Seen & Heard: Drones donated to Ukraine

“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.

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Drone Donation

Ukrainian TV host Serhiy Prytula crowdfunded $20 million to buy Bayraktar drones for the nation’s defense against Russia. Baykar, a Turkish defense manufacturer, turned down the money and opted instead to donate three military drones to the country. The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone has been a key instrument used by the Ukrainian military to repel Russian forces, with the ongoing war the first major conflict in which the Bayraktar drones have been deployed.

Photo: Nicola Lercari, assistant professor of World Heritage, UC Merced

Arrested Decay

Scientists from the University of California (UC) Merced have mapped the fragile remains of Bodie, a Gold Rush ghost town. With harsh weather conditions, wildfires and earthquakes, only 10% of the original town is still intact. Researchers used a GeoSLAM handheld scanner to document more than 100 structures over four days. The scans preserve Bodie’s archaeological signature and enabled a 3D reconstruction of Bodie at its height in the 1870s.

Photo: Singapore skyline, NeoPhoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Singapore Not Coasting

Sea-level changes are critical to the island nation of Singapore. To help map ground deformation, researchers from the Earth Observatory of Singapore will access GNSS data collected by the Singapore Satellite Positioning Reference Network (SiReNT), along with a decade of archived GNSS data. SiReNT, an initiative of the Singapore Land Authority, produces precise positioning data with up to 3-cm accuracy. With four new coastal GNSS reference stations installed, EOS is beginning to study more accurate ways to measure deformation and climate effects.

Photo: guvendemir/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

To Your Health

A new indoor positioning system is helping hospitals and other healthcare facilities. PenguinIN connects to a facility’s Wi-Fi infrastructure to help staff track and locate key items, a task any nurses say takes an hour of every shift. In emergency rooms, it can track how long patients have waited and how long a physician has spent with each patient. Facilities also can use it to track air quality including dust, temperature and possible water leaks. PenguinIN applies advanced machine learning to establish the location of indoor objects, people and smartphones with up to 1-meter accuracy.