Unmanned Systems Buzz at InterGeo, Plus: Webinar Follow-Up

The world’s largest geospatial conference took place earlier this month in Germany. InterGeo is located in Germany every year, changing cities. More than 16,000 people attend the conference annually, mostly from Europe (83%) and only a small percentage from North and South America (~5%). I’ve promoted to the organizers that a similar conference is needed in the West because the most significantly attended geospatial conferences in the West are organized by specific vendors (Esri, Autodesk, Hexagon, Trimble, etc.) rather than being vendor-agnostic. The result is that Westerners only see a sliver of the geospatial products and services that are available.

InterGeo is always a lot of fun, with a myriad of geospatial hardware and software. Every year, I look for a specific technology that stands out. In the past couple of years, it’s been unmanned aerial systems (UAS). This year, I attended a vendor presentation, and I think they summarized it best: “Positioning is becoming a commodity.”

Whether it’s RTK GNSS, UAS, optical instruments or imaging instruments, it’s getting easier and less expensive to collect high-precision data. A good example of this is the Topcon LN-100W (sorry for the lack of audio during the video) introduced at InterGeo. It’s an instrument designed for BIM (Building Information Modeling) layout and mapping. It self-levels and works within about a 100-meter radius.

Then, of course, there’s the new wave of RTK GNSS receivers. South Survey Instrument Co. introduced a palm-sized RTK GNSS receiver, as well as Sokkia, Altus, Comnav, Geneq, CHCNav, Trimble, Carlson, Eos, Stonex, and I’m sure I missed a few others. As I’ve written before on several occasions, the increased availability of RTK GNSS receivers at increasingly lower cost puts centimeter accuracy in the hands of a wide geospatial audience, not just specialists.

Then, there’s UAS. UAS, UAVs, drones, or whatever you want to call them, have been hyped to the point that they may be over-hyped. Whereas I saw only a handful of UAS at InterGeo a few short years ago, now there are many tens, maybe a hundred, UAS on display. In fact, there was an outdoor UAS flight demonstration area. We shot a video of the new Reigl RiCopter, which Reigl claims is the first UAS with a LIDAR sensor on board.

Lastly, VectorNav introduced a great example of sensor fusion. It’s a very small device (4.5 x 4.4 x 1.1 cm) weighing less than 30 grams. It contains two u-blox GNSS receivers (capable of L1 RTK) as well as VectorNav’s MEMS technology (3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyros, 3-axis magnetometers) resulting in a high-precision, inertial navigation system that doesn’t rely on magnetic sensors. One of the primary target markets? ….UAS.

The week following the InterGeo show, Alan Cameron and I conducted a webinar as a follow-up. You can view the webinar recording by signing up here. It contains good information about the current status of UAS for commercial use in the United States. You can visit the FAA’s UAS webpage to read the latest information it has released. During the webinar, we conducted three audience polls. You might be interested in the results, so here they are.

Poll 1: Do you currently use a UAS for geospatial work?

Do you currently use a UAS for geospatial work? (54 votes)

Comment: I’m not surprised by this poll result, especially given the lack of regulations for commercial UAS operations that exist.

Poll 2: Do you anticipate using a UAS in your geospatial work in the future?

Do you anticipate using a UAS in your geospatial work in the future? (64 votes)

Comment: This poll result doesn’t surprise me either. There are a broad range of applications for UAS for geospatial users, from agriculture to accident reconstruction and remote inspection. Furthermore, if a geospatial user isn’t directly operating a UAS, he or she will eventually likely be using data that was generated from a UAS.

Poll 3: If you were to purchase a UAS for geospatial work, how much would you be willing to spend on a system?

If you were to purchase a UAS for geospatial work, how much would you be willing to spend on a system? (56 votes)

Comment: This poll result surprises me. It says a lot about the belief and confidence that geospatial users have in the geospatial value of UAS. In other words, about 40% of the audience is willing to spend more than $10,000 on a UAS. Clearly, this means those users see the value that UAS bring and believe they can keep one busy enough to make the capital investment.

Thanks, and see you next month.

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