GPS World, September 2018

WIRELESS TIMING MOBILE RAIL MARINE DEFENSE OEM 2018 FLEETS STATE OF THE HIGH GNSS INDUSTRY P RECISION MAPPING FINANCIAL DEFENSE MOBILE RAIL MARINE DEFENSE OEM AVIATION GAMES PRECISION UAVs DEFENSE on MAPPING OTHER a Roll FINANCIAL to Dominance DEFENSE SIMULATION SECURITY FREIGHT WIRELESS TIMING THIS UAV SECTOR SMARTPHONES A DRIVER FOR SURVEY CHANGE ACROSS FITNESS INDUSTRIES FLEETS HIGH P SECURITY FREIGHT WIRELESS TIMING MOBILE RAIL SURVEY FITNESS FLEETS HIGH PRECISION MAPPING A s precision guidance autonomous operations highdefinition geocoded images and high volume data processing all improve drones use will continue to increase OEM receiver manufacturers sensor suppliers and datahandling companies play key roles in development and stand to profit thereby In particular use of drones is growing in land management construction mining and TONY MURFIN CONTRIBUTING EDITOR PROFESSIONAL OEM UAV GPS WORLD farming An open pit mine operation can be supported through detailed drone inspection producing high resolution images Processed images and data enable keeping tabs on inventory site changes over time identifying best areas for further extraction and monitoring and managing vehicle movement These tasks required huge amounts of time in the past Drone overflight and processing tools condense all the effort as well as producing enhanced results to enable faster and clearer decision making Defense Surveillance and reconnaissance are probably the biggest military drone applications Carrying payloads that include color video cameras and infrared night vision cameras more than 19000 drones are now in the arsenal of the U S Army Air Force Marines and Special Ops and more have gone to other nations militaries Flying at relatively low altitude with somewhat limited range and powered by a single quiet electric motor these drones have become essential in gathering forward situation intelligence Other UAV craft provide higher altitude longer duration surveillance and reconnaissance over wider range up to 20 hours up to 15000 feet more than 60 miles afield Civilian versions of these craft are in development Delivery Respondents to our survey thought delivery will be a break through application for drones Amazon has several trials running globablly National civil aviation authorities need to move forward with plans to integrate drones into civilian airspace for this initiative to graduate to full scale operations and achieve their objective of 30 minutes from order to delivery Precision Ag One of the most significant applications which seems to be missing from survey responses is agriculture Both quad copters and hybrid fixed wing copter drones are in widespread use to capture image data overflying crops and then process the data and build crop analytics Graphic results point to how crops can be managed to increase yield Making this work is a combination of sensor payloads gathering visual video lidar thermal and hyperspectral data the secret sauce lies in how the data is processed and presented to farmers Emphasis is placed on exactly how green crops appear when inspected by the various sensors A number of companies offer services for farmers to optimize crop management All these areas are show significant drone growth Lets not forget facility transmission line and pipeline inspection tasks where drones excel at increasing efficiency and decreasing costs TONY MURFIN is a GNSS aerospace consultant with several decades experience at leading companies in the GPS aviation and OEM sectors 25 12 13 12 13 12 13 0 10 20 30 40 50 Better quality images Smaller lightweight sensors Control via mobile devices Augmented reality Competition from satellites aircraft Regulations Other 36 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM SEPTEMBER 2018 0 10 20 30 40 50 Aerial surveying and mapping Aerial surveillance and security Aerial insepction of infrastructure utilities pipelines etc Aerial delivery 37 13 25 25 OBSTACLE GOVERNMENT REGULATION OPPORTUNITIES SAFETY SECURITY INTELLIGENCE What is the biggest challenge for the UAV industry What is the killer app for drones What professional UAV market sector will most powerfully drive adoption and influence new regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles