Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
Harnessing Drones the Photogrammetric Way
Above: The Inspire 2 drone, using a Zenmuse X7 sensor and 16mm lens, captured this high-resolution image of County Line Road in Beavercreek, Ohio. Credit: Woolpert. Considering that UAS are just another platform to carry sensors, new mappers should embrace merging photogrammetric techniques and practices with innovations by the computer-vision community to produce scientifically sound...
Caretographic Representations
In parts of the world where both man-made and natural catastrophes frequently occur, how are geospatial technologies being used? And for those of us whose jobs are to create maps of construction sites and other built-up areas, how can we responsibly use the same technology to monitor destruction and wreckage? I pondered these tough questions...
Many Sensors for a Tulip Tree Map
Above: The forests of Puerto Rico are second-growth, making for useful modeling. After hurricane deforestation in Puerto Rico, NASA scientists study forest regrowth using high-resolution, multi-sensor image data. The Biospheric Laboratory of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is dedicated to increasing knowledge about the Earth’s terrestrial ecosystem. One group of scientists there has been...
Adventures in Droning: Part One
So, here’s my idea: as I enter semi-retirement I’m looking for additional revenue streams, ironically to replace clients who are also entering the retirement phase. As long-time readers of Pangaea will note, I’m pretty excited about the possibilities of UAS, so it’s no surprise that I might consider expanding my side business in that area....
Edge Computing Supercharges UAS Workflows
A new computer networking approach called edge computing is promising to radically accelerate UAS workflows. Simply defined, edge computing distributes the task of computation to the edge of the network, generally very close to the sensor. In terms of UAS, edge computing accomplishes the post-processing of sensor data right on the UAS itself. Think about...
The Fixed-Wing Fix
Why a multi-discipline firm chose a fixed-wing sUAS solution for large-scale surveying and quantities for mines and quarries. Editor’s note: When xyHt began covering the rise of sUAS for AEC applications years ago, many of the early successful entries into the burgeoning sUAS market were fixed-wing craft, like those from Gatewing (that we wrote about...
