Kilby
Active Member
When it comes to aerial mapping, there seem to be no shortage on tech companies jumping into the market lately. It really makes sense when you think about it. Mapping, for the most part, is nothing more than a process where you collect large amounts of data (images/NDVI), and tech companies have been tackling big data issues for ages. The means of collecting that data is almost irrelevant at this point. It could be a quadcopter, a ballon or a full sized helicopter, the data is still treated the same in the long run.
One of these companies that I have recently started focusing on is called Drone Deploy. I'll be honest, at first glance, it was a little hard to figure out exactly what they did. Their website seems to cover a ton of information, lots of which falls outside of what you normally think of when it comes to UAV based mapping. After doing some deeper digging though, the picture of what they are currently doing as well as where they are heading seemed to make more and more sense. In short, they have bridged the gap between the UAV capturing the images and the processing and display of said data.
I highly recommend anyone that is interested in this technology to look deeper at Drone Deploy themselves, even if only for a increased awareness of what is possible these days and where the market is heading. Their overall approach to mapping is much more than I can cover in a single post, so I'll be following up on this, but here is the high level view of how they are doing things differently.
The typical workflow when mapping a property usually involves a certain level of pre-planning and recon on google earth, then a brief onsite investigation followed by the data collection flight/s before finally getting back to the office and starting the processing. The operator will have to take their image array and prepare it for processing where they create a point cloud, then a dense point cloud followed by the mesh and finally a texture. As you can imagine, 80% of the work involved with creating your map has nothing to do flying your quad or shooting photos. That's where drone deploy made a difference. Among other things, they have created LTE & 4G connected hardware that captures your photos as soon as they are shot and automatically start shipping them up to their cloud processing center. Now instead of having the first look of your map hours after you are finished with your shoot, you can see at least a rough outline within 15 minutes of your flight. The processing is literally taking place in the cloud in real time while you are still flying the mission. In my opinion, that is a huge deal and will be the way of the future for mapping.
Clip and ship is not the only trick up Drone Deploys sleeve though. The same 4G connected hardware can also be used to control your aircraft. This seems to be working directly with a Pixhawk flight controller, but don't quote me on that just yet. Think of this as a mobile connected Mission Planner that doesn't require your typical 900 or 2.4ghz radio communication, it all happens over a mobile connection. Moving to the different communication protocol allows flights to be planned and executed from almost anywhere in the world. An engineer in California can plan the mapping of any area they need while an assistant in Baltimore moves the UAV on site and watches over it as the mission is flown.
Just for the record, I have no affiliation with Drone Deploy, I simply have a deep appreciation for what they are doing given that I have a long background in both UAV and Mobile/Web technology (I'm a mobile software engineer during the day).
For fear of writing a book long post (as if I haven't already), I'll stop here and leave you with a few links to look deeper at this technology yourself. I don't by any means think that Drone Deploy have a monopoly on these ideas. More and more companies will be incorporating very similar ideas as time moves forward, but they are certainly a company we can look at now to get a better understanding of what is possible.
I'll follow up with some more info soon, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks of this. Do you see this as the way forward, or do you think this will be a speed bump on a dead end road?
-Terry
https://www.dronedeploy.com/
One of these companies that I have recently started focusing on is called Drone Deploy. I'll be honest, at first glance, it was a little hard to figure out exactly what they did. Their website seems to cover a ton of information, lots of which falls outside of what you normally think of when it comes to UAV based mapping. After doing some deeper digging though, the picture of what they are currently doing as well as where they are heading seemed to make more and more sense. In short, they have bridged the gap between the UAV capturing the images and the processing and display of said data.
I highly recommend anyone that is interested in this technology to look deeper at Drone Deploy themselves, even if only for a increased awareness of what is possible these days and where the market is heading. Their overall approach to mapping is much more than I can cover in a single post, so I'll be following up on this, but here is the high level view of how they are doing things differently.
The typical workflow when mapping a property usually involves a certain level of pre-planning and recon on google earth, then a brief onsite investigation followed by the data collection flight/s before finally getting back to the office and starting the processing. The operator will have to take their image array and prepare it for processing where they create a point cloud, then a dense point cloud followed by the mesh and finally a texture. As you can imagine, 80% of the work involved with creating your map has nothing to do flying your quad or shooting photos. That's where drone deploy made a difference. Among other things, they have created LTE & 4G connected hardware that captures your photos as soon as they are shot and automatically start shipping them up to their cloud processing center. Now instead of having the first look of your map hours after you are finished with your shoot, you can see at least a rough outline within 15 minutes of your flight. The processing is literally taking place in the cloud in real time while you are still flying the mission. In my opinion, that is a huge deal and will be the way of the future for mapping.
Clip and ship is not the only trick up Drone Deploys sleeve though. The same 4G connected hardware can also be used to control your aircraft. This seems to be working directly with a Pixhawk flight controller, but don't quote me on that just yet. Think of this as a mobile connected Mission Planner that doesn't require your typical 900 or 2.4ghz radio communication, it all happens over a mobile connection. Moving to the different communication protocol allows flights to be planned and executed from almost anywhere in the world. An engineer in California can plan the mapping of any area they need while an assistant in Baltimore moves the UAV on site and watches over it as the mission is flown.
Just for the record, I have no affiliation with Drone Deploy, I simply have a deep appreciation for what they are doing given that I have a long background in both UAV and Mobile/Web technology (I'm a mobile software engineer during the day).
For fear of writing a book long post (as if I haven't already), I'll stop here and leave you with a few links to look deeper at this technology yourself. I don't by any means think that Drone Deploy have a monopoly on these ideas. More and more companies will be incorporating very similar ideas as time moves forward, but they are certainly a company we can look at now to get a better understanding of what is possible.
I'll follow up with some more info soon, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks of this. Do you see this as the way forward, or do you think this will be a speed bump on a dead end road?
-Terry
https://www.dronedeploy.com/
