Drone News & Articles

For the second year, the AirVūz Drone Video Awards celebrates the expertise and creativity of the top drone videographers from around the world. From over 30,000 videos uploaded to the platform, 18 were named winners and received prizes from a pool of over $10,000.

California-based drone pilot Mike Bishop won Drone Video of the Year for his incredible look at the animal kingdom in Namibia. The video, which also won the Drone for Good category, features a wide array of animals found on the Erindi game reserve. Hyenas, zebras, lions, and crocodiles are just some of the incredible members of the animal kingdom captured by Bishop, who expertly weaves his drone to get sweeping views of these animals in their environment.

For the other top award, FPV (First-Person Video) of the Year, we move to another part of the world with Saudi Arabia. Johnny Schaer—also known as JohnnyFPV—is a professional drone racing pilot who has competed in the Drone Racing League on ESPN. Here, he uses his skills to capture a unique look at Saudi Arabia’s desert environment and the country’s rich archeological heritage.

Travel is an overriding theme, with Iceland’s volcanic landscape featured in several winning videos. From Mexico and Guatemala to St. Petersburg, Russia, the locations featured demonstrate how the winning videographers use their drones to show the public new ways to view the planet. Aside from more traditional categories like People & Lifestyle and Countries & Regions, there are some whimsical winners. Chris Castor took home the win in the Dronie category, which goes to the best selfie with a drone, for his short shoot-em-up clip The Last Dronie. And the winner of Games of Drones—awarded to a video shot in a filming location for Game of Thrones—takes us on an epic adventure through an ice cave.

Check out more from the AirVūz Drone Video Awards by watching all the finalists at Airvuz or click below to see the top entries.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and international organizations from the U.S., England and the Netherlands released on Jan. 19 a 261-page book entitled “Engineering with Nature—An Atlas.” Available either as a hard copy or free download, the atlas showcases 56 projects around the world that apply the principles of an initiative to support engineering with nature, rather than against it, to protect the environment, infrastructure and quality of life.

The EWN movement seeks to leverage natural forces and risk-buffering natural features, such as wetlands and water-courses, to enhance sustainable, resilient, multipurpose infrastructure systems. The initiative includes a network of research projects, field demonstrations and communication activities with an emphasis on embracing innovation.

One technology finding a sweet spot in EWN is drones, which have the ability to scope project areas, survey sites and monitor project execution and performance over large areas of difficult terrain swiftly, safely and repeatedly, with a light touch on the environment.

“We are making more and more use of drones,” says Todd S. Bridges, the U.S. Army’s senior research scientist for environmental science at the Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss. He is national lead on the EWN initiative.

Bridges says drones give planners a superior vantage point, particularly over coasts and wetlands, not only as they engineer a project, but also as they monitor construction and results. “Getting elevation data is pretty important, and getting good data can be hard to do,” says Bridges. “It can be a very convenient place to have a drone that is fixed with Lidar, in cases where a few inches really matter.” He says stand-off measurement technologies help monitor the environment and its evolution. “You have to be able to understand the environment if you are going to engineer it—especially for processes operating at landscape scale.”

Monica Chasten, project manager in the operations division of the Corps’ Philadelphia District, says her group has used drones to help document and monitor progress on several EWN projects in New Jersey, including the Mordecai Island project on p. 86 in the Atlas. Another use was on a “thin layer placement” application of dredged material to restore marsh near Avalon, and construction of two nesting habitats near Ring Island. More drone use is planned at the Seven Mile Island Living Laboratory that the Corps has established in back bays near Avalon.

Several project managers with the Nature Conservancy also report making increased use of drones for streambed restoration for the same reasons, and individual consulting fi rms are picking up local projects for this as well.

Greg Gloor, a surveyor with New Jersey civil and environmental engineering firm Dresdner Robin, used a drone to provide pro bono services to a citizens group in Pompton Lakes, N.J., led by Lauren Venin, a landscape architect and certified flood plain manager with the firm. Her volunteer group, the Pompton Lakes Flood Advisory Board, wanted to locate and rate the flood risk posed by downed trees and debris dams blocking three rivers in the town. A heavy snow in spring 2018 left a lot of tree damage on the banks. The board wanted to help the town scope the problem and plan remediation.

Venin says Gloor developed a methodology and conducted 11 flights to capture a continuous strip of high-resolution images of 6.5 miles of waterways. “Several show debris blocking more than half of the channel,” she says. “Most were fallen trees.”

The board brought the drone’s KML output into free QGIS software for data organization, and tagged and ranked the severity of 96 obstructions on aerial photos mapped to locations on Google Earth. The borough passed the data to its engineers to develop a work plan.

“We found it to be a lot more accurate than previous assessments that were done entirely by volunteers without a professional surveyor.” She said that by basing the report on drone photos tagged to the GIS program, planners now know “it is exactly there, and you can attach a latitude and longitude to it and see exactly what needs to be addressed.” Another benefit is that the study helped town residents qualify for reduced federal flood insurance rates that save them $300,000 annually.

“It’s definitely something that can be done quickly, easily and safely—and speaking as a volunteer, safety is a big deal,” Venin says.

Gloor, who planned and executed the mission, calls the DJI Matrice 210 he used “a beast.” He says he picked it because it can carry a variety of sensors and a camera with interchangeable lenses for three different angles of view — even two at a time. It also can look up, not just down, and is weather resistant, small enough to pack in a car and easily assembled for fast mobilization. It’s heavy enough to be stable in bad weather and has a flight time of about 20 minutes, “although 10% or 15% less in weather below 35º F,” he says.

Gloor says he used these steps to plan his river mission:

Review the river segments in Google Earth and find a minimum/maximum base image width of the distance between the tops of banks.

Multiply base distance by 1.5 to 2 for variance and to allow for a context view of the overbank areas

Determine the altitude to fly with the selected lens to get that width in the frame.

Determine the top-to-bottom image height (ground coverage) that will be captured at the desired altitude.

Solve for speed so 80% of the image height is travelled in 2 seconds (the max rate his UAV can capture images) to get a series of images overlapped by 20%.

Check FAA airspace for restrictions on UAV use in the area.

Use flight planning software to plan a route on river centerline, including takeoff and landing points. Anticipate battery consumption.

Scout takeoff and landing points, line-of-sight distance for each segment, obstacles and hazards. Take note of birds!

Execute as weather permits.

Drone piloting can be a well-paying profession. It’s a rapidly expanding vocation that’s playing a larger and larger role in many industries.

However, there are a few fields where professional pilots are making a particularly strong impact.

The following sections highlight a few of the specialties where drone pilots have made successful inroads. If you’re considering becoming a professional pilot, here are some of the industries you might want to look into first:

1. Mapping and Modeling

As drone technology emerges, more mapping professionals recognize the importance of 3D modeling, according to JobForDrones.com CEO Miriam McNabb. Drone technology has had such a big impact on the surveying and mapping field.

Using drones, aerial photographers can capture scenery from unique angles that not even expensive and highly specialized equipment can access. Thanks to advanced technologies, end-users have become accustomed to the experience of exploring lifelike images with a few clicks of a mouse.

Drone mapping and modeling are actually two different skill sets. With drone mapping, UAV pilots capture detailed aerial images to produce an accurate map. However, they bear no resemblance to their folded, paper predecessors.

Mapping images captured by drone technology deliver a highly precise overview of terrain, including man-made structures and natural features.

In addition, drone captured aerial images provide viewers with a sense of topographical depth and size. Combined with other data, such as agricultural, thermal or industrial information, these maps are valuable resources for professionals.

Some clients, on the other hand, need the detailed insights provided by drone captured 3D modeling. With this technology, drone pilots can capture digital facsimiles which users can “walk through” virtually or rotate and manipulate them as needed.

2) Thermal Imaging

There are many applications for drone mounted thermal imaging. With this skill, you can find jobs that range from working with first responders to performing roof inspections. In fact, it’s changed the way that these professionals view their work.

Police and fire personnel are among the largest adopters of thermal drone technology. While law enforcement officers can use drones for several applications, they primarily use it to pursue suspects at night and in low visibility scenarios.

Search and rescue personnel also make heavy use of drones. The technology reduces search time considerably, limits personnel risk and increases the likelihood of a successful rescue. In fact, it’s now a major resource for search and rescue professionals.

Thermal imaging enabled drones are particularly useful for this purpose because body heat stands out among plant life and foliage. This makes it easy for rescue personnel to find victims using thermal drones in certain situations.

In addition, thermal imaging software gives users the capability to leverage a variety of color pallets, making it easier to spot people and other intended targets.

3) Real Estate Photography and Videography

The real estate profession is another field where drone technology has become increasingly prevalent, according to an Autel Robotics report. If you work in this field, you’re likely to notice that more property professionals are taking advantage of drone imagery.

Experts forecast that drone imagery will account for 22-percent of commercial UAV use by the year 2020, making this a great field if you’re unsure of how you’d like to earn a living as a drone pilot.

Real estate professionals leverage drone technology to create stunning marketing materials. It impacts the way that agents engage consumers and helps sellers stand out in a competitive market.

Using drone technology, agents and sellers can show off properties with beautiful photography, videos and other engaging digital assets.

Drone technology produces better outcomes for all stakeholders. This includes generating higher sale prices. It also gives real estate experts access to enticing aerial views that they can use to sway potential buyers toward closing a deal.

Standard pictures still have their place in the field, but they require potential homebuyers to piece together images to try to get an idea of how a home looks. With drone photography, however, potential buyers have a better grasp of how features are oriented on a property.

Also, drone images can provide them with dazzling aerial views that gives them a clear overall idea about the look of the property with a glance.

4) Inspections

According to an Unmanned Aerial report, an increasing number of drone pilots have found a career in aerial inspection. Using infrared photography, for example, professional drone pilots can help business owners spot serious structural problems at industrial facilities. Additionally, several 3D modeling software suites are available that drone pilots can use to capture and re-create structural imagery for clients.

3D modeling software gives end-users access to property measurements as well as the capability to align image information with dates, and the technology allows drone imaging professionals to pinpoint geographical and structural locations to show clients exactly where they may have problems.

In this field, piloting is a relatively small percentage of the job. 80-percent of the work in drone inspection involves data analysis. It’s important to present the findings in a way that clients can understand.

Moreover, it’s vital to show clients how your work saves them money. For example, your inspection might reveal required maintenance that would’ve cost them substantial fees had the condition gone undiscovered.

5) Movies and Television

Today, most consumers are aware that Hollywood filmmakers use drones for movie making. In fact, this has become commonplace since the U.S. government legalized drones for commercial use in 2014. Now, the average moviegoer cannot distinguish whether an amazing shot was captured by a drone or a high-priced helicopter, according to a recent article penned for Time Magazine.

Even before lawmakers legalized commercial drone use in America, filmmakers quickly recognized its potential. Cinematographers used the technology for James Bond chase scenes in 2012 and other blockbusters such as the Wolf of Wall Street, and in 2015, filmmakers created a blended scene in Jurassic World, where a piloted drone captured a crowd of people reacting to a dinosaur attack.

In Tinseltown, drone cinematography is now a cost-effective resource used alongside traditional equipment, such as dollies and jibs. For now, they have a limited battery life and are only allowed to fly to a certain height, making them impractical for some applications.

Still, when drone use makes sense, filmmakers save substantial costs. For instance, a helicopter can cost $20-$40,000 for a 10-hour shoot, while filmmakers can often capture the same scene using a drone at a cost of only $4,500-$13,000 each day.

To Wrap It Up

No matter what field you decide to pursue as your first foray into professional drone piloting, remember that you must always know the local designated FAA airspace, and make sure that you always have the proper permits when working professional drone gigs.

If you plan to fly above 400 feet, at night or under otherwise restricted conditions, for instance, you must obtain an FAA waiver, which can take up to 90 days for approval. Additionally, you must always have awareness of local flight laws and restrictions. Smart device applications such as Kitty Hawk can help you research the laws in your current location.

I hope that this sends you on your way and gives you a little more direction as to what you can do professionally with drones. In the meantime, happy flying!

Dubai: A new Guinness World Record was set in Dubai when the most consecutive formations by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) same set was achieved. 

A spectacular drone show culminated in a record attempt, which also marked 50 years of Dubai Police Academy. The event took place during the Dubai Police graduation ceremony of its 26th batch of cadet officers.

The Dubai Media Office announced the Guinness World Record on Saturday.

The record is for "the most consecutive formations formed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) same set, by creating 11 formations using 30 drones in the United Arab Emirates.

A total of 300 drones were used in the 10-minute show and were programmed to draw portraits of the UAE’s leaders, including His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council.

The show took place on Thursday, January 3, 2019. 

The UAVs also wrote a message in Arabic that read "Thank you, Shaikh Mohammad".

Tolerance year

The show also introduced and promoted the 2019 theme for the UAE as the Year of Tolerance.

The UAE’s aims for the year include promoting the country as a global capital for tolerance by focusing on the values of co-existing and peace amongst the variety of local, regional and international people in the UAE.

Sulzer & Schmid Laboratories has launched a new inspection platform. The company’s new 3DX HD has been developed as a cost-effective solution to cope with large volumes of high definition blade inspections.

 

Based on the compact and flexible DJI M-210 drone, Sulzer Schmid’s latest innovation delivers fully autonomous drone inspections at a significantly lower cost compared to its existing 3DXTM Ultra-HD product based on the DJI’s M-600 drone.

 

Thanks to the new capabilities offered by unmanned aerial vehicles, the market for drone-based rotor blade inspections has boomed in recent years. “Our technology produces high-definition image quality that is superior to any other inspection method,” explained Tom Sulzer, Co-founder of Sulzer Schmid. “Our drone inspections offer a myriad of benefits: they are automated and therefore immune to human error, repeatable and consistent in quality while covering 100% of the blade. Most importantly, the fully digital end-to-end process creates a foundation for trend analysis and predictive maintenance” he continued.

 

Depending on the type of inspections and their requirements, wind turbine OEMs, wind asset owners and O&M service providers will now be able to choose the technology that best suits their needs. Whereas critical inspections, such as end-of-warranty or change of ownership, call for the superior images provided by the 3DXTM Ultra-HD product, regular inspections can now be carried out with great efficiency by the 3DXTM HD platform at a fraction of the cost.

Due to their flexible uses and the fact that they are small yet sophisticated pieces of equipment, drones could soon become as commonplace on construction sites as trucks and diggers.

A recent report by Goldman Sachs estimated that the largest expected take-up for commercial drones would be in the construction industry. Such sizeable growth is evidence that business leaders no longer view drones as mere high-tech toys. Cutting-edge drone technology means that project managers can now perform site inspections in a cost-effective and efficient manner, all the while keeping employees away from dangerous environments. Getting an aerial view of a building or development is now easier and cheaper than ever.

Drones have many possible applications within the construction industry, and whilst at the moment these are mainly in respect of surveys and mapping, further interesting uses include on-site security, on-site communications, gathering real-time data, transporting smaller goods without the need to hire expensive machinery, and examining hard-to-reach areas. We have even heard of construction companies using drones to monitor on-site performance.

Current Legal Landscape

Whether you are a commercial drone operator or a consumer enjoying a hobby, you need to know the dos and don’ts of responsible drone use. The recent incidents at Gatwick and Heathrow make it clear why this new regulation and enforcement round is essential and hopefully raises awareness about the benefits of the rules and the risks unregulated drone use poses.

Currently anyone using a drone has to ensure that they are complying with the Civil Aviation Authority’s rules including having the necessary permissions in place when required. The current regulations state that anyone operating a drone must:

Keep their drone in sight.

Stay 150 ft away from people and buildings if their drone is equipped with a camera.

Keep 500 ft away from crowds and/or built up areas if their drone is equipped with a camera.

Avoid flying over or within 150 ft near to open areas with more than 1,000 people present.

Adhere to their local council’s rules about drone flights in the area.

Only fly their drones as and when it is safe to do so.

Understand your GDPR requirements.

Have a proper risk assessment/plan. It is also important to monitor employee compliance.

Have suitable insurances in place.

If a business owner or employer gets it wrong they could be prosecuted, fined and/or sued. Drone operators who ignore the height and airport boundary restrictions could be prosecuted. If a business is using a drone in the course of their business then they are responsible for the actions of their employees if someone is hurt or property is damaged.

Changes are coming

Long before the disruption at Gatwick and Heathrow new drone laws were scheduled to come into force. These rules, which come into force on the 30th November 2019, will without doubt create a new much needed legal framework. These rules will  introduce safety features, such as having to register all drones with the CAA weighing over 250 grams and requiring all operators to take an online safety test to prove that they understand UK safety, security and privacy regulations. The new laws means that ultimately the responsibility to safely use the devices rests with the operators. We expect this to be reflected commercially in so far as qualified and regulated drone operators will without doubt dictate higher salaries.

We do expect further regulations and police powers given the incidents at Gatwick and Heathrow over the Christmas period. Additional police powers have been proposed and the government plans to expand the use of ‘geo-fencing’ (an invisible shield based on GPS coordinates around buildings or sensitive areas like prisons and airports which are built into a drone to prevent it from entering the area). Anti-drone technology is also being researched by the Government and it is thought that drone operators will be told to use specific software to plan their flights to ensure they are not entering unsafe or no-fly zones and their flight paths will be visible to other drone users.

What do you need to do about the new regulatory landscape?

There is going to be an increased (and ever-growing) need for specialist training and skills.

The new laws are evolving with the technology and the ever increasing use of drones by a wider audience. It is important to understand these rules and incorporate them into your policies and contracts.

You need to have in place proper GDPR policies.

You need to undertake privacy impact assessments in respect of the use of drones.

Depending on the level and volume of data you collect you may need to appoint a DPO.

You must ensure that your team has the relevant skills to operate the drones and that your employees are being regularly monitored in respect of this.

Those operating drones will need training and all employers must be able to evidence that this has been provided and that their employee has the requisite skills.

Employer’s should have clear policies on who can operate the drones, under what conditions and how employees should report GDPR breaches or other wrong doings.

Your construction agreements, whether as a Main Contractor or Subcontractor need to include the use of drones and liabilities in respect of the same. Main Contractors should ensure that subcontractors are responsible for any breaches caused by their use of drones and have in place suitable indemnities to protect the Main Contractor.

A Main Contractor should include the use of drone and compliance with drone regulations to its subcontractors due diligence enquires. You should ensure that they have proper insurances, licenses, GDPR policies and training in place. Further they should be compliant with all current and upcoming regulatory changes.

Australian tech start-up Emesent has announced the commercial availability of their revolutionary Hovermap drone payload, which it says dramatically improves the value of drone-based asset inspection and mapping.

Hovermap is a self-contained plug-and-play payload which is easily integrated into a range of drones to provide them with advanced capabilities.

It includes omni-directional LiDAR-based collision avoidance and GPS-denied flight, allowing drones to be flown safely underground, indoors or up close to structures to inspect and map them.

Hovermap also provides world-leading SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) capability, allowing accurate LiDAR mapping even when GPS is not available.

Emesent CEO and Co-Founder Dr Stefan Hrabar highlights the unique value that Hovermap offers: “Hovermap is the first drone payload of its kind, using LiDAR to provide both mapping and autonomy functions. It allows drones to fly autonomously even in GPS-denied environments to collect valuable data that was not previously possible. This provides a step change in the data collection possibilities for Mining, Energy, Construction, Asset Management and many more.”

“There is increasing demand for these industries to digitise and remotely inspect their assets but access to hazardous areas and the lack of GPS has been a limiting factor until now. Hovermap’s unique capabilities are helping to overcome these hurdles,” says Dr Hrabar.

Hovermap keeps the drone a safe distance from assets while mapping them in great detail. Bridges, telecom towers, power transmission towers and industrial plant interiors are just a few examples that can now be mapped and inspected safely.

In the underground mining industry, Hovermap allows the mapping of hazardous inaccessible areas such as stopes and ore passes.

According to Dr Hrabar, “sending in a Hovermap-enabled drone to autonomously map and explore these areas keeps the surveyors safe and provides data at unprecedented resolution and quality. This data provides new valuable insights, leading to productivity gains and increased safety from better understanding of the geology.”

The commercial launch comes after more than five years of R&D by world-leading researchers in drone autonomy and SLAM-based LiDAR mapping, as well as extensive testing over the last 18 months by early adopters in the US, Canada, Australia, China and Japan.

Matt MacKinnon of Canadian-based UAS Inc explains: “We’ve been using Hovermap to fly into inaccessible areas of underground mines to map them. We’ve conducted more than 60 commercial flights in 12 mines, capturing extremely valuable data for our clients without putting humans at risk. Hovermap truly is a game-changer for underground mining and other GPS-denied environments.”

Shinji Inaba, President of Mirukuru Co, said that “they are proud to have been an early adopter of Hovermap since April 2017 and they are now an Emesent distributor in Japan.”

“We’ve been testing and demonstrating Hovermap extensively to enterprise customers in energy, construction, telecom, rail and road, forestry etc. Hovermap’s unique features have led to significant demand and we’re excited to be fulfilling our first purchase orders now that Hovermap is commercially available,” says Inaba.Australian tech start-up Emesent has announced the commercial availability of their revolutionary Hovermap drone payload, which it says dramatically improves the value of drone-based asset inspection and mapping.

Hovermap is a self-contained plug-and-play payload which is easily integrated into a range of drones to provide them with advanced capabilities.

It includes omni-directional LiDAR-based collision avoidance and GPS-denied flight, allowing drones to be flown safely underground, indoors or up close to structures to inspect and map them.

Hovermap also provides world-leading SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) capability, allowing accurate LiDAR mapping even when GPS is not available.

Emesent CEO and Co-Founder Dr Stefan Hrabar highlights the unique value that Hovermap offers: “Hovermap is the first drone payload of its kind, using LiDAR to provide both mapping and autonomy functions. It allows drones to fly autonomously even in GPS-denied environments to collect valuable data that was not previously possible. This provides a step change in the data collection possibilities for Mining, Energy, Construction, Asset Management and many more.”

“There is increasing demand for these industries to digitise and remotely inspect their assets but access to hazardous areas and the lack of GPS has been a limiting factor until now. Hovermap’s unique capabilities are helping to overcome these hurdles,” says Dr Hrabar.

Hovermap keeps the drone a safe distance from assets while mapping them in great detail. Bridges, telecom towers, power transmission towers and industrial plant interiors are just a few examples that can now be mapped and inspected safely.

In the underground mining industry, Hovermap allows the mapping of hazardous inaccessible areas such as stopes and ore passes.

According to Dr Hrabar, “sending in a Hovermap-enabled drone to autonomously map and explore these areas keeps the surveyors safe and provides data at unprecedented resolution and quality. This data provides new valuable insights, leading to productivity gains and increased safety from better understanding of the geology.”

The commercial launch comes after more than five years of R&D by world-leading researchers in drone autonomy and SLAM-based LiDAR mapping, as well as extensive testing over the last 18 months by early adopters in the US, Canada, Australia, China and Japan.

Matt MacKinnon of Canadian-based UAS Inc explains: “We’ve been using Hovermap to fly into inaccessible areas of underground mines to map them. We’ve conducted more than 60 commercial flights in 12 mines, capturing extremely valuable data for our clients without putting humans at risk. Hovermap truly is a game-changer for underground mining and other GPS-denied environments.”

Shinji Inaba, President of Mirukuru Co, said that “they are proud to have been an early adopter of Hovermap since April 2017 and they are now an Emesent distributor in Japan.”

“We’ve been testing and demonstrating Hovermap extensively to enterprise customers in energy, construction, telecom, rail and road, forestry etc. Hovermap’s unique features have led to significant demand and we’re excited to be fulfilling our first purchase orders now that Hovermap is commercially available,” says Inaba.

Administrator for the agency, Jim Bridenstine, will speak to, and take questions from the media about how the tech is now used to cultivate farms, predict crop yields and manage water resources.

Taking place on February 12 during the World Agriculture Expo in California, he will take part in a news conference to talk about how technologies and data made possible by NASA research, development and investment, are re-purposed to improve numerous aspects of agriculture.

The administrator will also meet with representatives of AeroVironment, a firm that develops drones and data analytics software that farmers can use to monitor the health of their crops and increase efficiencies and profitability.

Last week, Commercial Drone Professional reported on how Taranis, an Israeli-based drone firm, has launched its new precision agriculture solution that calculates and monitors the planting of seeds.

Taranis has launched its new precision agriculture solution that calculates and monitors the planting of seeds.

The Israel-based firm says the product utilises its fleet of UAVs to provide customers with protection against crop threats.

The company is hoping this addition of an emergence solution to the company’s offering reflects its vision to become the single-most comprehensive precision agriculture intelligence platform provider.

Ofir Schlam, CEO of Taranis, said: “Taranis understands the value of emergence in crops and supplying farmers with the necessary tools to increase crop yields has been our priority since day one.

He added: “We have grown to accommodate our customers’ needs, offering products that utilize Taranis’ unmatched fleet of UAV’s to provide unparalleled protection against crop threats. This first-of-its-kind crop emergence and stand count product can continually and rapidly take samples throughout the field, providing farmers with new tools that will make emergence-based decisions easier.”

As part of its solution, Taranis flies a drone over a field using the company’s AI2 proprietary pod, which captures hundreds of sub-millimetre images on a single field, or thousands of images in a given flight.

Then, each image is scrutinised by Taranis’ deep learning engine to quickly identify and count each emerging plant. A second set of algorithms is run to calculate the spacing, density and plant characteristics of each row, while a third set of analysis creates the clear visualisation of emergence in the form of a heat map.

This allows customers to access heat maps and reports to make management decisions and enable them to optimise results, with personalised, efficient solutions.

Check out what we thought was the best drone videography we've ever seen!

US: Surveyors are harnessing the power of drone technology by focusing on at-risk riparian areas of northern New Jersey. In fact, images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become part of the documentation for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program that saves Pompton Lakes residents hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on flood insurance premiums.

Land-use consultancy Dresdner Robin, of Jersey City, N.J., recently worked with the Borough of Pompton Lakes, N.J., utilizing image-capture flights to gather overlapping photographs of three rivers in the borough. The firm has since been involved in various mapping projects.

Dresdner Robin Survey Director Greg Gloor volunteered on a project to assess Pompton Lakes’ flood-prone waterways. Gloor flew 11 individual flights over the rivers – 215 feet above the water level. The UAV moved at 10 mph, using a 15-millimetre, fixed-zoom lens, capturing 60-foot sections of the terrain. Images were snapped every two seconds (1,042 total) and were later analyzed to locate obstructions in the river channel. The photos aided a stream-cleaning project that is part of the borough’s flood mitigation program.

‘Community Rating System’

The UAV-collected data was also submitted as part of Pompton Lakes’ application to FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS) program. Waterway assessment is a key component of the CRS program, and active participation saves the borough’s residents over $300,000 on flood insurance premiums. Outside of cost benefits, the UAV program also saved the borough’s volunteers hundreds of hours of “firsthand” analysis time, according to Pompton Lakes Councilman Erik DeLine.

He continued, noting that the drones “produced stunningly clear imagery, which enabled us to fully understand and prioritize which hazards needed to be cleared, providing an invaluable service to our residents.”

On the project, Gloor noted, “Assisting a borough that houses three rivers – which can pose a threat to homes and other structures – is rewarding. Historically, the flood threat can be quite active here, but this emerging technology helps mitigate it.”

Dresdner Robin’s survey director added that the image-capture project offers a feasible way to spot obstructions, and the visuals help facilitate FEMA’s CRS program, spurring immediate financial benefits.

Ramapo River

Gloor’s work has helped expand similar waterway assessments in the state, including the Ramapo River in Oakland, N.J. There, both video and still photography – which includes the adjacent tributaries – is used to assess river conditions for restorative work with the state.

As flooding continues to plague areas of northern New Jersey, especially following a particularly wet 2018, surveyors anticipate the need for survey and data acquisition of river corridors to rise.

“These river channels present unique challenges for access and safety,” Gloor said. “Dresdner Robin has been utilizing the capabilities of UAV to provide critical data on river conditions to flood-prone communities in North Jersey.”