Howdy All I've been a list lurker for a while and I have to say I’m quite impressed with the projects on this site. Any way I thought I would open the account by asking for some advice on a medium sized UAV project.
I've been asked if I can fly a medium sized mapping project over an island it’s about 10 x 10 km and like every other bugger I’m thinking it could be a great project for a UAV. So I’m after a UAV for mapping. It has to be able to carry a digital camera (Nikon D800, Sony NEX7, Hasselblad if I’m game!), a stabilized camera mount in 3 axis if possible (client wants no image crab) and a DGPS for accurate photo centers. Ideally it would also be good if it had an endurance of 2-3 hours with a minimum of 1 hr. We are able to obtain clearances to operate out of line of sight so the UAV could be up to 15 km away from home at its furthest point. Could we make something which could do the job for say 20k ?
I’m happy to throw it open to the list for advice on suitable airframes and set ups
Cheers
Replies
Do they want the data to be importable into a GIS system? Any idea of the spatial accuracy they require?
Our client is after high accuracy mapping for an initial site survey for mining operations and requires accurate photo centres and a metric camera. Normally we would use our manned survey aircraft (C172) with a 39 or 80 mpxl camera and DGPS photo centres (5cm centimetre accuracy). However we can’t get a manned aircraft to the site so we are dabbling with a UAV acquisition.
Okay be careful these systems arn't as accurate as their sales people are making them out to be.
Yes unfortunately a number of people here in Australia have already found this out. Certain UAV manufactures have been promising the world over here but not delivering. We are getting a steady trickle of work with our manned aircraft from clients who tried a UAV solution but just were not able to achieve promised accuracies or there UAV’s were nailed by wedge tailed eagles (big problem here)
I think UAV’s have a promising future in professional aerial survey and I’m keen to explore this however I agree you have to have a realistic expectation of the system accuracies.
Well wedge tailed eagles are certainly not a problem here in the UK! ;)
Actually I was at a GIS conference the other week and there was a stand with these guys
http://www.mavinci.de/
They're claiming increased accuracy as their system has a NTK GNSS system and captures 1000s of GCPs as it carries out the survey. They may be worth checking out.
They were ridiculously expensive however. I was quoted £60000 for a complete system. I'm not sure how much that is in Australian dollars.
I also came across these guys the other day that are making a similar claim.
http://c-astral.com/
They might be worth checking out.
Yes we did look at the mavinci but we found $70k Australian a bit hard to justify. It looks like Eagle bait to me and I doubt mavinci will be happy to hand over another one if it gets nailed by an eagle on its first flight? Also most mine areas in Australia tend to be in the hot bits of the country and have massive thermals so a stabilised payload is a must unless you want to end up taking obliques rather than verticals.
I also looked at the C-Astral and again they are asking about $70k which is not an option for us
And yes Raptor we were looking to use a ‘metric’ camera. I have some professional lens calibration software here (Australis) complete with the groovy reflective targets. Ideally we are after a camera with a fixed focal length lens and a leaf shutter. But it’s looking like we may have to make do with a Sony Nex series of camera. Should produce OK results if we fix the focus and crank up the shutter speed.
The problem with Piksi is that currently you can’t record the data, they are working on this however. Ideally we are wanting to record the raw L1L2 data and camera events and then post process with a package like Grafnav to get accurate air stations. We are currently developing a Novatel OEM board to be able to do just this but it’s not an easy task.
Cheers
Hi!
My sugestion for a complete package:
The E382LR UAV, is a really great UAV plataform, with best possibilities for autonomous flights, mapping etc.
The airframe was based in Skywalker 1900mm, an old friend of MILIONS of FPV pilots around the world.
Jeff Taylor, the Event38 founder, was part of staff of 3DRobotics, he is a lot experiented.
Just take a look: www.event38.com
Good luck!
It looks like a good UAV and if I could squirrel a bigger camera (24mpxl) in there is may be suitable. The project I have to fly is around 450 line kilometres with a 24 mpxl camera so every megapixel counts.
I was thinking a bigger air frame which could take a Nikon D800 or similar ?
Cheers
Hi,
We are developing a medium size UAV, 3 meters wingspan specifically for high resolution land surveys and environmental surveys with bigger multispectral and hyperspectral cameras. You can have a look at some info here: http://www.raptoruas.com/re-1.html
We are preparing for manufacturing and I expect to be rolling out the system by June or July.
This is a full composite but instead of a carbon only laminate, we are using honeycomb as a structural core and the aircraft is super lightweight but very durable, there is also tons of space for payloads. Your Nikon D800 would fit just fine.
Good luck with your project and get in touch if you would like more info.
Thanks
Trias
PS If you are in a rush we might be able to pull a pre-production aircraft which would probably be significantly cheaper as well.
This could be an option for us but timing is tight we may be interested in a pre-production aircraft. How is it launched ?
Cheers
Erron
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