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Custom sensors for UAV Survey/Mapping Applications

Posted by Steve Zeets on July 11, 2016 at 2:23pm

Hi everyone,

I know a lot of people watch these groups and was hoping someone might help me out.

Does anyone know a company who makes custom sensors for UAV Survey/Mapping Applications?  Or who wants to start making custom sensors for UAV Survey/Mapping Applications?

I think the Canon/Sony/etc hacks are becoming so numerous that there's a major need for a custom camera to fill in the gap between the (dare I say) GoPro and Leica/DMC/UItra cameras.

Also, don't get me started on UAV LiDAR needs as well :)

Any takers?

Best,

Steve

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Replies

  • Steve Zeets August 26, 2016 at 6:58am

    Hi Paulo,

    We typically trigger our camera every 1.2 seconds on average.

    Yes, you are correct about how we use the REACH.

    Best,

    Steve

  • Paulo Neves August 26, 2016 at 5:27am

    Hello Steeve, glad to know what are the requirements in the "wild". We are working on getting the trigger time to burst speeds and we have the hardware already to start experimenting.

    Regarding the EMLID REACH, do you mean you record the GPS raw data for later post processing in the ground, ie. without GCP?

  • Steve Zeets August 25, 2016 at 11:23am

    Hi Paulo,

    It looks like your device has a limit of 3 seconds for camera trigger time?  That is much too slow for our needs.

    Also, we don't use a high accuracy GPS for Pixhawk Navigation.  We have a separate EMLID REACH along for the ride that we post process to get the locations of when the camera was triggered.

    Thanks!

    Steve

  • Paulo Neves August 25, 2016 at 10:29am

    Hello Steeve,

    I work for Airborne Projects and we are actually specialized in adding telemetry and tagging the images with external information while in the air. If you are still interested, we would be happy to hear your requirements.

    DROTAG x – Onboard Image Tagging Computer
    The DROTAG.x is an updated version of the earlier DROTAG which is a small board (71x28mm) that enables your camera to Trigger and GeoReference (Lat,…
  • LightWare - Laser Developer July 12, 2016 at 1:26am

    Thanks Steve!

    A large part of our business is in OEM supply of custom designed systems. We try to keep the development costs to the customers as low as possible by establishing long term supply agreements rather than trying to recover the costs up front. With this business model there is a requirement for some kind of volume of sales to make the project worth while for everyone concerned so we don't do "one-off" designs.

    Our OEM customers are usually close-to-the-market and not specifically electronics companies. This provides us with a low cost way of getting to market and our customers with a low cost way of getting customized technology.

  • Steve Zeets July 12, 2016 at 1:13am

    I have been watching you develop your custom sensors on this forum since you first offered your UAV laser range finder a few years back.  You guys rock!!

    Do you also develop custom cameras?

  • LightWare - Laser Developer July 11, 2016 at 11:06pm

    @Steve - this is an area that we are working on. Our main objective is to develop extremely light weight systems that can be integrated deeply into the automatic flight architecture - mapping devices that fly rather than drones with mapping payloads. It's something that we've been at for more than 30 years so I don't think that there are any quick solutions ;).

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