Tag: Kespry

Drones speed inspections, push boundaries of cinematography
Septentrio, Kespry share UAV advances; Game of Thrones, Mission Impossible also highlighted in GPS World webinar.

The UAV inspection industry continues to grow, as evidenced by these case studies of end-user application, presented in a free webinar available to readers of GPS World. As unmanned systems follow precise flight paths to gather data needed for missions in — to cite just a few examples — insurance, mining, construction and the pulp paper industry, they drastically reduce project time, workload and costs.

Narratives of how these tasks and other inspections are performed, and the requirements and challenges for positioning technology they pose, made up the October webinar, “Development Trends and Challenges for UAV Inspection Applications.”

Four expert speakers covered commercial applications in urban and remote areas, including issues generated by obstruction, interference and spoofing. The full webinar audio and slides are available for download.

Septentrio. Gustavo Lopez, product manager for Septentrio, introduced the webinar and covered the main technical challenges and requirements for UAS inspection applications: reliable and accurate relative positioning and orientation; power efficient, vibration-robust technology; fail-safe systems; all-weather flying capability; long-duration precision flying; small data compression; sense and avoid mechanisms; and network centric infrastructure.

Lopez specified the capabilities an onboard GNSS receiver must have: interference monitoring and mitigation, and anti-spoofing — and briefly displayed the company’s products tailored for UAS inspection.

These include: AsteRx-m2, a single-antenna RTK/PPK base and rover; AsteRx-m2a, a dual-antenna RTK chip with 2D orientation; AsteRx-m2(a) UAS, an auto-pilot ready device for easy UAS integration; and AsteRx-i, a GNSS/inertial solution with RTK and 3D orientation.

Multi-Drone Mapping. Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas presented recent research developing the concept of collaborative mapping with multiple drones, creating a 3D display with decimeter accuracy. Ultimately the products from this prototype will serve in autonomous driving applications.

Humphreys displayed the Sensorium, an automobile equipped with stereo cameras, dual-antenna triple-frequency software-defined GNSS, an industrial-grade IMU, automotive radar, LTE connectivity — and a companion deployable UAV for reconnaissance.

Representing “eyes in the sky” for difficult or dangerous intersections. This little fellow carries a dual-antenna GNSS-IMU system developed in-house based on a software receiver delivering centimeter-accurate 2-degree UAV pose estimates.

The webinar then progressed to several Septentrio clients who are out on the leading edge of UAS inspections.

Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to better manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes. (Photo: Nathan Stump/Kespry)

Kespry. UAV manufacturer Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground-control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes.

Attendees learned how drone technology is being used to:
- Validate proposed earthwork – reduce rework and extra earthmoving costs before the job begins
- Safely measure earthwork activity – ensure subcontractor work and delivered material are constantly measured
- Perform regular earthwork progress topos – accurately document completed grading and drainage phases.
Applied to insurance claims for inspections of roof damage, Kespry’s autonomous system improves safety, reduces loss adjustment expenses, and delivers more accurate assessments, while reducing overall costs.

For commercial property, the UAV solution helps prevent losses and informs underwriting decisions with high-resolution aerial and thermal imagery to identify exposures. Mobile tools are provided to review inspection imagery within minutes of flight; artificial intelligence technology generates fully dimensioned wireframes and 3D roof models.

Flying Cam. The webinar links to a YouTube video presentation by Flying-Cam CEO Emanuel Previnaire, showing exciting film footage from popular entertainment. Flying-Cam was closely involved in Game of Thrones, season 7, filming in Los Barruecos Natural Park in Spain; and Mission Impossible 6, filming in the heart of Paris.

The footage, delivered by the company’s UAVs flying very exact, high-speed pre-programmed flightpaths, was used to cinematically recreate flying dragons and exciting helicopter stunt work has been recognized over the years with two Oscars and one Emmy.

The Flying-Cam SARAH E unmanned helicopter, with a payload capability of 10 kg, is open to many sensor integrations. Recent projects have included several high-end sensors: magnetometer, hyperspectral camera system, lidar and more.

Flying-Cam introduced the specific use case of their customer Altametris, in a solution for rail inspection applications. Flying-Cam’s SARAH E successfully performed a lidar aerial survey in a populated area, the train station of Marseille Saint-Charles.

Altametris. A subsidiary of the French National Railway (SNCF), one of the densest and most complex networks in Europe, Altametris participates in monitoring and inspecting a system encompassing 58,000 kilometers of track, 1,700 tunnels, 27,000 bridges and 3,000 stations by using non-intrusive measurement methods (UAVs, robots and more).

Challenges for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) inspections of this vast network include countless obstructions, safety and regulations governing flights over populated areas, and the need to avoid interference with railway operations.

A typical rural scenario of long-range inspection involves a fixed-wing UAV with camera, lidar, multispectral camera and other sensors, flying at 150-meter altitude over a 50- to 100-kilometer stretch. Urban inspection uses rotary-wing UAVs with camera and lidar at even lower altitude (50 meters), along a 5-kilometer corridor.

Employing GNSS/INS solution for positioning and georeferencing combined with lidar leads to precise and valuable data (high-density point cloud, up to 1000 points/square meter). A highly accurate and robust GNSS system is also mandatory for safety and security as it could help to monitor and avoid drone fly-away.

Robust GNSS systems are therefore a key technology for the UAV industry and could open new business opportunities, through safe deployment in inhabited areas, high quality data for metrology,and more.

For full details on all the above, download the free webinar audio and slides.
November 26, 2018
Kespry, DJI offer stockpile measurement solution for mining

Image: Screenshot from Kespry video

Kespry and DJI are partnering to offer the DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone as part of the Kespry stockpile measurement solution for mining and aggregates companies.

The solution delivers the Kespry autonomous flight and aerial intelligence experience for stockpile measurement using a DJI drone. It enables large aggregates and mining companies to standardize and capture stockpile data across all their sites in the Kespry platform, while continuing to use Kespry 2s drones to support mine and site planning operations, Kespry said.

Integration of data captured from a DJI drone is the next innovation in the development of the Kespry industrial sensor platform.

Kespry provides inventory management and mine planning data to more than 200 mining and aggregates companies. As these customers scale their use of drone data, they are looking to standardize on a single platform to organize and analyze that data across sites, geographies and product divisions — even when those sites are highly distributed, Kespry said.

The addition of the DJI Mavic 2 Pro to the Kespry lineup is designed to enable even more site data to be centralized in the Kespry cloud. It will be available with a new, cost-effective purchase point designed to support using Kespry across more sites.

“Drone data is now the standard approach for measuring stockpiles at mine sites, however, millions of dollars are wasted through reconciling inconsistent data from different platforms and the time involved getting that data ready for analysis,” said George Mathew, CEO and chairman at Kespry. “Our goal with the addition of the Mavic 2 Pro to our solution is to respond to our customers wishing to use the Kespry aerial intelligence platform across all mine sites to standardize how stockpile data is generated — lowering their costs and helping drive the profitability of every site.”

“DJI is excited to have Kespry offering the Mavic 2 Pro as part of its aerial intelligence platform portfolio,” said Jan Gasparic, director of strategic partnerships, DJI. “Pairing the Mavic 2 Pro with Kespry’s industry leading AI, ML, and analytics capabilities will be of enormous benefit to mining companies that are looking to take advantage of drone technology in a portable and powerful package.”

According to the companies, the integration of DJI’s drone and sensors into the Kespry platform is the latest innovation in the delivery of an industrial sensor network, closely following Kespry’s recently announced high-resolution thermal capabilities for industrial inspection.

This expansion in the range of data that can be explored and analyzed in the Kespry platform further enables customers to protect and maximize their assets across industrial sites.

The Kespry platform is now capable of processing and analyzing a wide range of sensor data, enabling the future creation of industry-specific applications, including those under current development with leaders in the energy sector.

“We have sites in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland, so with the Kespry platform and DJI drone, we’ll be able to fly multiple sites at one time,” said Justin Dermont, accounting manager at Russell Standard. “I could be flying in Erie while my partners fly in North Carolina, but still be able to get the data in real time to the Kespry cloud.”

“Having DJI as part of the Kespry system will help with the flexibility and the timeliness of us being able to take inventory at multiple locations, especially when we have to take inventory at the end of production, or month end, to make sure we have accurate readings,” said Craig Schiebel, controller at Russell Standard. “Being able to take inventory simultaneously at multiple locations is huge.”

“We’re growing our business and recently acquired some new sites,” said Kyla Jungclaus, senior accountant at Brannan Companies. “We need all of our inventory to be done in just a couple days, so introducing the DJI drone to have another pilot surveying at some of our other locations will get inventory done even faster. I know that our measurements will be consistent and accurate even if I don’t do them myself, and I can manage them all in a single account in the Kespry cloud.”

Kespry is offering the Mavic 2 Pro as part of its fully-managed, end-to-end annual subscription model. Kespry customers that choose the Mavic 2 Pro for stockpile measurement will benefit from the full Kespry experience, including its acclaimed support, training, customer success team, and drone up-time guarantee.

The Kespry stockpile measurement solution with DJI will be available Q1 2019.

October 30, 2018
UAV images show inspection action
The UAV inspection industry continues to grow, as evidenced by these photos of actual end-user application. Unmanned systems follow precise flight paths to gather the data needed for inspection missions in the fields of insurance (home roof inspection), mining, construction and the pulp paper industry.

Kespry drone inspecting damaged roof for insurance claim. (Photo: Nathan Stump/Kespry)

A free webinar on Thursday, Oct. 25 will show more of these applications and cover the requirements and challenges for positioning technology in commercial applications in urban and remote areas, including those generated by concerns about interference and spoofing.

In the free webinar, attendees will learn:
- Latest trends and challenges for drone-based aerial intelligence platforms for insurance and roofing applications
- GNSS technology requirements for safe UAV BVLOS operations and a view of the regulatory frameworks
- Importance of UAS traffic management systems (UTM)
- Use cases in linear infrastructure inspection (railways, roads, power lines and others)
- Challenges for GNSS systems in autonomous aerial vehicles and growing concerns about safety
- Robustness of multi-GNSS receivers to jamming and spoofing
- Latest innovation in GNSS technology concerning inspection applications and real-time accuracy/reliability
Earthworks contractors use this drone technology to perform detailed topographic surveys of project sites throughout all phases of construction. The new survey tool is reducing costs and time, allowing earthworks contractors to increase their profitability and ensure project success. (Photo: Paul Ross/Kespry)

In addition to a tailored application for roof inspections, targeted at insurance companies, UAV manufacturer Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes.

In the webinar, attendees will learn how drone technology is being used to:
1. Validate proposed earthwork – reduce rework and extra earthmoving costs before the job begins
2. Safely measure earthwork activity – ensure subcontractor work and delivered material are constantly measured
3. Perform regular earthwork progress topos – accurately document completed grading and drainage phases
Further application examples in construction projects will show how drones are providing construction companies with a new method for accurate survey work throughout their entire worksite that can:

Tablet software for UAV inspection enables 1-hour claim filing (Photo: Nathan Stump/Kespry)
- Reduce up to 20 percent of total project costs by eliminating rework through regular cut and fill analysis of drone data
- Eliminate up to 10 percent of earth moving costs through more accurate volumetric analysis
- Perform more frequent surveys in-house with drones, reducing traditional survey equipment and service costs.
Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to better manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes. (Photo: Nathan Stump/Kespry)

In the first example show above, insurance claims for roof damage, the fully-autonomous system improves safety, reduces loss adjustment expenses, and delivers more accurate risk assessments, while reducing overall costs. For commercial property, the UAV solution helps prevent losses and informs underwriting decisions with high-resolution aerial and thermal imagery to identify exposures. Accurate, unbiased reports are easily prepared and shared with all parties. Mobile tools are provided to review inspection quality imagery within minutes of flight; artificial intelligence (AI) technology generates fully-dimensioned wireframes and 3D roof models

Drones for the pulp and paper industry
The drone and analytics platform enables companies to improve profitability through quick, cost-effective, and accurate surveying of chip and roundwood sites.

UAV applications in pulp and paper industry will be demo’d in the Oct 25 webinar (Photo: Jason Nichols/Kespry)

Kespry enables production plant and production managers to analyze stockpile inventories, better manage supply chain activity, and improve site operations — maximizing profitability across production and supply chain operations.

The company also supplies a drone-based AI platform for the aggregates and mining industry supplies accurate inventory management and mine planning. It will be demonstrated in the free October 25 webinar.
October 16, 2018
Drone platform guides earthworks projects
Kespry now offers a suite of capabilities that extends the value of aerial intelligence to the full life cycle of planning, bidding and managing earthworks projects in the major site construction industry.

The company is focused on making it easier to capture, process, use and share high-resolution information from the field with its fully autonomous aerial intelligence system.

Capabilities include grade planning and analysis, site and surface comparison including cut/fill visualization, and design plan development and compliance.

Compared to other drone mapping solutions, the earthworks-specific tools enable construction companies to more accurately plan the work, improve their cost structure, and deliver safer working environments through frequent analysis of changes to the site, according to Kespry.

The new capabilities are a result of customer and partner feedback, including from John Deere, dealers and clients.

The new earthworks capabilities provide:
- Faster and more accurate production of earthwork grading plans through on-demand drone data capture and analysis. Mass haul plans can be easily developed before projects begin with an entire site mapped and analyzed in hours. New tools also enable haul road planning to support more efficient site planning.
- Reduced costs for grading project bids, with project estimates delivered faster than with traditional estimating techniques. Ongoing operational costs are also reduced with on-demand cut/fill analysis enabling close management of the project and specific bid requests.
- More efficient and safer project operations with progress comparisons delivered through daily drone flights. This enables design plan comparison through project plan overlay onto Kespry data, reducing the complexity and cost of rework. Safety can also be improved through close monitoring of change and analysis of grades around the site.
December 1, 2017