Scion has pioneered a new artificial intelligence (AI) based system that uses low-cost RGB imagery from UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to identify radiata pine seedlings. The algorithm they have created could soon replace manual surveys, which are laborious, sometimes dangerous and only suited to small areas. Surveys are traditionally carried out after planting to ensure the right number of trees …
Technologies for the Future: A Lidar Overview
Point clouds can be captured by an ever-increasing number of means to understand the surrounding reality and detect critical developments. Diverse applications of 3D laser scanning or ‘Lidar’, which is a technology on a sky-rocketing path to be used for mapping and surveying, are changing the way we collect and refine topographic data. Which technologies and processes are building the capability …
Can Drones Compete with Satellite Images? How BVLOS Will Change Global Agriculture
At the recent InterDrone conference in Las Vegas, Michael Ritter of SlantRange gave a great presentation – and explained how drones may be able to completely revolutionise global agriculture. Imagine aerial data that can tell you much, much more than which areas of your fields are planted and relatively healthy or the standard analysis received from comparing crops to vegetation health indexes. Get closer …
When Photogrammetry Meets Lidar: Towards the Airborne Hybrid Era
The airborne market for area-wide 3D data acquisition is experiencing a noticeable trend towards a hybrid mapping concept. In the near future, most airborne data collection will increasingly be performed by a combination of active and passive sensors. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, collecting all relevant data while flying is an efficient and cost-effective solution, even when …
New Airbus and DroneDeploy Partnership
While they’re still primarily known as a manned aircraft giant, Airbus has been taking a significant role in unmanned innovation – and now they’re ready to offer a commercial product. Airbus UTM has been participating in unmanned traffic management (UTM) for more than 2 years, originally as part of the company’s innovation division. They are developing a digital air traffic management solution, …
Mapping experts win award for leadership in crisis
A grassroots community of mapmakers that created an interactive map viewed by over 800,000 people during the Pigeon Valley Fire earlier this year has been honoured for its vision and expertise in the spatial industry. The New Zealand Geographic Information Systems for Emergency Management (NZGIS4EM) Committee took out the Supreme Award at the New Zealand Spatial Excellence Awards (NZSEA) in …
Airspace integration trials programme
The NZ Government is establishing an Airspace Integration Trials Programme to support the safe testing and development of advanced unmanned aircraft and accelerate their integration into the aviation system, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods announced. The Government will work with leading, innovative aviation industry partners to test and demonstrate the use of unmanned aircraft for passenger transport, cargo …
InSAR remote sensing for forest inventory
Remote sensing is a great way to learn more about our forests and manage them accordingly. Scion is exploring new methods to capture information, such as SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar). Remote sensing involves recording data about an object, without making contact with the object. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) satellite technology is one method that has been used to perform forest inventory …