Unmanned aircraft to capture hyperspectral images
Engineers working on the TerraLuma Project at the University of Tasmania, Australia are bringing hyperspectral capabilities to their fleet of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
To do so, they will be employing Headwall Photonics' (Fitchburg, MA, USA) Micro-Hyperspec sensor on-board a multi-rotor SkyJib airframe from Droidworx (Waikato, New Zealand). SkyJib is a purpose-built aerial platform, which the TerraLuma team has adapted to carry scientific instruments.
One of the unique aspects of the TerraLuma project is that the university researchers use multiple sensors -- visible, multispectral and hyperspectral (VNIR), thermal, and LiDAR -- to map and monitor different aspects of the environment.
They have worked on a range of applications such as mapping and monitoring vegetation in remote locations, deriving 3-D tree structure for forest inventories and landslide mapping. More information on the project can be found here.
Related articles on UAVs from Vision Systems Design.
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3. UAVs help utilities bring back the power
Researchers at New Mexico State University (NMSU; Las Cruces, NM, USA) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI; Palo Alto, CA, USA) recently completed tests that concluded that unmanned aircraft can be safely and effectively used to assess power grid damage following a storm or natural disaster.
4. Robot vision helps guide UAV for crop spraying
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5. Small UAV uses hyperspectral imager
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-- Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design