Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
More Than Just Autopilot
Your UAS flight management system affects accuracy in photogrammetry, so get to know what you need. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are arguably the most disruptive technology introduced to the geospatial profession since GPS. Advances in UAS capabilities and in photogrammetry software have significantly reduced the barrier to generating digital surface models (DSM) and orthomosaics from...
Cooperative Effort Takes Off
Tapping into UAS technology creates possibilities for a northern Arizona utility. Sometimes, the most effective, revelatory, progressive solutions to a problem can be found in the unlikeliest of places. Case in point: three and a half hours north of Phoenix in the city of Lakeside, Arizona, an electric cooperative that serves more than 33,000 member...
Drones over Venus
While attending the AUVSI XPONENTIAL conference last May, I spoke with the team at Black Swift Technologies, a Boulder, Colorado-based UAS engineering firm specializing in scientific platforms, and I asked them to keep me updated with their progress. I recently received the news that it has been awarded a NASA contract to develop a UAS...
Using Ortho Imagery (Digital Aerial) in ArcGIS Pro
The new version of Esri’s ArcGIS Pro software offers the capability to use stereo imagery, something of great use to those looking to digitize and use 3D vector data. To this end, I thought I would try bringing in some stereo aerial data to see how the process works within ArcGIS Pro. Vague Knowledge At...
Will Drones Replace Fireworks?
Here’s a slice of life from the western edge of the Eastern Plains of Colorado. As I write this, the Fourth of July is tomorrow, and I’m shopping for our holiday “staycation.” BBQ pulled pork, buns, baked beans, corn on the cob, and “tater salad.” Check. Should I pick up some fireworks? The informational sign...
NASA’s Awesome Long-endurance VTOL UAS
The wizards at NASA’s Langley Research Center took a look at the current state of UAS and found two big problems: The flight time and range of electric multicopters is too short, and many fixed-wing UAS require extensive ground support for launch and recovery. With these challenges in mind, the team came up with two...
