Hi all,
I'm looking to try using a UAV for some habitat mapping and thought I'd post to solicit some advice. I really like the Sea Ranger at UAV Solutions. (check it out here) Problem is that I can't seem to get a hold of anyone at the company to find out more about the cost involved. Since I'm operating on a slim budget, I thought I'd try finding an alternative. So, with that said, if you wanted to conduct aerial mapping on a budget of..say...under $4k, how would you go about it. What platforms would you look at that maximize flight time and distance? I don't need live FPV, but it would be cool of course, but really, just something that I can program the APM to fly a survey, and take gps encoded photos at regular intervals.
Thanks so much for the advice!
Replies
You really need to drill down on some details, mostly involving your payload - what kind of sensors/cameras/etc. are you going to be carrying - and what kind of duration do you need? Are you going to be mapping urban lots, or farm fields of hundreds or thousands of acres? Lots of disparity and it's very difficult to provide helpful suggestions without more info.
There are many commercial offerings available in a wide span of price ranges based on competing requirements. You could get a Bixler/etc. with a GoPro and misc. accessories flying for ~$600, which would allow for tens of acres. A Skywalker X8 wing (7 ft span, lots of room for "stuff) with two or more cameras, lots of batteries, etc., for ~$1,500 could do a hundred or so acres at a time. A Mugin would take every bit of your $4,000 and more, but can stay aloft a long time and carry a large payload to map hundreds or more acres - depending....
It sounds like you have a lot to learn (but I may be wrong) about UAV's in general, so get busy reading, reading, reading this and other sites while you come to terms with what you are trying to do, and come back and ask when you can provide more info, okay?
Brad,
Thanks so much for the reply. Much appreciated! So I've been doing a lot of reading on UAV's and will post something a bit more detailed. But basically, I'd like to be able to do the following:
Fly autonomously (obviously)
Be able to make a geographically correct 3d mosaic map of photos
Hand Launch
Electric powered
60+ Minutes endurance
Able to land on sand, gravel, coral rubble
Deal with a pretty humid environment with occasional rain
View live video via a pan/tilt (and maybe zoom) camera
Would love for that pan/tilt camera head to be able to switch back and forth to a flir camera
It's got to break down into something that can be put in checked luggage for travel, so case no bigger than 62" and 50 pounds.
Does that help?
btw: landing on water would be awesome but seems that's not too feasible.
Hi Jake,
Waterproofing drones is possible, though I don't know how feasible it is. Check out Liquipel.com and this video of DSLR pros dunking their DJI Phantom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3pU0XKQZt4
Jake, my sugestion for a complete package:
The E382LR, is really great UAV plataform, with best possibilities for FPV equipment and 100% ready for autonomous flights, mapping etc.
The airframe was based in Skywalker 1900mm, an old friend of MILIONS FPV pilots around the world.
Jeff Taylor, the Event38 founder, was part of staff of 3dRobotics, he is a lot experienced.
Just take a look: www.event38.com
Good luck!
Thanks! Yea, I've been in touch with Jeff @event38 That's one platform I've been looking into.