Tag Archives: pangaea
Find Your Home – on Pangaea
First, a bit of “geosplaining.” When we started this newsletter we looked for a name that had a “geo” feel without having geo in the name. For those who don’t follow geology, Pangaea was the most recent supercontinent which was formed roughly 200 to 250 million years ago, according to the plate tectonics theory. Flash...
Will Drones Replace Fireworks?
Here’s a slice of life from the western edge of the Eastern Plains of Colorado. As I write this, the Fourth of July is tomorrow, and I’m shopping for our holiday “staycation.” BBQ pulled pork, buns, baked beans, corn on the cob, and “tater salad.” Check. Should I pick up some fireworks? The informational sign...
NASA’s Awesome Long-endurance VTOL UAS
The wizards at NASA’s Langley Research Center took a look at the current state of UAS and found two big problems: The flight time and range of electric multicopters is too short, and many fixed-wing UAS require extensive ground support for launch and recovery. With these challenges in mind, the team came up with two...
A Student SLAMs Stuttgart
As part of a bachelor’s thesis project, a university student successfully scanned more than 21,000 sq ft of complex office space in just 40 minutes with a mobile 3D laser scanner (the GeoSLAM ZEB-REVO), despite having never previously used the device. The point cloud created from the first-time scanning work was sufficient to generate an...
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...
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,...
