Tag Archives: aerial
A Decade of Uncrewed Photogrammetry
Some might have had a peek at photogrammetry drones before 2013, but for me 2023 marks a decade since I first laid eyes on an uncrewed aircraft that “claimed” to do what I had been doing for years in bigger, more stable airplanes in the joyful company of pilots, copilots, camera operators, and navigators. In...
The Advantages of “Built Here”
There are reasons other than policy and security to consider domestically produced drones. Yes, when it comes to the drone market there is an almost “default” choice. Having established dominance, it further benefits from price by volume. And then they can invest more in R&D from the increased profits—if they choose to and do not...
The Incredible UAV
Looking Forward Land surveyors aren’t just surveyors anymore. Map makers aren’t just cartographers anymore. We are all tied together in these geospatial professions of measuring, mapping, photogrammetry—anyone who collects and interprets data. We are ‘geospatialists.’ One of the things that tie all of us together is uncrewed aerial vehicles. A few years ago, who would...
Tackling the Aerial-to-CAD Bottleneck
Aerial capture is getting easier and faster, but the subsequent step of CAD linework generation is a bottleneck—especially given the present shortage of qualified drafters. AI is stepping in to help. In 2017, the co-founders of what would become AirWorks Solutions Inc. first met and began discussing ideas for a new geospatial venture. Both had...
From Nadir to Oblique
Spic-and-Span Bridges Inspecting the world’s iconic bridges is becoming a UAV job When it was time last year to inspect the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the steel arc structure that spans the harbor of Australia’s capital, authorities Down Under turned to the latest technology available: drones. “The sky’s the limit when it comes to this technology....
The Future of Aerial Photogrammetry
Rapid advances in technology are changing the way we map from the air, but the 100-year-old technology of mapping by crewed airplanes will continue to fly into the future For thousands of years cartographers made maps using tools that mostly measured angles and distances, allowing for positioning of fixed objects over unknown topography. The earliest...
