Tag: Scotland

Seen & Heard: Launching weather balloons and tracking endangered wildcats

“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.

Photo: Milos Bjelica/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Drawing with GPS

According to Guinness World Records, a 982.53-mile, seven-day ride by David Schweikert was the “largest GPS drawing by bicycle”. His drawing of a cross spanned three U.S. states: Wisconsin, Nebraska and South Dakota. “GPS drawings,” or Strava art, are growing in popularity, with two other notable record attempts being made in the past 12 months. Schweikert completed his ride in May, but for Guinness World Records to consider a record official all documentation and data must be verified. There are also strict rules and regulations relating to mileage that deviates from the course. To stick strictly to the profile of the cross, Schweikert rode 35% of his trip on unpaved roads.

Photo: MattGush/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Location Data and Accountability

The Connecticut State Police is under fire for failing to archive vehicle location data. While all police cruisers are equipped with location technology, only live data is available, reported CT Insider. Officials can locate a police cruiser when the vehicle is in use but cannot determine where it has been in the past. Experts and lawmakers told CT Insider that not archiving location data for some period of time is unusual, and they are worried that it could make it harder to hold troopers accountable when their conduct comes into question — including in multiple ongoing investigations examining allegations of ticket falsification within the force.

Photo: davemhuntphotography/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Collars and Cats

The Saving Wildcats conservation project, based at Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands, is using tracking collars to study endangered wildcats. For the project, 19 wildcats were released into the park while a field research team monitored movement data and was alerted if any of the animals were hurt or killed. This project is a collaboration between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, and the Cairngorms National Park Authority. The new kittens, born at RZSS’s Highland Wildlife Park, will be released into the wild next summer once they are aged six to eight months.

Photo: Croydon High School

High School Launches Weather Balloons

Croydon High School, in partnership with the University of Bath, has completed the Astrogazers project, which involved launching a weather balloon into space. On September 12, a team of girls from grades 5 through 11 successfully launched two meteorological balloons that ventured to an altitude of 32,380 m. The balloons carried essential equipment, including cameras, data loggers and GNSS receivers — all designed to explore how different materials respond to atmospheric conditions.

December 26, 2023
Seen & Heard: Lidar reveals Mayan city, UK begins UAV deliveries

“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.

UK begins UAV deliveries

Image: Screenshot of video by BBC

Royal Mail and UAV company Skyports have launched the Orkney I-Port operation to distribute letters and packages between the Orkney Islands, Scotland, reported the BBC. In partnership with the council’s harbor authority and Scottish airline Loganair, mail will be transported from Royal Mail’s Kirkwall delivery office to the city of Stromness in Orkney. UAVs will then carry items to the islands of Graemsay and Hoy, where postal staff will complete the delivery routes. The UAV service will initially operate for three months and may continue on a permanent basis under existing regulatory frameworks due to Orkney’s unique landscape and the proximity of the islands to one another. The UAV service aims to improve service levels and delivery times to Graemsay and Hoy, as weather and geography typically cause disruption to delivery services. The use of UAVs to deliver mail also may bring significant safety improvements by ensuring that postal workers can deliver between ports without risk.

GNSS is taking a hike, literally

Image: Aleksandar Georgiev/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

In July, officials in Taichung City, Taiwan, launched a GNSS-based app to aid lost hikers and to mitigate risk associated with outdoor activities in the area’s mountainous region, reported Tapei Times. The app was developed by the Taichung Fire Bureau in response to a surge in outdoor activities after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted and, subsequently, an increase in medical emergencies linked to mountain activities. Wi-Fi towers have been built at major trailheads such as Toukeshan, Anmashan, Fushoushan and Snow Mountain to supplement the app as well as to help facilitate UAV deployment to find lost hikers.

Lidar reveals Mayan city

Image: tobiasjo/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

In a biological preserve in Mexico’s Campeche state, a team of archaeologists have documented pyramids, palaces, a ball court and other remains of an ancient city they call Ocomtún, reported The New York Times. Archeologists surveyed the site for six weeks in May and June, finding 50-foot-tall structures resembling pyramids, as well as pottery and Mayan engravings they believe date to between 600 AD and 900 AD. The team determined the city was likely abandoned more than 1,000 years ago. Surveying of the area has been revolutionized over the past decade by lidar — allowing researchers to survey densely forested areas that are difficult to explore on foot. Archeologists were able to use airborne lasers to pierce through dense vegetation and reveal the ancient structures and human-modified landscapes beneath.

Hundreds of UAVs down

Image: Chesky_W/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

More than 350 UAVs were lost during a practice light display show in Melbourne, Australia, on July 14, ahead of a scheduled performance for the opening of the women’s World Cup. The UAVs appeared to stop mid-show and plummet into the Yarra River. Divers have since fished out hundreds of the UAVs. According to the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, the likely cause of the mass-crash was interference with GPS signals.

October 2, 2023
Bluesky, SkyFi collaborate to broaden aerial imagery access

Image: Bluesky

Bluesky International and SkyFi have collaborated to provide access to Earth observation assets and multi-perspective imagery to users globally. Bluesky is providing its high-resolution aerial imagery, taken by aircraft-mounted cameras, to SkyFi to make available for businesses, forestry, water and land managers across the United Kingdom.

SkyFi aims to make Earth observation data more accessible to users through its growing network of satellites and aerial platforms. The company has created a data marketplace where users can purchase existing images or task a satellite to purchase a new image.

Bluesky provides a wide range of geospatial data products and services to users across the United Kingdom. GIS and CAD-ready imagery from Bluesky captures ground terrain, cityscape rooftops, fauna and more. The company’s catalogue of aerial imagery is available in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

April 6, 2023
UAVs speed surveying and construction projects in United Kingdom

Screenshot: Propeller

For a major project, surveying with traditional GPS equipment would normally take many days, Learn how Trimble and Propeller helped speed progress.

Wills Bros, a family-run contractor based in the UK and Ireland, has begun work on the £29 million (USD $40 million) Maybole Bypass project in Scotland. The 6-km (~ 3.75-mi) project involves 900,000 cubic meters of earth removal and a further 15,000 cubes of rock that needs to be excavated and removed. In addition, Wills Bros is responsible for the construction of 10 culverts to deal with water flow in the area.

For a project this size, surveying the entire site with traditional, ground-based GPS equipment would normally take six days, estimates Jonathan Wills, who was instrumental in the company’s recent investment in Trimble and Propeller equipment. But considering the increased accuracy tolerance required for some of the structural elements involving the culverts, getting useful survey data from the ground would actually take weeks for this project.

As an alternative, Wills Bros is using Propeller PPK, a drone surveying workflow that combines DJI’s Phantom 4 RTK drone; AeroPoints’ “smart” ground-control points; offloaded data processing; and the Propeller Platform software that allows measuring of the site using 3D models generated from drone images. Wills Bros also is using Trimble Stratus for cloud-based drone survey processing, visualization and analytics with Propeller Platform.

Wills Bros was able to collect an initial earthwork takeoff of the Maybole project area in a fraction of the time.

“Savings on labor costs alone have been considerable given the fact that on so many occasions we can now obtain detailed project data within a second rather than sending a man on site to survey for information,” Wills said. “The drone comes in a backpack and is up in the air doing its thing within minutes. From the outset, the time savings are immense.”

Once the drone and ground-control data are uploaded, Propeller transforms them into a 3D terrain model that can be measured in the cloud-based Propeller Platform.

August 31, 2021
Scotland’s Luce Bay to host 3-month jamming trial

A GNSS jamming trial will take place from Sept. 8 through Dec. 4 in and around Luce Bay, at Wigtownshire in southern Scotland, conducted by the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority.

The trial will affect electronic situational awareness devices, UAS command systems and GNSS receivers.

The activity may affect GNSS receivers along with UAS and cockpit devices operating on 433, 868, 915, 2400, 5800 MHz operating up to 40,000FT AMSL within 55NM of 545020N 045548W (West Freugh).

During the trials, impacted systems may suffer intermittent or total failure. Individual events will not exceed two minutes in duration with no more than five events per hour. Activity will take place in the daytime hours between 0830 and 1600.

For more information, contact [email protected]

For emergency cease jamming, contact 01776 888932 or 01776 888930.

(From CAA notice number SW2020/187).

September 3, 2020
Skyports joins Thales in COVID-19 drone-delivery trial

Skyports’ delivery drone, manufactured by Wingcopter, takes flight. (Photo: Wingcopter)

Skyports and Thales are partnering to conduct a drone delivery trial for the National Health Service (NHS) to support the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 response.

The trial, being conducted in Scotland, aims to prove the feasibility of delivering urgent medical cargo, such as COVID-19 test kits and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), between remote medical facilities by delivery drone. The trial is backed by Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) — the integrated partnership of NHS Highland and Argyll and Bute Council directed by the local Integration Joint Board.

U.K. drone delivery provider Skyports will conduct the trial and operate the flights using delivery drones supplied by unmanned aircraft-maker Wingcopter, because of its proven capability through numerous delivery operations around the world. The trial flights will be planned through Thales’ drone operations management platform, SOARIZON, which offers digital tools to maintain compliant and safe drone flying operations.

Based at Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban, the trial will consist of two-way flights between the hospital and Mull and Iona Community Hospital in Craignure 10 miles (16km) away on the Isle of Mull.

As COVID-19 testing rapidly gathers pace in the U.K., the proposed delivery service will help to ensure that isolated communities have access to tests, delivered in a fast and efficient way. Currently, the majority of medical supplies and specimens are transported between the laboratory at Lorn and Islands Hospital, surrounding general practitioners’ surgeries and other healthcare settings by sea and road, a long and complicated journey.

The service would cut delivery times from up to six hours one way by ground transport and ferry, to 15 minutes for on-demand delivery by drone. The speed would contribute to keeping front line medical and delivery personnel safe.

Answering the call from government and Argyll and Bute HSCP, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the trial is the result of rapid mobilization from industry as well as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), local government, NHS Scotland and the U.K. Department for Transport (DFT). Argyll and Bute HSCP has been at the forefront of exploring with Skyports the use of unmanned aircraft technology, building on preliminary work with the Scottish government on the possibility of drone use by the public-sector emergency services in Scotland.

The two-week trial represents a crucial milestone for unmanned aviation in the U.K. Under current rules, drones must always be flown within visual line of sight of the remote pilot. To undertake these more extended flights (beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS), the project team has been in close consultation with the CAA.

Through this trial, the alliance aims to prove the long-term, sustainable viability of such services; bringing together regulation, government and industry to unlock the transformational potential of drones for society when used in a safe, secure and controlled way.f this new service.”

Thales and Skyports are also working together within the CAA Regulatory Sandbox programme, exploring how regulatory approvals can be granted for more widespread BVLOS drone operations in the U.K.

Once the trial has been successfully completed, the team will continue to work closely with the CAA and the NHS to make services available in Scotland and across the U.K. to provide access to this innovative technology to a wide range of organisations, in particular a number of other NHS Boards and Trusts.

June 4, 2020
Drone aids archaeology in Scotland

The National Trust for Scotland commissioned Glasgow-based GeoGeo to carry out a drone survey of the inner Hebridean islands of Canna and Sanday in November 2018. Using an ultra-high-definition camera, the GeoGeo team not only pinned down the exact locations of archaeological features, but also revealed new archaeological sites.

Over five days,the drone navigated 400 kilometers to capture 4,000 images at a 3-centimeter resolution. After processing, the images created a minutely detailed 3D map capable of being used in a 3D printer to create scale models of the islands. With more than 420 million data points, it is currently the world’s largest complete island dataset captured by drone, claims GeoGeo founder Paul Georgie.

Screenshot: GeoCue

“We were blown away by the results and the possibilities of this technology,” said Derek Alexander, head of Archaeology at the Trust. “We’ve previously recorded archaeology on Canna and Sanday which proves that there were inhabitants as far back as the Neolithic, but this survey gives us information and detail we just haven’t had until now. We’ve been able to obtain exact plots of known sites, but also recorded the extensive traces of cultivation, such as rig and furrow field systems that range in age from the Bronze Age onwards.”

Screenshot: GeoCue

The cameras and software also will be able to help with seabird counts and habitat and coastal erosion monitoring, which are currently expensive and labor intensive, Alexander said. The trust will use the maps to update archaeological records and prepare for future groundwork and excavations.

April 22, 2019