... read more
When Trimble sold its Gatewing fixed-wing drone business to Delair in October 2016, its decision was based on several drivers. Trimble had worked with Delair since 2008 and knew their capabilities; the company decided that a dedicated drone company should be better placed than a GNSS manufacturer to find and develop leading-edge drone business. Also, the sale enabled Trimble to... read more
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