Editorial Advisory Board PNT Q&A: Are UAVs disruptive?

Are drones (UAVs) a disruptive or constructive technology for high-precision mapping that yields practical, actionable results for the end user/customer?

Ismael Colomina

“More constructive than disruptive. Drone mapping is opening new markets that, to a large extent, were not serviceable by conventional manned flights. On the other hand, the profound changes — and crisis — in the mapping business were not produced by drones.”
Ismael Colomina
GeoNumerics

Jean-Marie Sleewaegen

“Drones have dramatically reshaped the surveying and mapping industry. Combined with reliable positioning and recent advancements in high-resolution cameras, photogrammetry and computer vision, drones now enable high-accuracy mapping faster and at much lower cost than conventional mapping techniques.”
Jean-Marie Sleewaegen
Septentrio

Jules McNeff

“Drones can be constructive augmentations to high-precision map products because of their ready access to diverse locations. Drone imagery can document real-time physical changes that affect mapping applications during natural disasters or other events — but images alone aren’t maps without a geo-referenced grid such as the U.S. National Grid.”
Jules McNeff
Overlook Systems Technologies Inc.

Other members of the EAB

Tony Agresta
Nearmap

Miguel Amor
Hexagon Positioning Intelligence

Thibault Bonnevie
SBG Systems

Alison Brown
NAVSYS Corporation

Clem Driscoll
C.J. Driscoll & Associates

John Fischer
Orolia

Ellen Hall
Spirent Federal Systems

Terry Moore
University of Nottingham

Bradford W. Parkinson
Stanford Center for Position,Navigation and Time

Michael Swiek
GPS Alliance

Julian Thomas
Racelogic Ltd.

Greg Turetzky
Consultant