The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took a major step forward in expanding commercial UAS/UAV operations in the U.S. airspace. It’s chief said April 19 that the FAA is preparing to take another major step forward in further opening up commercial UAS/UAV operations by eliminating the need for a 333 Exemption for operating small UAS/UAV.
On March 29, the FAA announced it was doubling the altitude for blanket nationwide CoAs (Certificates of Waiver or Authorization) to 400 feet above ground level (AGL). The FAA has typically issued a blanket nationwide CoA with each 333 Exemption it has granted.
Before the announcement, the maximum altitude allowed for commercial operations under the blanket CoA was 200 feet AGL. Now, it is 400 feet AGL. At the stroke of a pen, the 3,000+ 333 Exemption holders with blanket CoAs are now authorized to fly to 400 feet. This is significant because UAS operators can now fly higher and cover more area more efficiently, and still meet the precision and accuracy requirements of most clients.
Another announcement, perhaps even more important, was made by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, who spoke at the 2016 FAA UAS Symposium held April 19-20 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Huerta announced that the FAA is close to finalizing the FAA rules for small UAS.
“In late spring we plan to finalize our small UAS rule to eliminate the need for most 333 exemptions,” Huerta said. He was referring to the Small UAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that was announced Feb. 15, 2015, and opened for public comment through April 24, 2015. There were 4,650 public comments made. You can read the comments about the proposed rule here.
The proposed small UAS rule differs significantly from the current FAA requirements for operating UAS in the United States for commercial purposes. One of the major differences is that there will be a “UAS operator’s certificate” created so that commercial UAS pilots will no longer be required to have a FAA Pilot Certificate. Currently, the FAA requires commercial UAS pilots to have at least an FAA Sport Pilot certificate, which requires a substantial investment in money and time to achieve.
To summarize, the general proposed small UAS rules are:
UAS pilot
Must be at least 17 years old.
Must pass an aeronautical test at FAA-approved testing center, and renewed every 24 months.
Must be vetted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Must obtain an unmanned aircraft operator certificate with a small UAS rating
UAS operation
UASmust weigh less than 55 pounds.
Pilot in Command or Visual Observer must maintain visual line of sight (VLOS).
Can’t operate over people who are not part of the UAS operation.
Daylight operations only.
Yield to manned aircraft.
May use Visual Observer (VO), but not required.
First-person view camera cannot satisfy “see-and-avoid” requirement but can be used as long as requirement is satisfied in other ways.
Maximum airspeed of 100 mph.
Maximum altitude of 500 feet AGL (above ground level).
Minimum weather visibility of 3 miles from control station.
Can’t operate more than one UAS at a time.
No careless or reckless operations.
Operations in Class B, C, D and E airspace are allowed with the required ATC permission.
Operations in Class G airspace are allowed without ATC permission.
With these rules, neither a 333 Exemption nor a CoA is required, which would significantly ease the requirements for a surveying or geospatial company to begin offering UAS services.
The DJI Phantom 4 UAV.
In addition, the small UAS rule includes a framework to adapt future rules such as Micro UAS (0.55 pounds and under) rules that are being actively discussed within the FAA as well as a discussion about commercial operation of UAS over people.
In the meantime, consumer UAS are becoming more powerful with each new product introduction. DJI, the world’s largest UAS manufacturer (by far) introduced the Phantom 4. It’s a huge step forward due to one new feature: automatic collision avoidance. This feature will help operators avoid trees, buildings and potentially other UAS. I’m pretty sure this feature will eventually be included in all commercial UAS.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich gives his keynote presentation at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 5, in Las Vegas, where he also announced the acquisition of Ascending Technologies for drone collision avoidance. (Photo: Intel)
Automatic collision avoidance is such a hot subject that in January, Intel acquired Ascending Technologies, a UAS manufacturer that has incorporated automatic sense and avoid technology in their UAS. According to the announcement, Intel sees “incredible opportunity for innovation across a multitude of industries. As a result, Intel is positioning itself at the forefront of this opportunity to increasingly integrate the computing, communications, sensor and cloud technology required to make drones smarter and more connected.”
Last week I attended a workshop sponsored by the Oregon GPS User’s Group (soon to be Oregon GNSS User’s Group). OGUG invited Michael Dennis, RLS, PE, current Ph.D. geomatics student, former full-time National Geodetic Survey (NGS) employee, all-around smart guy and entertaining speaker to present an all-day workshop entitled “Space Time and Datum Forensics – A Geodetic Workshop.” Let me tell you, its 260 slides of stuff that matters in GIS, surveying and GNSS if you’re working with data at the sub-meter level and better.
The audience was largely surveyors, and that’s a problem. I’d go as far as saying that it’s significantly more important for GIS professionals to understand this topic than surveyors. The reason is because surveyors are project-oriented. For example, Joe Surveyor is hired to complete a boundary and topo survey for a new commercial real estate development project. He does the research, does the field work, completes the deliverables, issues an invoice, and places the project file into storage. Joe might look at the file again in six months when construction begins and may never look at it again after that.
Surveyors are short-term, project-based data generators. On the other hand, GIS professionals are long-term data managers. Therefore, for surveyors, their data doesn’t require accuracy, it requires precision. On the other hand, GIS professionals value accuracy much more, or at least they should.
The reason is because all the data layers in their GIS need to play together. GIS layers need to be spatially consistent. Managing a spatial and tabular-robust GIS database is a substantially more complex task than the typical surveyor encounters. Perhaps that complexity is one of the reasons that the spatial geodesy of a GIS database largely falls below the noise floor. In other words, there are much larger problems to tackle in a substantial GIS database other than geodesy.
How many surveyors have ever had to deal with SAP databases? How about an SDE (how many of you had to Google the acronym)? How about writing a script that queries a MySQL database to extract features with particular attributes? That’s just the beginning.
Before a surveyor criticizes a GIS for its accuracy, or lack thereof, that person should spend some time dealing with some of the data-management issues encountered by a GIS professional. There are entire conferences focused on only this subject. That’s what GIS is all about: data management, long-term data management.
A GIS doesn’t get filed after every project is completed; it gets added to the last project, and with each project, the database grows larger, more unwieldy, and likely more difficult to manage. And then, someone or some company throws a curveball at them, a new schema, a new operating system, or a new enterprise GIS software version that impacts the entire database. The IT department gets involved, and then procurement gets involved. Before you know it, it’s meetings after meetings. You get the picture.
Among all of the complex GIS database management issues, the geodesy of GIS has stayed below the noise floor. In other words, it’s been largely ignored. But as I’ve written in the past for GPS World magazine and this publication, GNSS, remote sensing and other sensors are becoming cheaper, faster and more precise. Therefore, data being appended to GIS databases are becoming more precise.
This creates challenges by highlighting the legacy inaccurate or imprecise data in the GIS database, which in turn creates the necessity for another decision to be made: what should we do about it? The answer to that question is for another article, or three.
With that, there are a few slides from Michael’s total of 260 slides in the workshop that I would like to highlight.
His second slide is one my favorites. It’s a bit rhetorical in that there is no answer, but succinctly states the problem. The value of a GIS database is the relationship of spatial data amongst its elements. How close is the gas pipeline to the nearest home? Where’s the shut-off valve for main water line on First Street? Which homes will be at risk of flooding during a storm surge in Galveston, Texas? How fast will the latest virus likely spread if the first case is discovered in Atlanta vs. Nowhere, USA? GIS can answer these questions, but its answers are only as good as the data in the GIS. Good ol’ garbage-in, garbage-out.
Before we get into the weeds, this is another setup slide that succinctly frames the challenge.
To be clear, a coordinate system always includes a datum (a.k.a. geographic coordinate system, geometric reference system/frame), and it may or may not also include a map projection. Examples of projected coordinate systems include UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator), US SPC (State Plane Coordinates), Web Mercator (think Google Earth), Lambert Conformal Conic, and Gauss-Kruger for my European brethren. These systems must always include a specific datum. Common geodetic datums are ITRF08, IGS08, NAD83, NAD27, ED50, and WGS-84. You may have different map projections for each datum. For example, UTM or SPC can be referenced to NAD83. It’s a straight-forward mathematical operation to change the projection if the underlying datum is the same. However, UTM coordinates referenced to NAD83 or WGS-84 is a different subject altogether. Going to/from UTM/NAD83 to UTM/WGS-84 is far from being a straight-forward mathematical operation.
The next feature slide gets into the weeds a bit. This is a subject I’ve written about for a few years and was somewhat highlighted in two articles I wrote (and a webinar I moderated) called “Nightmare on GIS Street.” How many of you think you use data referenced to WGS-84?
WGS-84 referenced data is probably the most widely mis-used. As you can see from the above slide, the definition of WGS-84 has changed over time. You’ll never find a survey mark on the ground with coordinates referenced to WGS-84. If you do, it’s wrong. This is because it’s a military thing. WGS-84 is managed by the US Department of Defense. More specifically, the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (formerly NIMA, formerly DMA). Fortunately, in recent years, the Department of Defense has aligned WGS-84 with ITRF (International Terrestrial Reference Frame) — most recently to ITRF08 — and ITRF/IGS coordinates are publically available. For example, IGS08 (International GNSS Service of 2008) coordinates are published for NGS CORS and available in NGS OPUS solutions (for the purpose of this discussion we can consider ITRF and IGS the same). However, there is a caveat: ITRF08/IGS08/WGS-84 coordinates are referenced to specific dates (epochs).
WGS-84 was aligned with ITRF08 at epoch 2005.00, meaning that the WGS-84 coordinates were defined for the date of January 1, 2005. NGS publishes IGS08 coordinates at epoch 2005.00 for CORS. But OPUS solutions give IGS08 coordinates at the date of the GPS data file, and both autonomous and WAAS-corrected GPS gives positions at the mid-year epoch of the current year (i.e., positions are now at epoch 2016.5). This matters because stuff moves, including the ground you are standing on. Some places move more than others. California moves more than Missouri. Chile moves more than Germany. January 1, 2005 is 11+ years ago. If the ground is moving 3cm/yr, that’s 33cm over 11+ years. If you’re counting centimeters, that’s quite a few of them.
Software vendors have a hard time keeping up with modern datum transformations, and this next slide is a perfect example of that. It’s not just one vendor. Nearly all software vendors “aren’t doing it right.” In this slide, this software vendor displays 10 different transformations from “WGS84” to “NAD83”. Which one do you use? None of them get it right.
The most accurate one is still 20 cm in error. The worst is more than a meter in error. It makes you wonder why you spent $8,000 on that sub-foot GPS handheld when your GIS software may be introducing three feet of error.
Finally, should you be concerned about this stuff?
If you expect some of your data layers to be accurate to less than three meters, the answer is “yes.”
I’ll likely continue this discussion next month or in the coming months,and also provide a link to Michael’s 260-page slideshow.
For most GIS professionals, Esri’s new ArcGIS Earth will replace the soon-to-be-discontinued Google Earth Enterprise. I take a tour through the new software, which is much like Google Earth with a few added features. Plus: Q&A from our December UAV webinar.
In early 2015, Google announced that Google Earth Enterprise is being deprecated. In the software world, deprecated means the software is heading towards obsolescence and the vendor isn’t going to develop it further.
Google’s announcement stated that Google Earth Enterprise was being deprecated as of March 20, 2015, but will be supported through March 22, 2017. According to Esri, Google will continue to provide map and location services APIs as well as content.
Here comes Esri, introducing ArcGIS Earth.
At the Esri User Conference last summer, Jack Dangermond announced Esri is working on ArcGIS Earth. Last week, Esri announced the introduction of ArcGIS Earth 1.0. You can download ArcGIS Earth for free.
The opening screen looks a lot like Google Earth, but clearly with an Esri touch via the toolbar in the upper left corner.
You can connect to ArcGIS Online and access its library of data, or import SHP and KML data (no TIF/TFW import, though).
Here are the convenient editing and querying tools (measure).
I imported a KML file containing an orthophoto I created from a UAV flight. Sorry for the orthophoto offset (darned horizontal datum thing).
As it stands now, ArcGIS Earth 1.0 is much like Google Earth with a few added features. However, based on what I perceive Jack Dangermond’s mantra to be, ArcGIS Earth is going to evolve into a powerful mapping tool and platform for consumerizing feature-rich GIS data, much like Google Earth did in the past 10 years, but in a much more GIS way. I look forward to that.
December’s UAV webinar
Speaking of imagery, Google Earth and UAVs, in December I participated in a webinar entitled “Introduction to Using UAVs for Mapping” along with my colleagues from Applanix and C-ASTRAL. If you missed the webinar, you can still view it by signing up here.
It was a solid, 60-minute discussion about the basics of mapping using UAVs. We had a few questions that we didn’t have time to address during the webinar, so I provide answers below. Also, I added some questions that may have been answered, but deserve mention again.
How significant is the quality of GNSS sensors for UAV mapping performance?
In my experience so far, you need precision GNSS measurements either in the air or on the ground if you want high-accuracy results. If you want to use a consumer UAV that has a consumer GNSS receiver in it, you’ll need to use more ground-control points that are mapped with high-precision GNSS receivers. On a wide-open 150-acre site (think agriculture field), that means setting 10-15 ground-control targets. On the other hand, if your UAV has an RTK GNSS receiver in it, you can get by with very few ground-control points. The type of topography also has a significant impact. For example, heavy tree cover, water bodies and other homogenous terrain (such as snow) make it more difficult for image-processing software to process the images.
How accurate can volumes be obtained on stockpiles?
I plan on running some tests and compare volumes computed using terrestrial measurement techniques vs. volumes computed by low-cost UAV images. Based on my experience, I’m willing to wager that the results will be very close.
What are the reasonable accuracies achievable with UAV mapping these days?
With a low-cost UAV (12MP camera), I’m collecting images with a 2-cm/pixel resolution. Horizontal accuracy (with RTK ground control points) is 30 cm or better. Thirty centimeter (30 cm) elevation contours are achievable, and possibly better than that. I’m still exploring how far we can push low-cost UAVs.
Can we use a UAV with our own GPS-RTK base station?
The best use of your GPS-RTK base station is to use it to set RTK ground control for image processing. It’s likely not feasible that you can send corrections from your GPS-RTK base to the UAV unless the UAV is specifically designed to accept those corrections.
Can you tell us the benefits of fixed wing vs. rotary UAVs for mapping work (such as considerations of weather conditions and the benefits of a gimbal-based camera versus a non-gimbal camera typical in fixed-wing UAVs)?
A fixed-wing UAV can cover a much greater area per battery than a rotary UAV, but if you’re located in the U.S., you are restricted to line-of-sight operations. That severely limits the value of a fixed-wing UAV. Fixed-wing UAVs also require a much larger landing area and are trickier to land. It takes much more training to land a fixed-wing UAV than a rotary UAV. I can’t answer your question about gimbal vs. non-gimbal, except that the rotary UAV that I operate has a gimbal for dampening the effects of vibration. With it, vibration doesn’t seem to be an issue.
In forestry, one of the real challenges is stitching the photos together. Did I hear right that RTK will ensure stitching will be greatly improved?
In my limited experience with flying over heavy tree canopy, the best way to handle this scenario is to fly with a heavy overlap (such as 90 percent) or fly at a higher elevation. Since most commercial authorizations in the U.S. limit flight elevation to 200 feet, there’s not a choice to fly higher, so you must fly with a higher overlap.
Eric, could you change the camera to a near infrared camera?
Mine is a consumer UAV, so there’s little support for customization unless I want to really tear it apart myself. There is some after-market support for NDVI and NIR sensors on consumer UAVs, but I’m not knowledgeable about the quality of those. I think that after-market and manufacturer support of various sensors (cameras, NIR, NDVI, lidar) will become more popular on higher-end consumer UAVs.
Eric, the contours seem to capture the curbs in the upper right. Is that correct?
Correct, it’s pretty impressive for a consumer UAV. Granted, I set a dozen or so RTK ground-control points on a 5-acre site, but I’m pretty sure I could cut that in half and achieve the same result. By the way, I should smooth the elevation contours next time.
What software was used to create DEM?
I used Agisoft PhotoScan Pro.
Currently, the use of UAVs seems to be limited to a relatively small project area and required line of sight. Within the natural resource sector, what is the critical barrier at this point to expanding the project size and thus the range of flight — is it technology or air traffic regulations?
In the U.S., the limitation is a regulatory one. The FAA requires visual line-of-sight at all times when operating the UAV. The FAA is testing beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), and we hope that someday BVLOS rules will be issued for commercial operators. For now, you are correct in that UAVs are limited to relatively small areas.
How do the new FAA drone registration rules affect commercial mapping?
According to the FAA, you need to apply for a Section 333 Exemption and CoA (Certificate of Authorization or Waiver) from the FAA to fly UAVs for commercial purposes. This applies even if you want to fly above your own land or even if you don’t charge for flying. If you fly for any other purpose than as a hobby, it gets complicated very quickly.
Look for more content on UAVs in the near future. I’m pushing consumer UAVs to the maximum to see what we can reliably expect from them.
Geospatial data is everywhere. Many times I’ve shown the following photo I shot at the Esri User Conference several years ago. At the Field Technology Conference in November, I talked about this. Actually, I believe I’ve talked about the topic at nearly every Field Technology Conference since the inaugural event in 2010. Geospatial data long ago left the user domain of thousands and is rapidly headed toward billions.
One of the many developments driving that growth was the appearance of Google Earth in 2004, sprung from Google’s acquisition of Keyhole. Suddenly there was easy-to-use software to visualize geospatial data. At about the same time, Navteq (now HERE) and TeleAtlas (now TomTom) — two of the premiere geospatial data companies at the time — were gaining tremendous momentum in the exploding GPS car navigation market because they were, and still are, the two companies that provide the vast majority of the map data to the Garmins and TomToms (and others) of the world.
Professional Mapping
Today, Google Earth and Google Maps are still the defacto standard for “desktop mapping” by the general consumer. Google Earth Pro, the company’s offering to the high-end mapping market, formerly available on a subscription basis, will soon be free, as of January 2016. Previously the user received the following, and one supposes the same will continue to hold true:
Advanced measurements: Polygon area measurement. Determine affected radius.
High-resolution printing: Print images up to 4800 x 3200 pixels.
Pro data layers: Demographics, parcels, traffic count.
Import spreadsheet data: Import up to 2,500 addresses at a time.
Import Esri and MapInfo-formatted data: Import .shp and .tab files.
Make HD movies: Make Windows Media and QuickTime HD movies.
Trimble offers another cool geospatial tool that was once part of the Google portfolio. SketchUp is a powerful software for creating 3D visualizations (think 3D structures and objects).
Building that was modeled in SketchUp and overlaid in Google Earth
Both free SketchUp and fee-based SketchUp Pro versions are available. If your work includes generating renderings for clients, the latter can be valuable. You can download a free trial version here.
SketchUp pro is designed for architects, engineers, and design and construction professionals, as well as members of the global maker community. Its capabilities include:
Professional Drafting: Using a 2D drawing and documentation tool, users can manage drawings and display data from their information models, applying object classifications and accessing that info with an annotation tool.
Modeling Tools: With a 3-point arc tool, users can draw arced edges four different ways. A rotated rectangle tool allows for drawing precise rectangles unbound by default axes.
3D Warehouse: Models of popular brand-name building products are among a broad free content offering, more than 2.5 million models.
Integrating with Other Geospatial Tools
In coordination with Google, Esri has prepared a transition offer to ArcGIS for Google Earth Enterprise and Google Maps Engine customers and partners. ArcGIS provides 2D and 3D mapping and analysis in desktop, server and hosted environments. The system provides an infrastructure for making maps and geographic information available throughout an organization, across a community and openly on the Web.
Among its features:
Geoprocessing: a 3D analyst incorporating a LAS dataset toolset and visibility toolset; and conversion, data management, multi-dimension and spatial analyst toolboxes.
Geodata: connections to read-only databases or geodatabases in Oracle.
Extensions: 3d analayst and spatial analyst extensions.
Esri will provide no-cost software to replace Google Earth Enterprise or Google Maps Engine technology, and will include no-cost training in ArcGIS.
Realizing the value and momentum of Google Earth to reach the consumer users of geospatial technology, Esri has also announced ArcGIS Earth, and its website says it is accepting beta testers.
At Play in the Fields of Google Earth Pro
For just a quick-and-dirty exercise, I imported some unsmoothed, 1-foot contour lines generated from a UAV flight and overlaid them in Google Earth Pro.
Planimetric view
Then, in true Google Earth fashion, I zoomed in to have an oblique ground view (with Mt. Hood in the background, some 74 kilometers in the distance).
Zoomed in oblique ground view
Finally, following is the UAV imagery overlaid in Google Earth Pro.
Screenshot of the UAV imagery overlaid in Google Earth Pro
Actually, the Google Earth Pro imagery looks pretty good, but you start to see the differences as you zoom in. It’s hard to beat UAV orthophoto resolution.
Google Earth imageryUAV imagery shot with a 12-megapixel camera at 200 feet AGL (above ground level.)
Last month, I wrote that I’d post the presentations from the Field Technology Conference. Well, they aren’t quite ready, so we’ll have them for next month. There’s a great mix of presentations on GPS/GNSS, mobile devices, UAVs for mapping, laser rangefinders, various sensors and GIS software.
Happy Holidays and cheers to a prosperous New Year!
PORTLAND, Ore. — Two weeks ago, I attended (and hosted) the Field Technology Conference here in Portland, Oregon. This is the fifth year of the conference. In years past, it’s had a forestry emphasis primary because the Western Forestry and Conservation Association has been a major partner in organizing it.
This year, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership joined the organizing committee. The result was a 50-percent increase in attendance and a more diverse audience.
Another newcomer to the conference was a Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) U.S. State and Local Government Subcommittee meeting, which was co-located with the Field Technology Conference, offering a direct connection between civil GPS users and U.S. government representatives who are involved in GPS.
The conference was a two-day event comprised of three technology tracks: a track for general field technology and two tracks for industry-specific (forestry and fisheries) subjects, hands-on technology demonstrations and a field trip. Although forestry and fisheries professionals were the featured user groups, nearly all of the subject matters — GPS, UAVs, smartphones, tablets, laser rangefinders, lidar, photogrammetry, and field data-collection software — is applicable for a wide range of natural resource users involved with GIS (geographic information systems) technology.
As one of the hosts of the conference, I started out moderating the general session with all of the attendees in one room. This year, my general session topics include geospatial awareness and growth, GPS/GNSS technology, mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) and UAVs.
Something new I tried this year, which worked out really well, was using audience response “clickers.” These small handheld devices were given to each audience member and allowed them to answer multiple choice questions that I posed in my Powerpoint presentation. I’ve always been a fan of audience input, and started polling the audience during webinars I conducted many years ago. For this conference, I used an audience polling system from Turning Technologies. I’d like to share with you the questions I asked the audience and the responses that I received.
Question #1: Are you here?
Comment: This was a test question to see if the audience response system was working properly. I’m still not sure if the audience just had a great sense of humor or a technical problem. I think the former was true. ☺
Question #2: Have you attended this conference before?
Comment: This was great news that the conference is attracting new attendees. It’s an annual event held in November, so keep your eyes on it for next year!
Question #3: After a brief discussion about the availability of higher accuracy geospatial data (eg. GNSS, UAVs, etc.), I was curious about the level of accuracy the audience required in their typical tasks.
What geospatial data accuracy do your typical tasks require?
Comment: I wasn’t sure what to expect with this question, but since I’ve polled a fisheries audience before, I had a feeling accuracy requirements would vary, and they did. Previously, a fisheries audience had told me that they were satisfied with 5-meter accuracy.
Question #4: The last question leads to this one. I wondered if the audience accuracy requirement was driven by requirement or by availability.
Are you satisfied with the accuracy of the geospatial data you use?
Comment: The answer is clear that, generally speaking, the audience would use higher accuracy geospatial data if it was available.
Question #5: The next question was a pure technology one. In the day of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), I’ve been very interested in monitoring the trends in mobile devices. The question about operating systems is relevant because it determines which data collection software you can use. For example, if a specific data-collection software is written only for Windows, it will not run on an Android or Apple (iOS) device.
Which operating system do you use on your mobile device(s)?
Comment: These responses surprised me a bit. They certainly don’t match the global market share figures that I’ve read. Following are the latest mobile device operating system market share numbers reported by IDC and Statista.
Question #6: The next part of my presentation discussed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, also known as UAS or drone) technology. UAVs were a significant part of the conference this year. We had many presentations and some static demonstrations on UAV technology. On this subject, I had several questions for the audience.
Do you currently use a UAS?
Comment: These answers were not surprising. Flying UAVs commercially in the U.S. requires a special permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To date, the FAA has only issued about 2,000 such exemptions.
Question #7: Do you anticipate using a UAS?
Comment: These answers surprised me a bit. I had no idea the audience would be so interested in personally flying a UAV. This has me thinking about this the same way I think about GPS receivers — just another tool in the toolbox.
Question #8: How much are you willing to spend on a UAS?
Comment: These responses don’t surprise me, although I polled another audience at a different venue that was more engineering-oriented, and the answers were a bit different. The engineering-oriented audience was willing to spend more for a UAV.
Furthermore, in speaking with various attendees during the conference, there was quite a bit of interest in attaching different sensors to UAVs for various requirements. For example, lidar, multi-spectral and thermal (temperature) sensors were commonly mentioned as payloads they would like to see. The challenge is that the cost of a UAV rises sharply when these types of payloads are accommodated, and conflicts with the audience’s response about how much they are willing to pay for a UAV.
In next month’s column, I’ll post links to the papers presented at the Field Technology Conference as well as videos of papers presented by the CGSIC folks.
See you next month.
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Last month I wrote about the drone industry experiencing giddy enthusiasm. One of the points I mentioned was the upcoming Commercial UAV Expo, in which there were predicted to be 100+ exhibitors and 500-700 attendees — an exhibitor-to-attendee ratio of 1:5-7, an unusually low ratio for a conference. At INTERGEO in September, from where I wrote last month’s column, the ratio was 1:31.
Well, I attended the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas last week. The organizers reported ~1,500 attendees instead of the predicted 500-700. Apparently, attendance even surprised the organizers because they ran out of attendee bags by the time I picked up my badge the day before the conference began.
It was a very good conference because there were legitimate users and potential users of drone technology. During sessions, the audience was focused, more so than at most conferences I’ve attended. I think the reason is clear. The audience, consisting of drone users, potential users and manufacturers, wants to know where in the rapidly developing drone market is there a chance to make money?
One of the more interesting presenters was Commonwealth Edison, an electric utility based in Chicago with more than 5 million customers. ComEd discussed its experience and applications for drones from substation tower inspections to transmission line surveys. A representative from CNN, the news organization, spoke about how they are using drones to capture images and videos of breaking news events such as the recent refugee crisis in Europe. Chad Colby, a farmer who claims more than 3,500 drone flights and is active on the drone conference speaking circuit, showed the audience the value of drones in agriculture, which is one of the no-brainer markets for drones. Presentations such as these and a handful of others struck home with the audience because they present meaningful, that is to say monetizable content.
Commonwealth Edison’s use cases for drones.CNN use case for drones.Chad Colby/Nolan Berg describe the impact of drones in the ag market.
Moving from current uses to future uses, British Petroleum (BP) displayed its drone wish list — likely one that most drone dreamers would like to see:
Platforms (hardware/software):
Interoperability
Continuous operation
Autonomous air, land, water
Robots that can maneuver around a facility
Non-military pricing
Regulations:
Tech standards — iSafe, ANSI, HSAC
Beyond line of sight
Data exchange formats
Certification programs
Night operations
Payloads:
Miniaturized
Varied – full EM spectrum, acoustic, gas sensing
Several of the items on BP’s wish list were recurring themes at the conference, with the big elephant in the room being beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has largely not allowed BLOS operations even for 333 Exemption holders like me. Following is an excerpt from the CoA (Certificate of Waiver or Authorization) issued by the FAA:
d. The PIC is responsible to ensure visual observer(s) are: – Able to see the UA and the surrounding airspace throughout the entire flight
The Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) requirement seriously inhibits the value of drones for commercial use. When you consider that a rotorcraft (helicopter) might be less than two feet in diameter, it doesn’t have to travel very far before it’s difficult to see (without the aid of binoculars or similar devices, which are prohibited). However, rotorcraft are very flexible in that they can be controlled in a small area. They can hover and they can land in very small or constrained areas relatively safely. Fixed-wing (airplane) drones are a different story. At 30-50 miles per hour, it doesn’t take long for a fixed-wing drone to be out of VLOS. So, practically speaking, a fixed-wing drone for production-oriented flying is very limited, unless the operator disregards the FAA VLOS rule.
The other challenge with fixed-wing drones is the take-off, and more importantly, the landing space required to bring a fixed-wing drone back to earth in one piece. One fixed-wing manufacturer said you’ll need several hundred feet to land their aircraft, and that’s assuming a full payload (maximum weight). One has to wonder how fixed-wing drones will be deployed. One can quickly see how impractical it may be to launch a fixed-wing drone in something less than a city park, high school sports field or a crop field.
Ignoring the FAA VLOS (and other) rules is clearly what is happening. There is seemingly no constraint for manufacturers to tell prospective buyers “go ahead and operate on your own property, no one will care.” Farms, mining operations and some construction sites might be so rural that there’s not a human being in sight. In those scenarios, it seems the “no harm, no foul” rule is in effect, or more likely “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It’s definitely happening, to the point that critics are arguing that the FAA rules are so restrictive that it promotes illegal operations. Even a former NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) member wrote an article entitled “Unreasonable UAS Rules Promote Culture of Non-Compliance”.
However, just when you think it’s a drone free-for-all to fly where you want, the FAA pulls one out of its hat like it did last week and proposed a $1.9M fine to a Chicago-based company, SkyPan International, for conducting 65 drone flights without authorization. Mind you, these weren’t flights in rural Iowa taking pictures of corn fields. According to the FAA, the company flew 43 missions in New York City’s restricted airspace without prior authorization. Well, now we know where the FAA’s tolerance lies.
Back to the Commercial UAV Expo. While the enthusiasm during the technical sessions showed some restraint, it knew no bounds in some areas of the exhibition area. Vendors, especially the venture capital-funded ones, were looking to book orders now. Prices ranged from sub-$1,000 for a “prosumer” drone for snapping high-resolution images to a $100,000+ for the drone equipped with lidar or other specialized payload.
The exhibit hall at the Commercial UAV Expo.
Please don’t take my message the wrong way. There’s a lot of opportunity for drones in the commercial market segments, from agriculture to utility inspection to photography — but the game is very early. While the technical hurdles can be conquered, the regulatory hurdles are substantial. The FAA is working on rules for BVLOS, but as the FAA chairman said, a solution for that is a few years from now.
Last week, I attended the INTERGEO exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It’s the largest geospatial conference in the world with more than 17,000 attendees from 92 countries flooding the exhibition halls. It’s quite different from other conferences I attend in that there are very few technical presentations to distract the attendees, so they swarm the exhibition halls like bees to a hive throughout the three-day event.
On the last day, yours truly was interviewed by INTERGEO TV on my thoughts about this year’s event. I had to restrain myself from promoting INTERGEO North America (I made that up). In a day when conferences are generally suffering, I think it would be a smash success to have a similar INTERGEO event in North America. It’s completely vendor-independent, so the attendees can enjoy a taste of a broad range of geospatial technology, no matter what their name is or who they compete against. To view a ~5 minute interview on my thoughts of this year’s INTERGEO conference, click below.
Our trusted videographer, Joelle Harms, was on fire this year and shot more than a dozen videos in various exhibition booths. They’ve been very popular in the past because they give a snapshot of various products and services offered by exhibitors at INTERGEO. The following ~10 minute video provides a solid overview of Day 3 at INTERGEO including comments from Trimble VP Bryn Fosburgh, Topcon Executive VP Eduardo Falcon, Esri Director Chris Cappelli, and Hexagon President/CEO Ola Rollen.
I know I’ll receive some feedback on using the word “Drone” instead of UAS or UAV. I’m sorry, but the word “drone” can be used without explanation. Every reader immediately understands the context. The same can’t be said for the term UAS or UAV. That said, I’m trying… :-)
Cruising through the INTERGEO exhibition, I experience drone saturation: drones for every conceivable purpose, in every conceivable corner of every exhibition hall. It’s giddy enthusiasm at its best. The reason is that there is very little proprietary technology used in drones, so the barrier to entry to design and manufacture a drone is low. The result is A LOT of competition. Drones of every size and shape filled the halls at INTERGEO. By far, it was the dominant technology on display. But how many buyers are there?
Yes, the industry giant, China-based company DJI at ~70% market share will be the first drone manufacturer to exceed annual revenue of $1B this year, up from $130M in 2013 according to the Wall Street Journal. Not bad for a college dorm room start-up that was founded just nine years ago. They are the Garmin or TomTom of the drone world. I own a DJI drone. It’s the real deal. In second place is 3D Robotics, founded in 2009, and is estimated to finish 2015 at $40M in revenue. A distant second, and nearing a place where there’s a sea of sameness.
The drone industry is a place of sellers looking for buyers, in a ratio rarely seen. For example, at INTERGEO, there were ~17,000 visiting ~550 exhibitors which computes to ~31 attendees for every exhibitor. In two weeks, I’ll be attending and speaking at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas. There will be in excess of 100 exhibitors while the number of attendees will range somewhere between 500 and 1,000. That could be as few as five attendees for each exhibitor. With that ratio, the cost of customer acquisition is excruciatingly high, perhaps non-sustainable.
The investment banking community is on hyper alert. Venture Capitalists invested $108M in drone companies in 2014 according to CB Insights. That number is expected to double in 2015. The supposition is that the market will explode because; think about it, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has still not modified its rules to incorporate small drones for commercial use into the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), which is expected to occur in late 2016. Therefore, the assumption is that the U.S. drone market is constricted by government policy and poised to go nuts when the new regulations are released. That’s true to a point; however “damn the regulation” is the modus operandi (MO) for many drone operators using them for business.
An FAA press release notifying Washington, D.C., visitors to “leave your drone at home” prompted a reader to comment “The FAA can go to hell. I’ll fly my drone where I damn want.” It will be interesting to see how the investment community reacts when (not if) a drone crash with serious consequences occurs.
Giddy enthusiasm? Yes. But I cannot deny the coolness factor and value of the technology. I own a drone, and it’s a lot of fun. Look at what I was able to produce with just 35 minutes of flight time and with a piece of software called PhotoScan from Agisoft (in demo mode):
3D Model from 35 minutes of drone flight.The same 3D Model from a different perspective.
With only 35 minutes of flight time with a consumer-grade drone and a couple of hours at my computer, it’s not difficult to see myself becoming giddy, no, wildly enthusiastic.
Last week, Esri held its 36th International User Conference in San Diego. With 15,000+ attendees from 130 countries, it is the largest gathering of geospatial professionals in North America.
The general plenary presentation on Monday morning is always an interesting event. Founder Jack Dangermond leads the plenary and presents his vision for the year, and years, to come. Here’s the opening Plenary video (3 minutes):
The message of this year’s Plenary was “Applying Geography Everywhere” with the central theme was Web GIS. Here is a video of Mr. Dangermond’s GIS vision (12:42 minutes):
For the past few years, he’s spoken quite a bit about the democratization of geography by making GIS capability available to an audience other than the GIS professional by expanding its impact across an organization at many levels. Here’s a slide he’s presented in the past, and I think it’s consistent with where he sees GIS heading; a global awareness and global usage of GIS apps and data.
Esri thinks that Web GIS is an enabling technology that will be a catalyst for the democratization of GIS across all of an organization’s departments.
How GIS has evolved. (Credit: Eric Gakstatter)
During the Plenary, Bern Szukalski outlined Esri’s take on the current trends in Web GIS:
Portals. The windows into GIS. Thousands of public and private portals serve up GIS data and services.
Content. A collection of authoritative and curated content that Esri calls a living atlas, with some data being updated daily or even hourly.
Analysis tools. For the non-GIS professional to answer simple (or complex) queries such as emergency services coverage in a particular municipality, leveraging the living atlas content to use the most up-to-date data.
Smart mapping. New data-driven web cartography functionality and data exploration that leverages the right tools presented at the right time. Think of it like Google search that shows you relevant web sites based on your past web surfing.
Story maps. A combination of Web GIS and rich media to tell a compelling story. A new and unreleased type of Story map presented by Bern is the Story map Cascade, an immersive experience as you advance through the story and interact with map, amplifying the value of GIS.
If you want to view Bern’s plenary presentation on Web GIS trends, see the following 9-minute video:
Esri Product Roadmap
I get the feeling that ArcGIS Pro will be Esri’s premiere desktop product. When you buy ArcGIS, in addition to ArcMap, you also get a concurrent license for ArcGIS Pro (and ArcGIS Online), and you can see from the following slide that ArcGIS Pro incremental upgrades follow ArcMap. The following slide also shows the timing for the ArcGIS 10.4 release.
Another product Esri is going to release later this year to further promote the democratization of digital geography is a product called ArcGIS Earth. Just by the name, you can imagine the type of product it’s going to be. It’s all about 3D visualization.
Lastly, many of you may have missed the discussion about a new Esri Mobile GIS app called Survey123. There wasn’t a big announcement made, but it seems to be a powerful little app. For those of you who think Collector is a bit too structured, Survey123 might be the app for you. You can easily author smart forms following the XLSForm specification and quickly set up data-collection workflows. This is a really neat feature of Survey123, because you can create your mobile GIS data-collection pick lists and use form logic in an Excel spreadsheet instead of having to create it in the Esri environment.
It might end up being my favorite Esri mobile GIS app. But, you’ll have to wait to give it a spin because it’s not slated for release until later this year.
In other mobile GIS news at the conference, it appears as though Microsoft is concerned about Android and iOS dominating the mobile device space, so much so that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made a recorded presentation at the plenary. Even more interesting is that Mr. Dangermond suggested that perhaps Mr. Gates might make a live appearance at the Esri UC sometime in the future.
Bill Gates delivers an address to the Esri plenary audience. (Photo: Eric Gakstatter)
On the technical side of Microsoft, it looks like the end is in sight for the separate software development platforms for Windows Desktop and Windows Phone. With Windows 10, I heard that the software development environment for Windows Desktop and Windows Phone (or whatever it’s going to be called) is going to be the same, so you should start seeing Windows devices pick up some momentum next year.
The narrow streets of the historic city of Prague. (Photo by Eric Gakstatter)
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks running around in Europe working on some GIS and GNSS projects. I usually travel outside of the USA two or three times a year to Europe or other destinations. For me, probably the single greatest challenge while traveling outside the U.S .is mobile phone connectivity. I don’t think I travel enough to justify an international plan. I’m probably a bit too cheap and could justify it, but I also sort of like the challenge. When I was in Prague, Czech Republic, last week, I sent the following tweet:
“If u want a reminder of what a great productivity tool ur smartphone is, go 2 where it doesn’t work n see how much time u spend on logistics”
Please excuse the abbreviations and general butchering of the English language, but staying within 140 characters can be challenging when trying to make a point. The point was clear in the tweet. Your smartphone is a tremendous productivity tool. If your life is anything like mine, you’re trying to get from one place to another as efficiently as possible, coordinate with colleagues, and generally optimize your time. Texting, emailing and navigating (directions) are three key components in keeping my life running smoothly, especially when I’m in an unfamiliar city. Further complicating things is when I’m in a city where English is not the primary language and where street signs and other directional help is little or no help.
Primarily through periodic moments of desperation, I’ve discovered some tools and methods that have helped me in some tight spots when I had to be somewhere and my smartphone wasn’t connected to its familiar Sprint towers (BTW, Sprint doesn’t operate in any country other than the USA).
When I find myself outside of the U.S. and want to light up my Sprint Samsung Galaxy 5, the first order of business is finding a Wi-Fi hotspot. In the U.S., it’s pretty easy. In other countries, it’s not so easy and most of the time they want to charge you for Wi-Fi access. Whenever I book a hotel room, I always make sure offers Wi-Fi service.
Skype for iOS, Android, Windows.
If your smartphone isn’t connected to a wireless network (sans Wi-Fi), you can’t send text messages. The best way (and most universal) to solve this is by installing Skype on your smartphone. Skype is free universal messaging software for your smartphone that allows you to call any other Skype user in the world for free, as long as you have an Internet connection (Wi-Fi). Of course, Apple has its own messaging software, but Skype is cross-platform. It runs the same on iOS, Android and Windows phones, as well as desktops. You can also run conference calls and video calls. I use it every day, more so on my notebook computer than smartphone, except when I’m traveling somewhere without wireless coverage (such as Prague). Then I use Skype a lot on my phone, mostly the messaging function. It’s just like text messaging.
With Wi-Fi + Skype, I can call any other Skype member in the world for free, and the app is free. Now, I pay Skype ~$130/year to be able to call any landline in North America from anywhere in the world, so I make free calls home from anywhere. It’s a powerful combination.
Triposo Main Screen
My second favorite smartphone tool for international traveling is not Google Maps, but a rather unknown app called Triposo.
Triposo is designed to be an app for the leisure traveler, but it’s a powerful app for the business traveler. There are Triposo apps for countries and even for individual cities. The apps are huge in size (100+ MB) for each city or country, so it’s not practical to download every city and country app. When I arrive at an unfamiliar city outside of the U.S., one of the first things I’ll do is download the Triposo app for that city using the hotel Wi-Fi.
From a business perspective, there are two things I love about Triposo. First, the download includes a map of the city that you can access offline. This is very similar to how the navigation system works in your car. The app uses the GPS receiver in your phone and plots your location on the map. Sometimes, knowing precisely where you are is half the battle. While it doesn’t have turn-by-turn navigation functionality like your car navigation system, it will provide you navigating instructions in text form and show you where you are on the map and where you need to go. As you move, your location is updated on the map in real-time. Crude, yet very effective.
Triposo Map screen. The purple icon is the GPS position.
Secondly, Triposo is a great tool for finding nearby restaurants and other places of interest. Sure, you can use Google for this too, but Triposo serves up this information a lot quicker and with less fumbling than Google Maps does. Since Triposo is built for the leisure traveler, it also provides interesting information about local landmarks, bus and subway routes, as well as plenty of other useful information for efficiently moving around the city.
My third travel tool is Google Maps. While it groans and chokes when the wireless connection is slow, and it doesn’t do well with the lack of connectivity, it has saved my behind at least once. I was on a project in the boonies in another country, about an hour from a large city where I was going to drop the rental car and board an airplane to come home. When I’d picked up the rental car, I had a local person with me who provided me directions to the project site. However, on the return trip, no one was available to ride with me. I thought I’d “wing it” and figure it out myself. I looked briefly at Google Maps in the office to estimate about the time I would need to exit as well as the exit name. I knew I wasn’t fully prepared with detailed directions, but I thought I had enough information to complete the journey even though Google Maps said something about the maps in the area possibly not being accurate.
I began my journey towards the city (pop. ~5 million). As expected, it was uneventful for the first half hour of the journey, since I was only following the main freeway. Then it became complicated. Lots of Y intersections, lots of speeding traffic, lots of exits, and lots of signage I couldn’t interpret quickly enough while moving along with the traffic. At some point, I figured out that I missed my exit and was heading for the city center. Not good, and approaching rush hour. If you’ve ever been to a large city in a developing country during rush hour, you can get hung up for a while.
I found an exit and was able to switch directions, now heading the opposite direction, southbound. I figured I would go south of the exit I was supposed to take then head northbound again and pay more attention to catch the exit. Nothing. I didn’t see the exit name I was looking for and was again heading towards the city center. At this point, I was becoming concerned. While I’d left myself a bit of a time buffer, by the time I found myself heading towards city center again, my time buffer was nearly exhausted. So here’s where I’m at:
No GPS navigation system in the car.
No mobile phone service so I could call the office for help.
No Internet connectivity to take a fresh look at the directions.
Can’t speak the local language.
For some reason I don’t recall, I booted up Google Maps on my mobile phone to see if I could derive any valuable information from it. Viola!
I learned about a valuable feature (the hard way) in Google Maps. It saves a cached map of your previous actions (not sure how far back). It just so happens that I had been looking at Google Maps on my phone at the airport when I rented the car about a week earlier. I also saw that if I turned on Location Services on my phone, my GPS location was displayed on the map. Granted, without connectivity I couldn’t zoom in on the map and it wouldn’t give me turn-by-turn directions, but I could see my position move on the map as I drove along the highway so I knew where I should be exiting (which, by the way, wasn’t named anything close to what I had read on the map during my preparation at the office).
Now, maybe I’m a slow learner, because when I mentioned this to some colleagues, they exclaimed “Oh, yeah, I knew that.” And, since my experience (I think), Google has provided a method of downloading maps for offline use. Or, it’s possible it was already there but I didn’t understand how to use it. :-(
So, those are my foreign country road-warrior tools. They may not be pretty, but they are free and effective. By the way, Google Navigator really isn’t that good for navigating in cities. Even with GPS and GLONASS satellites being tracked by my Samsung Galaxy 5, urban canyon drives it nuts. Although Triposo didn’t have as fancy of a navigation interface or street-level resolution, it is much less flaky in urban canyon environments than Google Navigator is.
As digital producer for Geospatial Solutions, I spent three days this month covering Unmanned Systems 2015, the huge show hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). This was definitely the show at which I gathered the most news and footage of exciting UAV/UAS applications in geospatial technology.
Let’s meet the experts responsible for developing high-altitude color and infrared imagery gathering of a city-sized area, a lower altitude quadcopter for surveying and mapping and a small vertical take-off and landing aircraft developed for use by warfighters that is now ready for first responders and others in small, cluttered, urban environments, giving them an eye-in-the-sky in just minutes.
From the chipset level to fully-featured aerial survey platforms to processing software, AUVSI had it all.
Intro to AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems 2015
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s (AUVSI’s) Unmanned Systems 2015 show, held May 4-7 in Atlanta, convened a global community of commercial and defense leaders in intelligent robotics, drones and unmanned systems.
CEA Research: UAS Could Reach 1M U.S. Flights a Day in 20 Years
The United States will reach one million UAS flights per day within the next 20 years, given the right regulatory environment, according to new economic research from the Consumer Electronics Association.
Exelis Showcases CorvusEye at AUVSI 2015
CorvusEye 1500 is one of the programs Exelis featured at AUVSI 2015. From an altitude of 15,000 feet, CorvusEye 1500 provides color and infrared imagery of a city-sized area unavailable with comparable airborne systems. Bernard Brower, product manager for Exelis, shows us how users work with the real-time analytics and processed data to search for vehicle tracks based on location and time.
Trimble Details New OEM Module at AUVSI 2015
Akshay Bandiwdekar of Trimble Integrated Technologies details the company’s BD935-INS module that features precision GNSS with an integrated 3-D Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensor package. As part of Trimble’s GNSS OEM portfolio, the new compact module augments real-time precise positioning with 3-D orientation.
Septentrio Launches AsteRx-m UAS Reciever at AUVSI Show
Septentrio’s Jan Van Hees talks about the AsteRx-m UAS, an RTK-accurate GNSS receiver solution specially designed for the drone market. The AsteRx-m UAS provides high-accuracy GNSS positioning with low power consumption, according to Septentrio.
NavtechGPS Showcases GPS, GNSS Products for Unmanned Systems
NavtechGPS CTO Franck Boynton explains how AUVSI 2015 attendees can incorporate GPS and GNSS technology into unmanned projects. NavtechGPS represents nearly 30 leading manufacturers of GPS and GNSS products.
NovAtel Showcases FlexPak6, FlexPak-S Receivers
NovAtel’s Peter Soar talks about the company’s FlexPak6 receiver that houses its OEM628 triple-frequency plus L-Band GNSS receiver board. It has a highly configurable interface to ensure precise positioning for UAV applications. Soar explains that its “sister unit,” the FlexPak-S, contains a real-time kinematic GPS receiver with an L-3 XFACTOR Selective Availability Anti Spoofing Module (SAASM). The two receivers are both the same size and fit.
Lockheed Martin Displays K-MAX Cargo UAS Helicopter at AUVSI Show
Lockheed Martin Corporation and Kaman Aerospace Corporation transformed Kaman’s K-MAX power lift helicopter into an unmanned aircraft system capable of autonomous or remote controlled cargo delivery. Jon McMillen explains that its mission for the last three years has been to resupply battlefield cargo for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. McMillen says another possible application for K-MAX is firefighting.
NavCom Technology Offers Navigation and Positioning Capabilities for UAS
NavCom Technology’s Jim Williams explains the precise positioning and navigation solutions offered by the company for UAS. NavCom offers GNSS aerial antennas, RTK positioning and its StarFire global satellite-based augmentation system (GSBAS).
Maxtena Displays L1/L2 GPS Antennas for Use in UAS
Stani Licul, CEO of Maxena, displays some of its antennas for use in UAS. Maxtena’s active rugged antenna is designed for L1/L2 GPS and GLONASS bands for GNSS satellite and RTK applications.
Spirent Federal Systems GSS9000 GPS/GNSS Constellation Simulator
Jeff Martin of Spirent Federal Systems talks about how its GSS9000 simulator can help with UAS development. The GSS9000 simulator supports multi-system, multi-constellation GNSS testing for UAS.
NovAtel Talks GPS Anti-Jam Technology for Use in UAVs
NovAtel’s Peter Soar shares on the company’s GAJT (“Gadget”), a single unit GPS anti-jam antenna for use in UAVs. GAJT nullifies jammers, ensuring satellite signals necessary to compute position and time are always available.
Marty Apa, chief engineer for Exelis’ Integrated Electronic Warfare Systems, shows Geospatial Solutions the Disruptor SRx. The Disruptor SRx electronic warfare technology is small enough to fit into UAS. It also has the ability to switch between multiple functions in real time.
Geomatics USA’s Ahmed Mohamed showcases a UAS that uses the company’s GPS technology to take off and land quadcopters from its structure. Geomatics USA also offers its G-AT: Active Target for surveying and mapping.
Lockheed Martin Corporation Demos Indago UAS at AUVSI Show
Lockheed Martin demonstrates its Indago UAS. The Indago payload system features a quick disconnect adapter which allows the operator to choose the appropriate payload for the mission, according to Lockheed Martin. The payloads are available for a variety of different applications, including agricultural, mapping, inspection and ISR.
Exelis’ Symphony RangeVue Offers Web-Hosted Aircraft Surveillance Information
Christian Ramsey, UAS program manager for Exelis, explains that the Symphony RangeVue enables UAS operators and test-range personnel to have access to both real-time and historical aircraft surveillance information via a web-hosted platform, helping to manage mission operations across multiple locations. Symphony RangeVue can be used as command center decision support and post-event analysis tool, or in the field as a sense-and-avoid addition to UAS ground control stations. Flexible geofencing tools alert operators when a UAS approaches airspace boundaries or other aircraft are in the vicinity.
Spectracom Shows Off Rugged Product Line at AUVSI Show
Spectracom displayed its precise positioning, navigation and timing solutions that leverage GPS/GNSS signals at AUVSI 2015. Capabilities for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) include precision references, signal generation, reception, synchronization, distribution, test/validation, simulation, integration, interference, detection/mitigation, real-time embedded and technical/support services.
Jim Lau with Racelogic details the company’s GNSS Simulator and VBOX Speed Sensor IMU. VOBX is a 100-Hz dual-antenna GPS/GLONASS speed sensor (VBSSISL) that combines signals from an integrated inertial measurement unit with those from GPS to provide smoother output data even when satellite reception is interrupted.
Next year’s show has been branded XPONENTIAL 2016, “An AUVSI Experience,” and will be held in New Orleans, May 2–5. See you there!
Great view of the Pentagon while departing from the U.S. Hydro conference held in Washington, D.C.
I’ve attended five conferences in the past couple of months; Esri Water Conference (first one!), Esri Partner Conference, US Hydro 2015, APSG (Association of Petroleum Surveying & Geomatics) and the Esri Petroleum User Group (PUG) conference. It may look Esri-heavy, but the fact is that Esri is doing a really good job of organizing vertical market GIS conferences, and people are showing up. Even with crude oil prices in the cellar (relatively speaking), 1,200 people still showed up at the PUG.
There were a lot of good presentations at these conferences, and I’ll post links to some of them below. Not surprisingly, drones are a major topic of discussion at most GIS conferences. There was even a drone demo (I missed) at the Esri Partner conference showing Esri’s workflow in working with drone-collected data.
If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you might consider it. Twitter is easy and free. When I’m at a conference, I send tweets (most with a photo) in near real-time when I see something of interest. For example, I tweeted when Jack Dangermond showed up at the Esri PUG (he usually doesn’t, but did this year because it was the 25th annual conference) and had something interesting to say (read below). You can sign up for Twitter here, and then choose to follow me at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric. I get that you may be hesitant to invest any time in this, but it looks like Twitter is becoming the standard for near real-time news (as opposed to other social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn.)
Of all the new technology I’ve heard about over the past few months at these conferences, two subjects continue to excite me.
Drone Mapping. Of course, one of them is drone technology for mapping. It seems like I’ve beat this horse to death over the past few months, but it continues to get juicier and juicier. Technology development in this industry is moving really fast. It seems like new drones are being announced as frequently as new smartphones, maybe more so.
Other ancillary technologies are being developed to support commercial drone operations. For example, in my hometown (Portland, Ore.), a company called Skyward just raised $4+ million in venture capital funding to provide “professional services for UAV operations.” Essentially, the company’s software helps drone operators stay within FAA regulatory compliance.
Last year, the Oregon Unmanned Systems Business Enterprise was formed “with a two-year $882,000 state grant from the Oregon Business Development Department and the Oregon Innovation Council and will be working to match the government money with private investment and other grants.” The organization will award grants up to $75,000. The point is, the money is flowing and it’s a wide-open market.
The drone market is so wide open, in fact, that most drone companies are just buying common airframes and associated parts, putting their brand name on them, and selling them. Perhaps oversimplified, but the point is there’s not much “special sauce” (technology) being added. The manufacturers that aren’t innovating and adding valuable “special sauce” will eventually disappear. Essentially, following are the parts needed for a fixed-wing drone for mapping:
Aircraft components:
Airframe (off the shelf)
Motor (off the shelf)
Servos (off the shelf)
Propeller (off the shelf)
Radio (off the shelf)
GPS (off the shelf)
Autopilot (off the shelf)
Batteries (off the shelf)
Camera trigger (off the shelf)
Camera (off the shelf)
Ground compoments:
900-MHz controller (off the shelf)
Battery chargers (off the shelf)
Mission planning software (off the shelf)
Propeller balancer (off the shelf)
As you can see, all of these components are available off the shelf. You can order each component (maybe all of them from Amazon!), have them shipped to you, and assemble your own UAS for mapping. That said, someone who has gone through the process of building, flying and producing a valuable deliverable that you can make decisions from can add value. But, as competition increases, there’s no doubt that the companies that don’t offer much added value will not be able to operate a sustainable business.
Finally, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is being surprisingly nimble, approving “333 Exemption” requests at record pace and moving towards using a “summary grant” process to issue bulk approvals of 333 Exemption requests for commercial operations.
UAS presentation from Texas A&M University, one of six FAA-designated UAS test sites.
You may want to take a look at some of the other presentations at the APSG meeting. They were very good. Here’s a quick summary of each by Jon Stigant, long-time member of APSG:
This was a primer in LiDAR technology and methodology — while most of the paper is well understood in the survey community, it is and excellent overview. A reminder for some and a way to fill in the gaps for those not so close to this technology.
Integration of UAVs into O&G Operations — Stacey Lyle, BP (presentation forthcoming)
Stacey provided a valuable summary of the direction in which the FAA is going to regulate the emerging UAV technology. A “must read” for any company that intends to either provide or use this technology. As with most government regulation there is a lot of detail, the devil is in them. Stacey recommended that the APSG engage by developing some standards for the oil and gas industry.
Ron Hughes theme is massive data and managing it — also something of a common theme for all the talks. He focused on automating data processing and recommended a concept of doing this in an automated way with 80 percent of the data. This requires careful procedural development in collaboration with a given client’s business workflows. He gave an example of a large utility company, and how the development of an enterprise metadata server had functional impact for individual business units, but also had the knock on impact of improving inter-functional/inter-community collaboration within the enterprise.
Mike provided input on Geiger mode LiDAR, differentiating Harris’ approach from the more regular LiDAR methodology. The major difference is in data density, data frequency, volume and speed used from higher flying aircraft covering a larger area faster. Providing 10-cm accuracy and expecting 7-cm acuracy development using a/c at 25,000-ft height. Focus on fast processing of immense data volumes (pedabytes) – 24-hour delivery using Harris proprietary processing. Achieve higher density at lower cost.
Mark introduced developments in GIS associated with Common Operating Picture (COP), focusing on the combining of video and data in GIS system. DPFOS mnemonic: Data Management, Planning & Analysis, Field Mobility, Operational Awareness, Stakeholder Engagement. A new SIMOPS (SIMultaneous OperationS). The key is a single source of approved data. Examples of data required in COP from specific disciplines are provided — ROVs, shore clean-up, life of field data, asset and material tracking, live/recorded video, RT data and weather integration, “in the field’” vessel implementation.
GIS, Geospatial, Geomatics…Organizational Capability Evolution — Brian Boulmay, BP (presentation forthcoming)
Rethinking Geospatial Data Management at a major operator. One Map program — not physical, one-way provision. Focus on users vs. geospatial specialists. Users business driven, specialists IT and S driven. Geospatial data integrity and analytics – people, processes and technology. ID goals — massive deployment worldwide — has to be automated. Federated system — regions only have to deal with their own regional data, not be overwhelmed by whole enterprise on their doorstep. IT has the role of providing/maintaining a worldwide solution.
Update on Spring 2014 APSG meeting — All major networks launching satellites. Very soon will have 30 live in-view satellites (U.S., Russia, Europe and China). RTK coverage in China is the best due to BeiDou, supplemented by both Indian and Japanese systems SBAS. $100 RTK on cell phone giving centimeter accuracy eventually, and changing the commercial dynamic!
Set up for managing and analyzing LiDAR data in Global Mapper. Workflows: terrain modeling, visibility, biomass (change monitoring); asset: inspect and maintain pipelines, as-built modeling, simulation. High-accuracy at relatively low cost, outpacing regulatory management. Much public data available — earthexplorer.usgs.gov. xyz values — minimum height threshold, dense RGB point cloud (almost photographic).
Automated dashboard approach, reducing pilot distraction risk, speeding up RT transfer and operational activity reporting.
Esri Conferences
Here are a couple of neat things from the Esri conferences.
First, Jack Dangermond was his usual visionary self at the Esri PUG conference, making his appearance for the 25th annual PUG. He is a master at communicating his GIS vision.
The Evolution of GIS.
In speaking about the evolution of GIS, Mr. Dangermond spoke about the far-reaching impact of email and stated that eventually web-based GIS will be deployed organization-wide, just like email. I agree with this vision. I believe the only question is timing. Is it two years from now? Five years from now? 10 years?
Onto the less visionary and more tactical tidbits…
Of particular interest to me is high-precision GNSS in the Esri environment. A lot of people I talk to are screaming for this. What does high-precision GNSS in the Esri environment mean?
support for high-precision metadata in ArcGIS Collector (ArcPad already supports this).
support for high-precision horizontal (eventually vertical) datum transformations in ArcGIS Collector.
This is important because Esri is supporting ArcGIS Collector across all mobile platforms (Android, iOS and eventually Windows), and people want to use their smartphones and tablets. ArcPad will never run on iOS or Android, so Collector is the GIS collection tool of choice, at least for the Esri environment. It needs to support high-precision GNSS, and by the looks of the following slide, it will. It’s just a matter of timing…
ArcGIS Collector to support high-precision GNSS.
The other potentially neat product Esri announced was Navigator for ArcGIS. Imagine trying to guide a work crew to a buried valve across town (or in the next neighborhood). Displaying a system or region-wide map of valves would not be an efficient way of driving your way across town to find the valve. However, giving a crew turn-by-turn street directions to the street-level, then displaying the valves on that street section, might be a very efficient way of finding the valve.
That means you can’t fly drones if it’s related to business, no matter if you charge a fee or not. But, you can fly drones in the United States as a “hobbyist” as long as you adhere to certain rules (such as flying lower than 400 feet above the ground).
In a new twist, the FAA has cracked down on at least one person who posted a drone video on YouTube because YouTube generates revenue, reports the website Motherboard. Even though it appears the drone was being flown by a hobbyist for recreational purposes, it smells to the FAA like a commercial use of drone. Even though the hobbyist isn’t generating revenue from it, Google is.
Jason Hanes’ YouTube channel.
While it appears the U.S. drone community is going nuts using drones for all kinds of non-commercial and commercial purposes, despite the FAA rules, it appears there are too many violators for the FAA to chase after since enforcement notices sent by the FAA have been few and far between. In this case, safety concerns may have been the prompt. The FAA says it’s now looking further into how its safety inspectors send letters like this. Read more about the case at the Motherboard website.
Geospatial Data Interest Crosses Political Party Lines
Senator’s Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the Geospatial Reform Act, targeted at leveraging geospatial data acquired by the U.S. federal government. This bill argues that the federal government is the largest purchaser of geospatial data, yet agencies aren’t required to report details of geospatial data purchased. The bill aims to change that.
“Geospatial data has endless possibilities for transforming both the private and public sectors — from helping local governments develop emergency preparedness plans to fueling the creation of apps that let you find parking spots, restaurants, and even homes for sale based on where you’re standing,” said Sen. Warner. “The federal government is the largest purchaser of geospatial data but some very basic questions about how and where agencies are already investing in this data can’t be answered. Our bill would bring transparency and accountability to the collection of this data and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted on duplicative efforts.”
In what DigitalGlobe claims is a world’s first, the company began offering commercial 30-cm satellite imagery via its WorldView-3 satellite, which was launched August 13, 2014. DigitalGlobe announced that the imagery is available worldwide (with some restrictions). As part of its press release, DigitalGlobe offered the following quote from PhotoSat, a consumer of imagery.
“DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite data is the highest quality satellite photo data that PhotoSat has ever processed,” said Gerry Mitchell, President of PhotoSat, a leading satellite elevation mapping provider for energy, mining, and engineering firms. “In one test, an elevation mapping grid extracted from stereo WorldView-3 satellite photos matched a highly accurate LiDAR elevation grid to better than 15 cm in elevation. This result takes satellite elevation mapping into the engineering design and construction markets and directly competes with LiDAR and high resolution air photo mapping for applications like flood plain monitoring.”
According to DigitalGlobe, WorldView-3 is the first and only commercial imaging satellite capable of collecting imagery with 30-cm ground sample distance, and claims it is five times the detail of the company’s nearest competitor. See a sample by clicking here.
Satellite imagery is approaching aerial photogrammetry quality. I recall Lawrie Jordan, founder of ERDAS (sold to Leica) and now director of imagery at Esri, saying that eventually every square inch of the earth will be imaged constantly by satellite.
Esri and Drone Data Up until now, you haven’t heard the words “Esri” and “drone” mentioned in the same sentence very often. Last week at the Esri Developer Summit in Palm Springs, Esri provided a live map-creation demo using a small quadcopter.
Look for a follow-up article, data example and possibly a video of the event.
