Category Archives: Aerial/UAS

Safety First: Using Small Drones to Map Unsafe Sites

Traditionally, photogrammetry based on aerial images and stereo plotting, has been the realm of large mapping companies capable of affording the onerous ownership of planes and the high personnel cost of pilots, navigators and camera operators. The equipment used to convert the stereoscopic pairs into contour line maps cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and...

Geospatial Adventure: Mapping Ruins from Above in Peru

It wasn’t quite an Indiana Jones adventure, but Alabama-based lidar consultant Robert Graham says it’s as close as he’ll ever come to the hair-raising exploits of an audacious archaeology professor. Graham’s adventure last April did not revolve around an ark, though it did include ancient ruins, small planes landing in grass fields, machetes hacking through...

Army Corps’ (JALBTCX) data improves coastal projects

In a hotel conference room on Long Island, New York, a team of experts is processing data and information on computers. Alongside them is a large display monitor that is projecting the information. The team is the Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX). “It’s a beautiful thing. On the screen they are...

Why renting a UAV may make sense

I have a land surveyor client who’s interested in getting on the UAV train. But like many, he’s concerned with the financial outlay and not quite certain if the UAV path is the right one for his firm. His main concern: Will he be able to fully utilize and monetize the investment? That’s why I’m...

Esri UC 2020 – Site Scan Drone Mapping Solution

Esri has announced Site Scan for ArcGIS—an end to end solution for UAV data capture. This year, at the User Conference, there was a buzz around drones (see what I did there), a rumor was going around that a new drone solution was being announced. Sure enough, during the plenary, Jack Dangermond, Esri co-founder and...

xyHt Weekly News Links 7/17/2020

*Click here to visit xyHt’s Virtual Trade Show* Congress Moves Against FCC’s Ligado Decision Bad Elf Flex™ Adopts the Hemisphere Phantom™ Module Honeywell Refines Navigation Revealing the World from Satellites Common Ground Alliance Launches New Expo