Category Archives: Aerial/UAS

GEO Business 2018: “Geocoolness” in the London Heat

Trends in geomatics tech and spatial IT at the UK’s premier annual geo conference and exhibition Editor’s Note: GEO Business is an annual conference held annually in London. xyHt’s Europe editor, Nick Duggan has been attending each year, chronicling trends in the geo industry. The event is growing into one of the premier geo events...

Parrot Bee-Bop Thermal

Low-cost Tech for Aerial Archeology, Part Two

To round up this short series on low-cost approaches to aerial archeology surveying, we’ll look at an even lower-cost sensor technology that can be used in certain types of archeological projects. In the first part of this series we talked about how new, affordable multispectral sensors are being used with (relatively) inexpensive UAS to find...

Tunnel Monitoring from Above

UAV digital monitoring delivers significant benefits as part of a major German tunneling construction project. The German city of Karlsruhe plays a decisive role in transport planning in the southwest of that country, with more than 300,000 inhabitants, 160,000 vehicles in the main part of the city, and 190 million train passengers every year. Highway...

Over Roads and Quarries

A surveyor with a construction company in Northern Ireland uses UAVs to develop highway construction and for adjoining quarry quantities. Improving infrastructure has become crucial to local and global economies due to increased strain on roads and public transport from a rising population. When GRAHAM Construction and its partner, Farrans, were jointly awarded the contract...

AUVSI

Swords into Plowshares: AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2018

The last time I visited the AUVSI conference was about 10 years ago. I remember walking into the show and thinking, “Did I just accidentally walk onto a military base?” The exhibits were populated with Predators, Reapers, and at least one Global Hawk. Every other attendee was dressed in their best camo BDUs. Not judging,...

BVLOS

Beyond visual line of sight is the next frontier for UAVs. The FFA’s Part 107 rule allows for routine civil operation of small unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV) in the National Airspace System (NAS) and provides safety rules for those operations. Since this implementation almost two years ago, more than 70,000 drone pilot applications have been...