surveying and mapping

The effects of drone technology have been sufficiently disruptive – or perhaps “threatening” is a better term – to legacy land surveying officials that a North Carolina aerial imaging and mapping service provider is now having to defend attacks on his activity with arguments it’s a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.

The largely productive year for the drone sector is drawing to a close with the less fortunate news that trailblazing North Carolina startup PrecisionHawk has filed for bankruptcy, and is shuttering the business.

Phase One, a Denmark-based company specializing in digital imaging tech, has unveiled a fantastic new survey-grade camera that boasts an advanced 128MP image sensor. Developed in collaboration with Quantum Systems and Trimble, the Phase One P5 integrates seamlessly with Trinity Pro fixed-wing mapping drone and Trimble Business Center construction and modeling software.

As part of the effort to strengthen its domestic UAV production for defensive deployment against Russia’s continuing invasion, Ukraine is testing a drone specially developed to accelerate and improve the detection and elimination of deadly landmines.

Confined spaces and indoor drone specialist Flyability has released a new LiDAR surveying payload for the Elios 3. Available as part of a bundle including training, reflective targets, and specialized processing software, FARO Connect, Flyability’s new Ouster OS0-128 Rev 7 payload is designed for safe, centimeter-accurate scans of hard-to-reach areas.

Skyports Drone Services is again expanding its global business footprint, this time in Australia through a new partnership developing the long-range beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations of Sydney-based UAV data collection specialist Carbonix.

Electronics giant Sony has introduced another of its top-shelf professional cameras with the new LX-LR1, a device whose image-capturing power is packed into tech small enough to mount on the drones its creators kept in mind during the design process.

Ohio-based drone data-collection company Event 38 has successfully contributed to another of its aerial challenge projects, this time deploying its UAVs to complete full maps of two Turks and Caicos islands in just two days.

UK aerial surveying specialist Plowman Craven has produced a drone data collection solution specifically designed for owners and operators of rail networks across the nation and globe – including lines where physical access to infrastructure isn’t feasible.

Swiss vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone manufacturer Wingtra has raised $22 million in a Series B funding round in an effort to scale what has thus far been successful activities with mapping and surveying customers.

California-based aerial data collection and analytics company Aerial Imaging Technology has released a new, free drone image overlap estimator tool. As the name suggests, the tool can help operators using DJI drones or Micasense payloads to confirm a project’s orthographic image coverage while still on site.

Leading UAV and aerial photography company DJI has just released a new firmware upgrade for the Mavic 3 Enterprise series, adding several new functions and features to the craft it calls the “everyday commercial drone.”

Two European UAV sector leaders have joined forces to permit Drone Harmony’s automated mission software to be used with ANAFI Ai aboard Parrot drones, improving data gathering performance on mapping and inspection flights.

Swiss mapping, surveying, and modeling tech company TOPODRONE has introduced its AQUAMAPPER solution that adds underwater LiDAR and bathymetry capacities to the company’s range of drone-transported data collection equipment.

Drone data collection, surveying, and infrastructure inspection company Soaring Eagle Technologies has added another Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waiver to its collection – this one permitting virtually unlimited geographic range of mission operation.

Dutch company DeltaQuad is looking to shake up drone design – and through that, increase both performance and mission diversity – with its new Evo electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) craft that bears more than a passing resemblance to the B2-Stealth aircraft.

Drone giant DJI has released a new version of its Terra 3D modeling and mapping software, adding new functionality, enhancing existing features, and sorting out a series of bugs.

Score another drones-for-good point for Australia’s UAV and geospatial education provider SheMaps, whose aerial tech introduction and training have led a young Queensland woman to take to the skies in an effort to safeguard the history of the Aboriginal Koko-Muluridji people’s Wallara clan.

UAV sensor specialist Censys Technologies has closed an over-subscribed Series A Funding round that generated $8.3 million ­– capital the company will use to accelerate its transformation from a drone services company to a provider of what it calls airborne intelligence.

Aerial geophysical mapping specialist Overhead Intelligence has used a drone equipped with Iris Automation safety avionics tech to operate a combined extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) magnetometer survey mission over a wide area of Canadian mineral deposits.

Australia and its ever-booming economy are being hampered by its construction sector suffering from continued pandemic fallout, supply chain disruption, rising material prices, and a deepening shortage of skilled labor. As a remedy to that latter problem, a national education business is using drone technology in classroom-level instruction to encourage students to navigate those aerial assets into surveying careers.