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.
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DJI has released the successor to its popular Zenmuse L1 aerial LiDAR payload. The new DJI Zenmuse L2 comes with an enhanced RGB camera, upgraded LiDAR module, and improved accuracy. Prices start at $13,560.
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Dutch drone maker DeltaQuad says its latest Evo aircraft with a flight time of up to 2.5 hours is now integrated with a combined Yellowscan LiDAR and RGB system. As such, the fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone can offer colorized LiDAR mapping for up to 500 hectares in a single flight.
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Microdrones, an aerial mapping technology company with German roots, has built a new drone platform to cater to the demands of surveying professionals. Named EasyOne, the new Microdrones offering is an optimized and fully integrated drone system with the lifting power to carry LiDAR and photogrammetry surveying equipment.
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In what is believed to be the first mission of its kind in the world, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has successfully used a drone to map a vault that was built in the 1960s to store radioactive nuclear waste.
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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.
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European drone manufacturer FIXAR is joining forces with LiDAR solutions specialist YellowScan to equip the FIXAR 007 fixed-wing VTOL with YellowScan Mapper+ OEM LiDAR mapping solution.
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Draganfly has announced a new delivery drone called Heavy Lift, which can transport packages weighing up to 67 pounds (30kg) to customers within 18 miles (30km). The Canadian drone manufacturer said over two decades of industry experience has gone into making this engineering feat possible. In addition, Draganfly has launched a long-range laser scanning system that can produce survey-grade point cloud data.
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Flyability, the Switzerland-based maker of the popular Elios range of drones for indoor and confined-space inspections, is ready with its next offering: Elios 3. It’s the world’s first collision-tolerant drone equipped with a LiDAR sensor for indoor 3D mapping.
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Treeswift, a Philadelphia-based startup that has spun out of the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Laboratory, has secured $4.8 million in seed funding to build a drone-based forest monitoring system.
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Autonomous drone mapping startup Emesent has announced its latest survey-grade LiDAR payload: Hovermap ST. The lightweight, IP65-rated solution is being launched with Emesent’s new Automated Ground Control feature that, the company stresses, enables autonomous data capture in harsher environments than ever and for a wider range of use cases.
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Spanish researchers are turning to drones packing Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors in their management of the nation’s forests facing the annual summer scourge of massive wildfires.
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You know you must be doing something right when the judge you’re trying to impress offers to team up with you for an early demonstration of your solution. This is what happened at this year’s Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize pitch event.
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Commercial drone market research firm Drone Industry Insights ranks Terra Drone Corporation as the world’s top drone service provider, and the Japan-based company is making sure it justifies its presence on the list.
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Estonian Railways brought in Hepta Airborne to digitize its railway assets and see the benefits drones could bring to the table, or, in this case, the track. The two companies have been trialing the technology’s use over the past few months to see if it adds enough value.
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Photogrammetry software developer SimActive has integrated its Correlator3D product into LiDAR systems for LiDAR USA’s drones. The integration will allow for accurate LiDAR scans by linking images to the scan data.
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Network Rail has turned to drones and LiDAR to create a photo-realistic 3D scan of North Yorkshire’s Ribblehead viaduct in the UK to assist in the restoration of the iconic rail structure. The high-tech restoration is a part of Network Rail’s £2.1 ($2.8) million Great North Rail Project.
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Remember that video that was making the rounds? You know, the one with the chimpanzees flying the drone? Well, we debunked that one. Now, there’s a new video making the rounds. It shows a dog flying a drone. What???
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DJI and DJI’s Livox are likely to benefit from strong growth in the Lidar drone market. The market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.2% from 2020 to 2025 according to this report.
Drones help map Puerto Rico’s coastal heritage. Indigenous sites along Puerto Rico’s coast dating back thousands of years are being mapped by U.S.-based scientists using drones. The researchers hope to identify which historic sites are most vulnerable before hurricanes and rising sea levels linked to climate change destroy a large chunk of the island’s history. Over the last two years, we have seen more and more researchers turn to drones to help them with their archeological research.
As we have seen in other cases, LiDAR-equipped drones are revealing secrets that have remained invisible to the naked eye. This time a drone with LiDAR reveals a German SS concentration camp from WWII. Old reconnaissance photos from the RAF had shown that during the war a prison camp had been present on Alderney in the Channel Islands, UK, but it took a drone to show where exactly the remains of the camp were located. Be sure to check out this video as well.
In recent years LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology has played a crucial role in discovering ancient settlements and mapping historic sites around the world. In this most recent story, The Guardian reports that LIDAR-equipped drones reveal an ancient settlement off the coast of Florida. The archaeological findings and remains date from 900 to 1200 CE.
In recent years LIDAR equipped drones and airplanes have helped to make a number of discoveries as it allows archaeologists to ‘see’ through dense vegetation and find ruins of old civilizations such as the Maya’s in Mexico
Australian startup, Emesent raises $2.5M to map mines with autonomous drones. Similar to these search and rescue drones, the drones from Emesent work in an environment where there is no GPS available. Instead, they use LIDAR systems to map their surroundings.
