If you reduce an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to its absolute core function, it boils down to delivery. While most think of packages from Amazon, in the geospatial world, this takes the form of sensor delivery. A UAV takes a sensor where you need it to collect data. Like a flow rate sensor in an oil pipeline, a current measurement device on a power transmission line, or that Fitbit you wear to keep track of your steps everyday – a UAV can serve as an autonomous sensor that continually gathers the information you need. From your control room, the only responsibility left in your hands is to interpret the data for meaningful action.
While the effectiveness of a UAV in getting a sensor where it needs to be is paramount, the choice of sensor that you’re mounting to the underside of the fuselage is just as important. There are a variety of sensors available today that can gather advanced data from across and beyond the visual spectrum. So, how can you choose the right sensor to supercharge your aerial monitoring efforts?
In love, life and remote sensing – it’s good to have an idea of what you’re looking for. Let’s take a look at what data these sensors capture, why it’s valuable, and some example use cases:
More popularly known as thermal imaging, these sensors detect radiation in the infrared spectrum to measure the temperature of physical objects as well as objects that absorb and reflect infrared light differently. While the cut-and-dry ability to monitor temperature is important in many scenarios, thermal imaging can also expedite the detection of objects and anomalies that may be hard to identify with the nkaed eye. Examples of infrared use cases include:
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors emit invisible laser pulses onto the terrain below during flight. Don’t worry, these aren’t like the lasers you see in Star Wars or Star Trek. The return pulses are picked up by the sensor which records the distance measured at that point. When the survey is complete, all of these points are collated into a point cloud, which is essentially a raw 3D representation of the survey area. From this point cloud, we can create highly accurate 3D models for analysis. LiDAR sensors are valuable for:
There’s value in simplicity, and sometimes a high-resolution picture provides all we need for analysis. Aside from the value of time-stamped and georeferenced imagery logged in a GIS system, images from an aerial survey can be stitched together for a 2D orthomosaic or processed into a simple 3D model. Standard RGB imagery is valuable for:
All of these sensors help to visualize data in their unique way. Picking the right one for the job starts with defining your data goals for your aerial monitoring program and working backward from there.
In the course of a long-range aerial inspection, each of these sensors will be generating vast amounts of raw output for analysis. How do you make sense of it? The beautiful part of UAV remote sensing is that it can be a highly-autonomous, consistent process – that facilitates accelerated analysis through AI algorithms. The UAV can fly a pre-programmed flight path on a routine basis, following precise coordinates at a precise altitude capturing optical data at precise intervals. AI algorithms thrive on copious amounts of data, and the system can utilize a baseline inspection to perform change detection analysis on each subsequent data set.
The AI algorithm flags anomalies and submits them for final verification by a human subject matter expert. Through this process, we can identify the critical points of data that are valuable to your operation. With time, these data points can unlock access to predictive analytics that forecast anomalies happening around your assets, infrastructure, and remote operations.
UAV remote sensing helps you to gather the data you need to manage your assets from afar. The right sensor can supercharge the insights you can derive from each inspection, while a highly-autonomous solution can make sure you’re getting the in-flow of valuable data you need to make intelligent and informed decisions.
Contact our team to discuss your unique challenges and data requirements.