The Use of Remote Sensing on Unmanned Aerial Systems

The use of unmanned aerial systems in the government and civilian sectors have become ever more utilized in recent years. Unmanned systems low cost and rapid deployment capabilities make unmanned systems a viable solution for many varied applications. Their use allow for maximum flexibility and data collection in remote sensing applications. There is no limit to the possibilities and capabilities of unmanned aerial systems in the field of remote sensing.

In the realm of remote sensing, unmanned aerial system can be utilized for any application where a bird’s eye view is necessary. These include fields such as mapping, surveillance, thermal imagery, mining, aerial photography, agriculture, and transportation infrastructure maintenance. Unmanned aerial systems can provide high spatial resolution data that can be collected for insight analysis and rendering for many processes.

Unlike the traditional satellite images that are utilized in many of today’s applications, unmanned systems can produce a higher quality of imagery and data because of the lower proximity to the ground. These systems can be fitted with very capable low-cost high-resolution cameras, GPS, and sensors whose data can utilized to render 3D models.

Data Collection & Analysis

In the field of data collect and analysis, unmanned aerial system provide a cost-effective avenue to collect massive amounts of data that can be utilized by farmers, land surveyors, and by government organizations. This data is crucial to the stability of other unmanned systems like autonomous vehicles that will use the data to keep autonomous vehicles on the road and unmanned aerial delivery drones by providing imagery and GPS coordinates to various delivery locations.

Camera Technology

Many companies like FLIR, GGS Gmbh, Z3 Technology, and others are producing camera technologies for unmanned systems for field like agriculture, surveillance, mapping, and unmanned vehicles. These cameras can produce high quality imagery at constant scale with the use of GPS. The output data from these cameras can produce very high-resolution images for all uses and applications.

Disaster Analysis & Recovery

In disaster recovery, remote sensing can be a valuable tool in assessing the range and scope of damage to a particular area. Remote sensing can detect changes in the environment, detect any poisons gases are present, and map out safe routes for first responders. In addition, the size amount and rate of damage can be utilized to form a response and evacuation plan.

Change Detection

Unmanned aerial system play a vital role in providing a platform for the collection of data for object analysis. The ability of unmanned aerial system to capture higher spatial resolutions as compared to satellite imagery creates so many opportunities in agriculture and transportation. Change detection in agriculture allows farmers to observe and monitor crop growth height, monitor crop infestation, and growth efficiency. In transportation, higher spatial resolution allows for monitoring of roads to detect damage and alert maintenance crews. With unmanned aerial systems, a larger area can be covered in a short amount of time utilizing less resources. This in turns saves money. There is no doubt the utilization of remote sensing an change detection on a unmanned aerial system is a valued resource that can improve the efficiency of farming and prove valuable data to other industries.

In summary, I believe that unmanned aerial system can play a vital role in remote sensing. The cost and time saving by utilizing unmanned system alone can’t be measured. It is inevitable the unmanned system will weave into many areas of day to day life as technology advances. The only question will be how and where will all this new data be store, secured, and who will be the gate keeper.

References

Maes, W. H., & Steppe, K. (2019). Perspectives for remote sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles in precision agriculture. Trends in Plant Science, 24(2), 152-164. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2018.11.007

Yao, H., Qin, R., & Chen, X. (2019). Unmanned aerial vehicle for remote sensing Applications—A review. Remote Sensing, 11(12), 1443. doi:10.3390/rs11121443