FAA Part 107 Drone Training Offered by ARE Corp.

Posted on September 22, 2019 by lidar
Logo for ARE and FAA Part 107 Training

FAA Part 107 Training

FAA Part 107 Drone Training: Looking to become a commercial drone pilot?

Interested in the Geospatial industry, but finding a GIS certificate to be too expensive? Get started with drone mapping! ARE will be teaching a Drone Pilot Training Course including all the material you need to know to become a Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA) Part 107 Drone Certified Pilot at North Shore Community College in Danvers, MA on October 5th and 12th.

This could be the step to unlocking your future potential in this exciting high tech field.

To register call 978-236-1200 or click here.

About ARE:

At ARE, we are committed to a culture of continuous improvement and empowering ingenuity. We are based on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and offer opportunities to work in the field or office at both locations. We are a dynamic team of engineers, inspectors, FAA certified pilots, GIS analysts, remote sensing specialists, and so much more. Our employees are professional, passionate, hardworking and are motivated to make the world a safer place. While respecting the importance of a sustainable future, we are dedicated to an environmentally friendly approach to our work. We take pride in our community outreach programs and the opportunity to work with leading organizations, charities and institutions on both coasts. We embrace diversity, initiative and new technology. As a company we take pride in going the extra mile to champion new ideas and approaches. It’s the ARE way…and we have a place for you.

Note – If you liked this post click here to stay informed of all of the 3D laser scanning, geomatics, UAS, autonomous vehicle, Lidar News and more. If you have an informative 3D video that you would like us to promote, please forward to editor@lidarnews.com and if you would like to join the Younger Geospatial Professional movement click here.

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Unmanned Vehicle Systems for Geomatics

Posted on September 21, 2019 by lidar
photo of Unmanned Vehicle Systems for Geomatics by C. Armenakis and P. Patias

Unmanned Vehicle Systems for Geomatics by C. Armenakis and P. Patias

I have had the opportunity to review an excellent scholarly reference entitled, “Unmanned Vehicle Systems for Geomatics – Towards Robotic Mapping.” The text was edited by Costas Armenakis and Petros Patias. Costas is an Associate Professor of Geomatics Engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada. Petros is the Director of the Laboratory of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing and ex-Chairman of the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering. The book was published by Whittles Publishing.

The book was inspired by the transformative technology of the small unmanned aerial vehicle systems for civilian applications which has lead to the democratization of spatial data collection, processing, product generation and services. In some cases, this ease of use and automation has not resulted in an awareness for the theoretical training that must accompany this transformation. This text provides an important opportunity for the novice to at least become aware, if not competent in a number of critical areas related to the use of small UAVs and other unmanned vehicles.

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Posted in airborne LiDAR, artifical perception, artificial intelligence, Autonomous vehicles, BVLOS, computer vision, Data, Digital Transformation, Drones, Environmental, Forestry, Geomatics, GNSS, GPS, Inspection, Lidar, Mapping, Photogrammetry, point clouds, remote sensing, Research, Robots, Sensors, Technology, The Industry, topography, UAS, UAVs, Young Geospatial Professional | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Aviation Partnership Demonstrates UAV Traffic Control

Posted on September 20, 2019 by lidar
Photo of Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership

Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership

Over nearly a week of testing — a week that followed months of preparation and involved five types of aircraft, four aircraft software systems, more than 30 engineers, pilots, and operations experts, and 141 flights — the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and its partners sought to answer an increasingly urgent question: How can we effectively manage the diversity and volume of drone traffic we’re expecting?

The tests were part of a Federal Aviation Administration initiative known as the UAS Traffic Management Pilot Program, or UPP. The program, designed to help transition drone traffic management from the research phase toward commercial viability, is the latest stage of a long-term federal effort to facilitate the development of technology and protocols that are becoming imperative as commercial demand for drone use climbs.

Previous phases of the research, some of which was conducted at Virginia Tech, have been managed by NASA; now the program is transitioning to the FAA for implementation. This particular series of tests evaluated the maturity of the technology and yielded data that can guide the regulatory organization as they consider new policies for drone use.

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Posted in 3D Modeling, Admin, Business Development, BVLOS, Certifications, Drones, Government, Mapping, Research, Software, UAS, UAVs | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Amazon Rainforest is Burning – Lidar Documentation

Posted on September 19, 2019 by lidar
photo of Amazon rainforest Lidar Used to Document Amazon Deforestation

Lidar Used to Document Amazon Deforestation

The RIEGL VZ-400i was used earlier this year to help aid Academy Research Fellow Eduardo Maeda with his continuing conservation efforts for the Amazon rainforest. The data received over a five-year monitoring period will be used to model changes in the forest structure. Currently it is unknown how biodiversity in the fringes will be affected but it is the conversationalist goal to help protect and diminish the effects of deforestation and raise awareness for one of Earths largest natural resources.

This summer the fires have reached epoch proportion with what seems to the the support of the Brazilian government. This affects all of us around the world.

The Amazon rainforest is the world’s richest and most-varied biological ecosystem, containing several million species of insects, plants, birds, and other forms of life, many still not yet discovered by science. The Amazon covers an area of 2,300,000 square miles, this makes up about 40 percent of Brazil’s total surface area.

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Posted in 3D Modeling, Agriculture, airborne LiDAR, cultural heritage, Environmental, Forestry, GIS, Government, Lidar, Mapping, Photogrammetry, remote sensing, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Transforming Urban Cores into Smart Cities

Posted on September 18, 2019 by lidar

graphic of Transforming Urban Cores into Smart CitiesFrom an article on Lidar News entitled “Transforming Urban Cores Into Smart Cities with Mobility Data and AI.”

Becoming a Smart City

For the first time in history there are more people living in cities than in rural areas; this trend is accelerating at breathtaking speed in China and India. The UN predicts that by 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in an urban area. That adds up to nearly seven billion people – just one billion less than are inhabiting the entire planet today.

For today’s urban centers to accommodate this unprecedented growth, major changes will have to occur in the management and delivery of citizen services. These changes are driven in part by changes in mobility and the increasing use of the Internet of Things (IoT) to monitor the Built Environment. The flow of digital information may have the potential to overwhelm existing information networks.

In order to be considered responsive by the public, time frames will have to shift from being measured in months to days and eventually to seconds. Cities will have to take advantage of digital technologies such as the cloud, AI, 5G, autonomous vehicles, digital twins, robots, drones, and even blockchain, just to name a few. Doing so will transform them into resilient Smart Cities that can operate efficiently in real time and support the health, safety, and livelihood of its residents in a cost effective manner.

One of the key information components upon which virtually all of the Smart City mobile apps will be based is dynamic and timely street level data. Static, two-dimensional map layers locked in a GIS only accessible to a few highly skilled technicians will be replaced by dynamic, 3D mobile applications that provide situational awareness information. This information can then support the intelligent management of robo-taxis, infrastructure, drone package delivery, and much more with street level analytics in near real time.

A company on the forefront of the Smart City transformation is Allvision. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, this geospatial data analytics company is leveraging the robotics and AI community in the “East Coast Silicon Valley” to develop an integrated platform that fuses both photogrammetric and SLAM-based 3D lidar data. By aggregating multiple sources of geospatial data, Allvision’s platform, leveraging machine learning and advanced classification, can provide actionable information from huge amounts of reality data. This data can lead to a more informed decision making process by creating and updating a high resolution 3D map of the city including key assets.

Let’s take a look at how they are becoming a leader in transforming urban cores into Smart Cities.

For the complete article click here.

Note – If you liked this post click here to stay informed of all of the 3D laser scanning, geomatics, UAS, autonomous vehicle, Lidar News and more. If you have an informative 3D video that you would like us to promote, please forward to editor@lidarnews.com and if you would like to join the Younger Geospatial Professional movement click here.

Posted in 3D Modeling, AI, artificial intelligence, Autonomous vehicles, Business Development, Cloud, computer vision, Construction, Data, Deep Learning, Digital Transformation, driverless vehicles, GIS, Government, Infrastructure, intelligent cities, Internet of Things, machine learning, Mapping, Sensors, smart cities, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AEC to BE – Do You Have the Skills to Make the Transition?

Posted on September 17, 2019 by lidar

I suppose the mega-trend that sums up all of what is taking place concerning the transition from AEC to BE is digital transformation, but it sure feels like a lot more. Maybe the idea of Smart Cities sums it up best.

image of AEC to BE

AEC to BE Credit tes.com

Most of us seasoned veterans grew up in the traditional AEC – Architecture, Engineering (civil), and Construction world with clearly defined, albeit often antagonistic roles that date back to at least the Roman Empire. It is very hard to beleive that for more than 2,000  years these AEC roles have essentially been unaffected by the technology around them. From the printing press, to the steam engine, to electricity, the radio, airplanes, rockets, nuclear energy and many inventions that I have left out, the AEC roles have essentially remained the same.

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Posted in 3D Modeling, 3D Printing, AI, artifical perception, artificial intelligence, Augmented reality, Autonomous vehicles, BIM, computer vision, Construction, Digital Transformation, Environmental, Infrastructure, intelligent cities, Internet of Things, machine learning, Mapping, satellites, smart cities, Technology, UAS, UAVs | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Vegetation Classification Using Lidar and Hyperspectral

Posted on September 16, 2019 by lidar
photo of Dryland Vegetation Classification Improved with Multi-Sensor Approach

Dryland Vegetation Classification Improved with Multi-Sensor Approach

Abstract: The sparse canopy cover and large contribution of bright background soil, along with the heterogeneous vegetation types in close proximity, are common challenges for dryland vegetation classification with remote sensing. Consequently, the results of a single classification algorithm or one type of sensor to characterize dryland vegetation typically show low accuracy and lack robustness.

In our study, we improved classification accuracy in a semi-arid ecosystem based on the use of vegetation optical (hyperspectral) and structural (lidar) information combined with the environmental characteristics of the landscape.

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Posted in 3D Modeling, Agriculture, airborne LiDAR, Data, Environmental, Forestry, Lidar, Mapping, Photogrammetry, point clouds, remote sensing, Research, Sensors | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Autonomous Lidar Vehicle Designer is Legally Blind

Posted on September 15, 2019 by lidar
Photo of Autonomous Lidar Engineer Nico Gentry

Autonomous Lidar Engineer Nico Gentry

Nico Gentry has always loved cars. “I wanted so badly to get my permit and eventually my driver’s license,” the 25-year-old manufacturing engineer from Orlando, Florida, told me in a recent phone call. But a neurological disorder called nystagmus that affects his eyes means he’s been legally blind since birth, so he decided to get involved with autonomous lidar.

From an artice in Mashable by Sasha Lekach.

Instead of learning to drive, when he was just 14 he helped his dad build a 1970 Mustang — what he calls his dream car. “I wanted to drive my dream car. But I realized I wouldn’t be able to do that,” he said.

Last year, Gentry and his dad —who is also an engineer — built a custom electric bicycle that he can use to get around, since he can still partially see — just not enough to safely drive a car. The bike is one of the “little hacks,” as he calls them, that’s important for his mobility independence. Plus it beats pedaling to work on a cheap bicycle with no electric boost.

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Posted in 3D Modeling, AI, artifical perception, artificial intelligence, Autonomous vehicles, computer vision, Deep Learning, driverless vehicles, Lidar, Research, Robots, Safety, Sensors, solid state lidar, Visualization | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Year Up – A Program to Address the Opportunity Divide

Posted on September 14, 2019 by lidar

I spent five plus hours in my car today. I heard two attention grabbing reports. The first involved an in-depth study on the potential effects of climate change (too political and scary) and the second an inside look at Year Up.

(From earlier this year)

Year Up logo

Year Up

If you are still with me and are asking what does Year Up have to do with 3D laser scanning and lidar my answer is – everything! Particularly if have been following our efforts to support and develop Younger Geospatial Professionals – YGPs.

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Posted in Digital Transformation, Education, The Industry, Uncategorized, Young Geospatial Professional | Tagged | Leave a comment

3D Laser Scanning is Being Used to Improve Health

Posted on September 13, 2019 by lidar

Two separate articles this past May referred to the use of 3D laser scanning to improve one’s health. In the first case it was in support of the shape of an infant’s head and the second better design of hearing aids.

From an article by Jordan Verdadeiro at West Dakota Fox

Any abnormalities in a child will be scary for a parent. There are a set of twins from Harvey who were born healthy, but who’s heads began to flatten. Jordan Verdadeiro spoke with the family and a certified orthotist who is helping get these baby boy’s head shape back how it should be.

Photo of Babies 3D Laser Scanning Used to Fit Helmets

3D Laser Scanning Used to Fit Helmets

This is Bausten and Huxley, and these twins are in cranial remolding helmets. Their father, Cayle Paulson says they were born two months early.

“They spent their first five weeks in the nic-u here in Bismarck, so through time at home and sleeping on their back, they slowly kind of developed a flatness on the back of their head,” said Paulson.

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Posted in 3D Modeling, Laser Scanning, medical, point clouds, Research | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment