Category Archives: Aerial/UAS
Part 107 Goes Live: UAS Unchained (Mostly)
The FAA said that it would have its Small Unmanned Aircraft Regulations ready by this summer, and by the second day of summer, it did. Rule 107 takes effect in late August and applies to unmanned aircraft (UAS) weighing less than 55 pounds that are conducting commercial operations. Let’s take a quick look at the...
Spatial Networking for Fun and Profit
Recently I attended a UAV event in my area (watch for the July issue of xyHt for more) that got me thinking about the role of networking in our profession. Not RTK, CORS, or even WANs or LANs, but person-to-person networking. Networking for fun. Meeting new people in the geospatial profession (and especially those interested...
UAS & The Combo that Opens Access
The most logical integration of technologies for surveyors is combining 3D laser scanning with UAVs. It’s no secret that many geospatial professionals are enamored with unmanned aerial systems (UAS). For many years, the pros and cons of deploying small UAS for mapping and surveying, along with their ongoing regulatory discussions, have been well researched and...
senseFly’s Andrea Halter: From Academia to the Market
Above: This eBee Ag is outfitted with the Sequoia multispectral sensor. An interview with senseFly’s Andrea Halter Andrea Halter is a co-founder of senseFly, a Parrot company based in Switzerland that develops and produces aerial imaging drones for professional applications. Halter oversees the company’s marketing and sales teams. She’s a qualified land surveyor and holds a...
Kespry: Anatomy of a UAV Start-Up
Above: CEO and founder Paul Doersch, a Stanford alum, explains Kespry’s unique rental/cloud arrangement. Kespry offers much more than a bird’s eye view. Take a computer scientist from Stanford University (who’s worked in Silicon Valley doing research for BMW on self-driving cars and smartphone integration) and add some grads from MIT and Cal Tech (with...
Crossing the Barrier
Above: The Barrier Islands off the Gulf Coast are threatened by coastal land loss. A Louisiana university overcame a barrier facing scientific research of coastal land loss—with a UAS. “We are losing an acre of coastline every 30 minutes,” says Dr. Gary LaFleur Jr., associate professor of biological sciences at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. And...