This document discusses using drones equipped with 3D mapping capabilities and sensors for specialized surveying applications. Hovering multirotor drones can precisely map 3D volumes and features like cliffsides or forest structures by flying slowly at user-defined speeds. Real-time 3D mapping is enabled through simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques combined with new lightweight sensors. Alternative sensors discussed include acoustic mapping, air sampling of gases and microorganisms, radiation sampling, and deploying observation towers through drone-mounted structures.

1. 3D Drone Surveying
Todd Stellanova
todd@droneflow.com
Droneflow

2. Current Drone Surveys
• You see a lot of fixed wings
(planes) covering farms and
forests
• Flying relatively high and fast
(planes have a high minimum
stall speed)
• Great for covering lots of area
because they move so fast
• Basically 2D with some ability
to extract 3D information

5. The Problem
• What if you need to cover a smaller volume in much
greater detail?
• What if you want to use special sensors that require
slower flight?
• What if you need to map 3D features such as cliff
sides, caves, lava tubes, sinkholes, forest canopy
structures?
• What if you want to monitor the same spot over and
over at altitude?

6. Hovering VTOL Drones
• Copters / multirotors
• Able to cover 3D volumes with
precise flight control
• Able to move at a speed you
dictate— no minimum stall
speed
• Many sizes/payloads

7. 3D Mapping
Precise 3D flight control
+ S.L.A.M.
+ New lightweight sensors
= Real-time 3D mapping

8. SLAM:
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
• Real-time mapping of
the drone’s
environment
• Can be used for
collision avoidance
without a priori
knowledge of the
environment
• Indoors: Visible+IR
(Kinect), Outdoors:
Sonar, Lidar, SFM

9. Google self-driving car uses SLAM with LIDAR and CV

10. Alternative Sensors
Take advantage of flying low and slow

11. Acoustic Mapping
• Flying low and slow
means you can
record & map sounds
• Copter acoustic
signature is fairly
consistent (~4kHz),
easy to filter out
• Recurring population
surveys

12. Air Sampling
• Samples of air from
specific altitudes with
timestamps, temp,
pressure, humidity…
• Gases (e.g. SOx, NOx)
• Microorganisms
• Realtime analysis or
sample and analyze later

13. Radiation Sampling
• Fly compact geiger counters over
dynamically changing landscapes
• Monitor EMF signatures at the same time

14. Virtual
Observation
Tower
Deploy a variable-height
observation platform
wherever you need it

15. A Tower Where You Need
It
• Dronehaus monitoring stations could be deployed anywhere

16. Droneflow
Q&A
todd@droneflow.com