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Was last year’s Gatwick drone incident an inside job?

21 February 2019 - Feilidh Dwyer

British newspaper, The Times, reports that UK police have not excluded the possibility that the closure of Gatwick airport in December 2018 due to drone sightings, may have been an inside job. Gatwick, the UK’s second busiest airport, was thrown into mayhem between December 19 and 22 last year following multiple drone sightings. The sightings caused […]

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UK military aims to add swarm drones to arsenal by end of 2019

20 February 2019 - Feilidh Dwyer

Britain’s defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, has indicated his country will fund the development of “swarm squadrons of network-enabled drones capable of confusing and overwhelming enemy air defenses.” While delivering an address to London think tank, Royal United Services Institute, he acknowledged that drone swarm technology was becoming a part of modern battle. He reportedly encouraged military leaders […]

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US-Mexico border wall likely to be patrolled by more drones

19 February 2019 - Feilidh Dwyer

On Friday, President of the United States, Donald Trump, declared a national emergency in response to what he has termed a “crisis on the southern border.” This controversial decision was due, he says, to the number of migrants and drugs arriving into the US via unsecured sections of the US-Mexico border. The declaration comes despite […]

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Drones transport endangered bird semen in New Zealand

16 February 2019 - Feilidh Dwyer

Drones are playing a vital role in preserving a critically endangered flightless parrot in New Zealand. The kākāpō is a highly charming nocturnal bird and the world’s only flightless parrot. They typically live to be about 90, making them one of the longest living birds in the world. They are known to be very friendly, sometimes […]

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Is it a shark? Is it a dolphin? Drones can help us find out

12 February 2019 - Feilidh Dwyer

Researchers from Southern Cross University in Australia have spent the last three years using drones to study just how frequent public encounters with sharks are. For those who’ve ever experienced swimming in the sea and spotted a dorsal fin or dark shape gliding past, knowing whether it’s a dolphin or shark is of vital importance. If […]

The post Is it a shark? Is it a dolphin? Drones can help us find out appeared first on WeTalkUAV.Com.

Reflection

22 February 2019 - tranchij

Description

Geoglifos Quillagua

17 February 2019 - aguss

Geoglifos ubicados en Quillagua, Antofagasta, Chile.

velocity

14 February 2019 - Mundim

Park

Pont Couvert

13 February 2019 - Patof

Pont couvert à Rochebaucourt Quebec

Salen Pier

13 February 2019 - Aussie70

Mull City : SalenStreet : SalenCounty or State : MullCountry : United Kingdom

Four Reasons Why Oil and Gas Companies Invest in Drones

17 February 2019 - DroneDeploy

Four Reasons Why Oil and Gas Companies Should Invest in DronesDrones provide practical, economical solutions for upstream, midstream and downstream operations.

In our previous post, we discuss the many ways you can begin using drones to improve inspections in the oil and gas sector. In this post, we take a look at the impact drones have on operations—and why it’s time you should consider investing in a drone program.

Drones provide O&G companies many benefits, including cost savings, improved communication, a safer work environment, and more accurate data. Read on to explore the key ways drones can transform your workflows.

https://medium.com/media/98a79a5d009759864c5c6333100538c5/hrefCost-saving Inspections

Inspecting O&G infrastructure and gathering critical data with drones cost substantially less than traditional inspection methods that require ground crews or manned flights. Drones are tough birds and can withstand harsh temperatures and other conditions. They get much closer to infrastructure than a helicopter or airplane, providing better visuals and data. Drones also minimize downtime by avoiding the need to shut down operations for inspections and by catching leaks and other maintenance issues early, lowering remediation costs.

Drones enable employees to conduct inspection and monitoring tasks without exposing themselves to the typical dangers of O&G operations. As a result, work hours lost due to injuries decline, medical expenses and insurance costs shrink, and the number of workplace events reported to OSHA and other regulatory agencies drop.

Safer Work Environments

Manual infrastructure inspections are often dangerous. For example, inspectors at wells and offshore rigs must climb up and down ladders and along catwalks — and even use cranes or harnesses and rappelling equipment to reach equipment. Inspectors sometimes must work in close proximity to harmful chemicals and dangerous machinery.

Drones perform inspections without risking employee safety. They’re particularly useful for inspections after blowouts or natural disasters — or when sending a ground crew to a site may be difficult, costly or unsafe.

Better, More Accurate Data

Drones provide a flexible platform for a wide range of cameras and sensors. They can collect data needed for situations requiring real-time solutions or store data for later analysis. Businesses can easily integrate digitized mapping information and other data from drone flights into analytical and AI solutions for advanced processing. For example, software solutions use topographical and geological data gathered by drones to create models that help identify promising oil and gas drill sites.

Not only do drones gather information more efficiently than human inspectors, the digital data enables employees to make better, data-driven decisions. This drastically reduces downtime, catches conflicts and issues faster, and helps keep your operation running like the well-oiled machine that it is.

Superior Communication

The remote nature of oil and gas work often requires operators to communicate with workers on sites around the world. This can present a challenge to managers and engineers working from the headquarters and collaborating with the boots on the ground. But drones can make things easier. Workers on the ground can fly drones on their site and upload the data to the cloud where back office managers can review and coordinate further inspection or follow ups — all without leaving the desk chair. Using software such as DroneDeploy makes it easy for the back office to markup maps or drop in annotations in real time so that inspectors can check on pressure points, leaks, or other potential issues.

Where to Learn More

The latest drone technology — like aerial mapping, thermal imaging, and digital terrain modeling — gives you a rich set of data to streamline your workflows and generate real-time insights.

Read our free eBook comprehensive look at drones in the oil and gas industry.Learn how DroneDeploy was used to map the largest oil storage facility in North America.Find out why solar power companies use drones to cut costs and drive adoption of clean power across America.Get Started with DroneDeploy

Want to learn how DroneDeploy can help your business? Visit www.dronedeploy.com to start your free trial or request a consultation with one of our team members. The DroneDeploy mobile application is available for free download for both iOS and Android devices.

Four Reasons Why Oil and Gas Companies Invest in Drones was originally published in DroneDeploy's Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Accurate Stockpile Measurement with Drones

10 February 2019 - DroneDeploy

A free guide to measuring stockpiles and gathering accurate inventory counts with UAVs.

Whether you work in the construction, mining, or aggregates sectors, stockpile management is a critical requirement on any job site. But measuring stockpiles can be unsafe, time-consuming, and expensive. This puts you in a difficult position. You need accurate data to run your business operations, but you shouldn’t have to send your survey team into the field for hours to clamber across stockpiles on a dangerous job site.

What if you could gather the same survey data in minutes from the safety of the ground, all while achieving higher accuracy and freeing up your survey team to focus on other high-priority projects? Sound too good to be true? Nope. Drones can help.

While you may be familiar with drone photography, drones are also a trusted tool for surveying and measurement. They eliminate many of the challenges companies face with traditional survey solutions. And drones paired with powerful photogrammetry software from DroneDeploy can help lower your data collection costs, increase accuracy, save you time, and keep your team out of harm’s way — all without having to hire an entire survey team or invest in expensive laser or lidar hardware.

“Everyone should be using drones for stockpile analysis. It’s miles ahead of standard surveying.” — Tecia White, President at Whitewater Hydrogeology Ltd.Read the full case study

Over the last 4 years, our team has worked with thousands of customers measuring stockpiles with drones. In that time, we’ve learned the techniques that produce highly-accurate results that our customers expect from DroneDeploy.

In our latest eBook, we take a deep dive into the stockpile measurement workflow using DroneDeploy—covering best practices and answers to the most frequently asked questions from our customers.

Download the new eBook to learn:

The best practices for flying, processing, and analyzing stockpiles with DroneDeployHow to get precise volume measurements and generate instant stockpile reportsHow to achieve high degrees of measurement accuracy and why it mattersThe most common app integrations for stockpile management used by DroneDeploy customersHow three innovative companies have used DroneDeploy’s stockpile measurement tools to cut costs, save time, and improve safety on their job sites

Where to Learn More

See why drones surveys of this aggregate quarry were Safer — and 20x faster — thanks to drones.

Accuracy is crucial for aerial surveys. some of our resources dive into the topic of accuracy and are worth a read:

Measurement accuracy of the DJI Phantom 4 RTK Using Photogrammetry Accuracy in Drone Mapping: What You Need to Know Seven Ways to Improve the Accuracy of Your Drone MapsGet Started with DroneDeploy

Accurate Stockpile Measurement with Drones was originally published in DroneDeploy's Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Pushing the Boundaries of Aerial Inspection with Drones

6 February 2019 - DroneDeploy

Three ways to begin using drones in the oil and gas industry.

Some of the largest oil and gas companies around the world now deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones, to address a wide variety of operational challenges. This rapidly improving technology, along with advances in big data and artificial intelligence, is poised to transform the O&G industry in the coming years.

The aerial intelligence provided by drones offers several key benefits, including safer inspections and helping companies comply with regulatory requirements — while saving them millions of dollars in labor, remediation, and other costs.

Drones are the perfect solution for conducting visual inspections of infrastructure and gathering extensive data. An increasing number of O&G companies use drones to perform three basic industry functions — pipeline inspection and monitoring, oil well and rig inspection, and surveying and construction monitoring — at a significantly lower cost than ground, manned aircraft or helicopter inspection crews.

Read on to learn more about the leading uses of drones in the oil and gas sector.

Pipeline Inspection and Monitoring

By taking photos and videos of above-ground pipelines, drones allow inspectors in the field or engineers in a remote location to view pipes, either in real time or later. The operator can zero in on areas of concern to gather additional information and, if necessary, recommend that a ground crew visually check the area.

By examining the vegetation index, inspectors can identify specific areas of concern with DroneDeploy, catching leaks before they spread. Read the case study.

To detect potential underground leaks, drones take photos along pipeline routes. User-friendly software from DroneDeploy combines these images, creating high-resolution vegetation maps that identify plant kill-off zones, which may indicate a leak. Equipping a drone with an infrared camera provides an additional way to inspect pipelines: Thermal imagery of pipeline routes reveal hotspots, which may indicate potential defects in pipeline insulation or leaks invisible to the human eye.

Drone images also detect anomalies along a pipeline network or any encroachments, such as construction or roadwork, on a right-of-way that could threaten the integrity of the pipeline. In case of significant leaks, explosions or other emergency situations, drones provide real-time video to help emergency response teams assess the situation before sending in crews.

An operator inspects an oil well using drone POV goggles, while remaining safely on the ground. Photo courtesy of Bruin E&P Partners.Oil Well and Rig Inspection

O&G companies also use drones to photograph oil wells and offshore rigs throughout the initial drilling process. Once the well is operating, drones efficiently monitor operations. For example, they provide a close-up look at a flare stack while it’s in service. That provides a real benefit to the traditional approach: shutting down the flare system and assigning an inspector to climb the stack to examine it. In this case, a drone inspection saves weeks of physical inspection preparation and avoids significant loss of productivity and revenue due to an operational shutdown.

This drone-generated 3D model of oil storage tanks replaced helicopter imagery and saved $3500 over a five-month period. Read the full case study.

Drone inspections help companies prevent health and safety events (HSE), allowing them to address operational issues without sending employees into dangerous zones. Drones also provide easy surveillance of remote or hard-to-reach assets, such as storage tanks.

Photo courtesy of Bruin E&P partnersSurveying and Construction Monitoring

Drones are taking on an expanding role in both the oil exploration and construction stages.2 They survey prospective drilling locations and gather key data without the time and expense of traditional surveying methods. Once a well site is ready for development, drones deployed during the construction stage of wells, rigs, pipelines and refineries conduct crucial as-built surveys, allowing managers to keep track of a project’s progress and provide quality assurance of the build-outs.

Construction compliance officers use drone photos to compare actual conditions to pre-construction designs, as well as to detect and correct plan defects and deviations and spot any potential safety issues. This information also helps streamline decision-making throughout the project. Companies can even create, document and share a visual timeline with all stakeholders. Once construction is finished, drones provide a digital 3-D representation of structures to use as a baseline reference.

This orthomosaic drone map shows construction progress taking place on a well site. Map courtesy of Bruin E&P Partners.

Drones provide extremely precise aerial intelligence that simplifies and improves a wide range of O&G processes. Whether inspecting hundreds of miles of oil pipelines for leaks, helping employees keep operations in compliance with regulations or enabling companies to construct infrastructure more efficiently, agile and flexible UAVs have quickly become a go-to tool for operators around the world.

https://medium.com/media/98a79a5d009759864c5c6333100538c5/hrefWhere to Learn More

The latest drone technology — like aerial mapping, thermal imaging, and digital terrain modeling — gives you a rich set of data to streamline your workflows and generate real-time insights.

Pushing the Boundaries of Aerial Inspection with Drones was originally published in DroneDeploy's Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Product Release Wrap Up January 2019

31 January 2019 - DroneDeploy

Product Release Wrap-Up January 2019Kick off the New Year with improved accuracy and AI tools from DroneDeploy

Since launching the Projects interface last month, our team has been busy implementing a series of new features to improve your team’s productivity and overall map accuracy in 2019.

Read on to learn more about new automated flight settings, map alignment capabilities, Autodesk export options, and a suite of AI tools now available to DroneDeploy customers.

The Joy of aligned maps in action over the course of a project.Align Maps Over Time — Instantly.

Comparing maps over time is one of the most common uses of DroneDeploy. But comparing the same areas can be tricky if the maps don’t line up. Unfortunately, GPS accuracy varies and maps of the same location can shift anywhere between 5–10 meters without the use of ground control points (GCPs).

To overcome this problem, we built a new solution into our proprietary Map Engine to align new maps with those previously made at the same location. As an added benefit, the absolute accuracy and scale of a map made with GCPs will improve the accuracy of future maps in the same area — meaning you can map more often with less effort and still get great results.

Use map alignment in conjunction with the “Side-by-Side” app, to see how things have changed on your site.

Automatic Map Alignment is now available to all paying DroneDeploy customers.

Filter and Sort Map Annotations

Have you ever had trouble finding the annotation or measurement that you’re looking for in a map with dozens or even hundreds of annotations? Or perhaps you’ve wanted to hide specific annotations and focus on those that are most important? New improvements to DroneDeploy annotations make both of these tasks possible.

Now you can view a list of all of the annotations on your map. You can then select or hide specific annotations, and you can even use the search and filter tools to look for specific annotations or annotation types.

Filter annotations by measurement type using the filter icon on the dashboard.Simplify GCP Tagging with Ground Control AI

For those times when absolute accuracy is required, efficient use of GCPs and checkpoints for mapping is extremely important. For the last six months, thanks to thousands of DroneDeploy customers tagging GCPs, we’ve trained our machine learning algorithms to automatically identify and geolocate the most popular types of GCP markers automatically.

Here are a few examples of the types of GCP markers that DroneDeploy can now detect and geolocate to save you time:

If some, or all of your GCPs are automatically identified, you’ll get a notification in the typical email workflow. You will notice that many of your GCPs are already tagged when you open the link.

Ground Control AI will continue to improve as you use it, and will learn from your corrections over time.

Once GCPs have been detected, you can finish selecting any additional GCPs that may be in the map.

Ground Control AI is now available to all Business and Enterprise customers.

Detect and Annotate Objects with Count AI

We launched our Counting tool last August. Since then, customers have annotated more than 360,000 objects. Uses include auditing solar panels, asset quantification, damage assessments, crop yield estimation, and more. With a significant amount of counting data under our belts, our team can now rapidly train our counting algorithms to detect and count custom objects for our enterprise customers.

Select an area and Count AI does the rest.

The first two object types we are supporting are cars and trees, but if your workflow requires counting any object series in your maps, sign up for our beta program today and contact your DroneDeploy Account Manager to learn more about this new feature.

Talk to your account manager or contact sales about Count AI

Stockpile AI detects stockpiles, saving time when measuring volumes.Quickly Measure Stockpiles with Stockpile AI

Measuring stockpiles on construction sites, mines, and quarries is one of the most common use of DroneDeploy’s measurement tools. To speed up the stockpile measurement workflow, we developed our Stockpile AI assistant to annotate and measure stockpile volumes with a single click.

When you select the Stockpile AI icon, DroneDeploy will detect and highlight all stockpiles present on your map. You can then generate an instant volume measurement by selecting the stockpile you wish to measure. It’s that easy.

Once the volume annotation is created, it’s still possible to customize the stockpile boundary as you usually would. Keep in mind that like our other machine learning tools, your existing annotations and corrections power Stockpile AI — which will continue to improve the more you use it.

Stockpile AI is now available to all Enterprise customers.

Import Point Clouds from DroneDeploy to AutoDesk

Our construction customers have frequently asked to import drone-generated point clouds from DroneDeploy to AutoDesk Civil 3D, Revit, and Navisworks. We’re happy to announce this capability is now available in DroneDeploy.

To directly import your point cloud files to AutoDesk, choose the AutoDesk (.rcp) format when you export your next point cloud. The .rcp data will also include a .rcs point cloud as well. These new point cloud formats can be exported using all the local and custom coordinate systems we support for existing exports.

RCP exports are available to all of our Enterprise customers.

Where to Learn MoreTo try out the new Projects interface, sign into DroneDeploy.Watch our video tutorials and learn how to start using Projects today.Watch our Product Keynotes from DroneDeploy Conference 2018 to learn more about these new features.Get Started with DroneDeploy

Product Release Wrap Up January 2019 was originally published in DroneDeploy's Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sustainable Design and Construction with Drones

3 January 2019 - DroneDeploy

Cresolus uses aerial surveys to support sustainable design and minimize environmental impact in tropical regions.

The environment is on everyone’s minds these days. And for good reason. The impact of changing climates is being felt around the world as heatwaves, wildfires, and draughts become more common. As we consider more sustainable business practices to lessen environmental impact, drones shouldn’t be left out of the conversation. A good place to start is construction— which was the leading industry to deploy drones in 2018.

Reducing the impact of construction is a key global goal because, according to the United Nations Environment Program, buildings make up 40% of annual energy consumption and as much as 30% of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. A third of humanities resource consumption comes from the building sector, including 12% of all fresh-water use, and produces up to 40% of annual solid waste. By helping architects and builders identify low-impact construction sites and develop green construction processes, drones can help ensure a sustainable future.

Enter Cresolus, an architectural firm focused on sustainable construction designs for tropical regions. It often works with governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) to build resorts and other structures, mostly in Central America and Central Africa.

https://medium.com/media/e68ccca487d8dd9aa56c6116ab28c71e/href

Gabon’s national parks agency recently hired the company to survey one of its parks and make recommendations about where to situate sustainable lodge complexes. To speed up the process while minimizing impact to the environment, Cresolus turned to drones to take photographs and gather topographical survey data safely and efficiently with DroneDeploy.

Developing an Extraordinary Place

Gabon’s National Agency for Natural Parks (Parks Gabon) oversees the Loango National Park. Located on the country’s Atlantic coast, the 600-square-mile park protects coastal and inland habitats that are home to elephants, gorillas and many other charismatic species. The legendary Loango surfing hippos may be its most famous residents. Largely uninhabited and unexplored, the park encompasses forests, savannas, wetlands, lagoons and 63 miles of pristine beach. It’s one of the most beautiful spots on Africa’s eastern coastline.

A lodge sits along the waters of Loango National Park in Gabon. Source: Wikipedia.

Parks Gabon plans to grant concessions to private businesses to build and operate three separate ecolodges inside the park. The agency asked Cresolus to identify ideal locations to situate high-end, sustainable lodge compounds. To preserve the feeling of remoteness and ensure tranquility for lodge visitors, Gabon Parks also tasked the company with drawing boundaries around each of the proposed concession sites so guests at one lodge would not encounter guests staying at another lodge. The agency will use these boundaries to create a zoning map for a prospectus informing potential lodge operators about the concession opportunity. The zones defined by the maps will become the legal boundaries for each lodge concession.

Simplifying Aerial Surveys with Drones

To locate potential lodge sites and define separate concession zones, Cresolus needed to survey the entire park. Parks Gabon provided a team of experienced park rangers, a small helicopter, a speedboat, a 4×4 and a radio to assist.

Loango National Park Concession Zones. Source: Cresolus

The Cresolus crew started its work by getting a firmer grasp of the big picture. It studied SAT imagery and existing park photos and then used a drone to conduct a general flyover of the park. It also tapped into local knowledge to gain additional insights.

After a detailed analysis of all the initial data, the crew identified 23 potential lodge sites and began the process of visiting each site. A ground survey in this remote wilderness would have been an extremely challenging process that would require a significant amount of time and manual measurements. Instead, Cresolus used a drone to substantially reduce the complexity of its mission, lower the safety risks to its crew and park personnel, cut down the time needed, and gather accurate data and measurements.

Cresolus team members survey a site on the coastline of Loango National Park.

The Cresolus crew spent several hours — or in some cases several days — surveying the area. The team walked each site and took notes for later analysis. It also flew a DJI Phantom 4 Pro to survey the areas surrounding the sites and used DroneDeploy for flight planning and processing image data. Over a 12-day period, the crew conducted 48 flights in total, and the drone took more than 8,000 photos.

To capture the images for its survey, the crew had to overcome a serious problem. The drone sustained damage to its gimbal, which is a mount that adjusts the position of a camera. The crew had to improvise, taping the camera to the gimbal. This repair enabled the crew to attach the camera on the drone, but it meant that the camera remained in a fixed position throughout the flights. This circumstance made it much more difficult to manage the images, which often came out either upside down or reversed.

a 2D orthomosaic map of a proposed site in Loango National Park.“Despite our gimbal difficulties, DroneDeploy’s processing still provided highly accurate maps,” raved Cresolus CEO Andrew Coates. “DroneDeploy allowed us to measure distances and, importantly, because the data was processed so fast, we could return to the most promising sites and look at things we could not see by walking on the ground.”A Cost-Conscious Approach with Lower Impact

By using a drone to survey Loango National Park, Andrew’s team collected aerial data quickly and efficiently within a single platform. DroneDeploy enabled the company to use the drones’ photos to create a model for Parks Gabon that provided accurate topographical and vegetation maps. These maps included recommended sites for lodge concessions and drew boundaries for each concession. The model also identified potential access points, including abandoned roads dating back to the 1800s.

Plant health maps were used to recommend sites where construction presented a lesser impact to the park.

Even better, the drone survey had no impact on the park’s unspoiled environment. “I could launch from almost anywhere — a boat or the front of a 4x4,” said Coates. “The old surveying methods required cutting sight lines and a huge crew.” The drone survey also made the project feasible. The cost of doing a land-based survey on the same scale would have been cost prohibitive for the national parks agency.

Thick brush often made it difficult to traverse the property, so Andrew took off from the safety of his boat.Supporting a Greener Future from Above

Drones have many potential uses beyond surveying that will support sustainable design and architecture. Equipped with a thermal imaging camera, a drone can easily detect energy loss in a building and identify areas with poor insulation. In the future, drones will deliver construction materials to work sites, saving energy costs.

UAVs will also play an ever-increasing role in environmental protection. “For conservation, drones will become an incredible tool,” predicts Coates. “Anti-poaching units can send drones up to survey vast areas, and the data they gather can be analyzed for animal counts, anti-poaching camps, deforestation and many other uses.”

Where to Learn MoreRead about the many ways drones transform construction workflows around the world in this eBook.See how drone-based surveys helped one quarry increase safety and generate results 20x faster than traditional methods.Get Started with DroneDeploy

Sustainable Design and Construction with Drones was originally published in DroneDeploy's Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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