3DR Solo and Sony QX1 used in Landfill Surveys Case Study

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On February 20, 2016 McKim & Creed and Garrett & Moore conducted a pilot study at Buffaloe Landfill, a land clearing and inert debris (LCID) landfill south of Raleigh, North Carolina, to explore the efficacy of employing unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology (a.k.a., drones) for landfill surveys.

The equipment used for the pilot study included a 3D Robotics Solo equipped with a Sony QX1 camera. The site was approximately 60 acres and consisted mostly of cleared, bare earth.

LiDAR Magazine: Exploring Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Effectiveness for Landfill Surveys | McKim & Creed
 
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Odd that in the picture showing the bird, it has a GoPro hanging from it. I would have liked to see the Sony attached.
 
On average, using UAS for landfill surveys proved to be approximately 10-20% cheaper than conventional ground survey, 30-40% cheaper than aerial photogrammetry, and 40-50% cheaper than LiDAR.

Reading the above, further confirms that UAS tech will displace many jobs in a variety of markets.
The business models are starting to reveal the cost saving potential for UAS usage. Wonder what full autonomous flight abilities will do to all the would be pilots investing in 333 bandwagon. I imagine two qualified people will manage a flock of UAS to perform a broader survey...in a shorter time frame.

Hope all these potentially displaced people are reading about the technology...

Thanks for the share @franknitty69
 
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On average, using UAS for landfill surveys proved to be approximately 10-20% cheaper than conventional ground survey, 30-40% cheaper than aerial photogrammetry, and 40-50% cheaper than LiDAR.

Reading the above, further confirms that UAS tech will displace many jobs in a variety of markets.
The business models are starting to reveal the cost saving potential for UAS usage. Wonder what full autonomous flight abilities will do to all the would be pilots investing in 333 bandwagon. I imagine two qualified people will manage a flock of UAS to perform a broader survey...in a shorter time frame.

Hope all these potentially displaced people are reading about the technology...

Thanks for the share @franknitty69

I don't know... Is the quality the same or better to the point of replacing the workforce?
 
I don't know... Is the quality the same or better to the point of replacing the workforce?
If not, It will be... It seems sci-fi to say, but the future is yearning for virtualization. Solo is actually an ideal product for that technology at the present. For $3000 you can have a RTF autonomous platform ready to map the world. Next closes thing is 20K. Just math and an easy path to the market.
 
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On average, using UAS for landfill surveys proved to be approximately 10-20% cheaper than conventional ground survey, 30-40% cheaper than aerial photogrammetry, and 40-50% cheaper than LiDAR.

Reading the above, further confirms that UAS tech will displace many jobs in a variety of markets.
The business models are starting to reveal the cost saving potential for UAS usage. Wonder what full autonomous flight abilities will do to all the would be pilots investing in 333 bandwagon. I imagine two qualified people will manage a flock of UAS to perform a broader survey...in a shorter time frame.

Hope all these potentially displaced people are reading about the technology...

Thanks for the share @franknitty69
I've done a survey for a company that needs to inventory their agate and sand (concrete company). They love it and I'm planned to do 6 of their sites this month.

It's good, easy money but I'm not building it into my long term business plan since after 107 comes out I expect them to get their own UAS and do it themselves. But for now it's a nice little income.
 
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Here's the thing; 333 or not, autonomous won't replace a lot of what a 333 operator can do. Autonomous can't fly at night, through clouds, w/5 miles, etc, etc. I'm sure that will change in an AC at some near point in time. However...for those in Canada, autonomous flight is currently not legal.:confused: so it won't make much difference. We're very close to autonomous charging, launching, mission, landing, and wifi data share...maybe we'll all be obsolete soon. ;)
 
Hello Everyone, I am working with a group in France, Escadrone.com , they are offering a solution with the Sony QX1 that offers mapping and live video feed in the SOLO app. We already have systems in place at the USGS and Bureau of Land Management. We will share feedback as it begins to come in from them. I will also attach one of our recent maps. Give me a shout if I can answer any questions.
 
Hello,
I own a solomapper from the french company escadrone. Pretty happy with it despite some random deconnections and an old servo gimbal. I now want to use my sony QX1 with my other solos, but I can't find a solution to have the video feed on the HDMI port inside my solo.

Escadrone developped a system with an external raspberry and wifi dongle that output an hdmi to the solo's port, but it's heavy an not practical with the standard carrying boxes for solo.

Any help for something simple?
Thank you,
Julien from corvus Monitoring
 
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