Hi all,
I have an opportunity in Africa to map (photo & DEM) an area of 256 square km.
I am living in Europe.
I have a few questions:
- does anyone know how to deal with taking an uav on a plane?
- custom office (how to deal with this)
- best to take a uav-plane or a uav copter (i'm thinking of a plane)
all tips/hints are welcome
Even from people who already work in Mozambique (maybe we can work together)
Grtz Bart
Replies
Hi All,
It has been a while since my last post. Have been negotiating (and of course working). The customer wanted a cheap solution. After a lot of talking he revealed was thinking max $1000. Couldn't possibly be more than that since we have Google earth. I kindly tried to explain the difference, he couldn't comprehend. I wished him luck with his queeste.
Thanks for all your input. Lets hope some drone in the nearby future will solve these kind of problems. :-)
grtz
To all,
I have asked for some more details on the job (like what sort of resolution is needed) and looking around for some more information on the country. The lad i will be travelling with has tons of experience with the country and speaks the language of the country with tongue and body language ;-).
At first i couldn't stop laughing because i have no experience at all (i'm still working on my arducopter) But the opportunity itself and the budget available makes me look over the project more seriously. Would be a hell of an experience and would look good as a reference (not just for me but for the whole community). But to get a good result it would take many hours and thats why i look at you guys (and maybe girls) to try to make a realistic calculation. Most of it depends on the resolution needed. As soon as i learn more aboud those specs i will let you know. Keep coming up with hints and tips.
Exactly, certainly not an environmental task Graham. Certainly an area that makes an aircraft cheaper.
UAS are great for mapping mine dumps and areas quickly where getting a LiDAR in is too expensive, but once you get over a certain size the LiDAR is cheaper.
The problem is, if this is for mapping, you cannot just get ANY cessna.
If you shot happily the photos right and left with fixed mount when the pilot flies as he used to,
you will end with 5-6K photos. They should have orientation angles and gps position. Not funny to process if you dont have those data.
My calculation is that with 10mpix cam,
200km/h
altitude 500m,
turn radius 300m
and typically required overlap 70%
you still get around 6h flight time over target.
All this supposing you get stabilised mount and the pilot has path following equipment
or you produce holes in the data, impossible to repair later.
Of course you can take bimotor cessna with imaging scanner just for the purpose,
but is not going any cheaper sas those toys are used for pro google earth mapping
(there is probably 1 plane with one machine per 20e6 habitants in EU, extrapolating poor polish reality).
So the more I think of it, you can do it proper way, or hard way.
No matter who is risking to die in the process,
it is a challenging job.
While resolution is a key, you can't beat easily the sheer km hiden inside.
I dont think it is a job for one man, at all.
Also it seems to require several UAV in parallel or the season might change - somebody will start being disturbed, somebody will want to be briben, better not to stay in exotic place with exotic job for 2 months.
The last issue:
mapping 256km^2 over an area where a loss is an end to your business, when you cannot treespass in all directions, and you got unpredictable law limitations that somebody might pop up before you find it,
is corresponding to mapping large cities in EU.
Such action is however not performed, and what you got on google earth are at most yearly updates from high-flying airplane.
Before you start calculating the number of galloons of fuel, and modem baudrate for UAV,
please define for yourself what is so fantastic in Africa that makes mapping of such areas more economically feasible that pioneering in city mapping in EU.
What size UAV? A plane might be more bulky but if you need to photograph 256km2 then a quadcopter I think would be insufficient. What altitude/resolution photos are needed?
If a large UAV then will need it's own box and may have to be shipped separately (as cargo?). Maybe cheaper/easier to bring the UAV parts out and then buy/make/assemble the actual plane in South Africa (quite a few model shops) and transport to Moz (no model shops). Or buy materials in SA and build/assemble in Moz?
I'm in SA so I can perhaps help with advice/logistics, etc. PM me