Course: Drones 3: Autonomous Surveys

Drones can be used to survey landscapes and capture high-resolution data informing conservation and site management practices. They provide an effective means of capturing highly detailed spatial data targeted at monitoring whole landscapes or specific areas of priority habitat. Autonomous surveys are used widely throughout the environmental and construction sector for producing highly complex and detailed digital maps of sites over time through a structure from motion analysis.

This presentation will cover the general theory and practice around autonomous drone flights, which are used to create orthorectified maps which are useful for deriving surface area and volumetric measurements of features throughout a landscape. We will cover the options available for individuals interested in Autonomous flights, which require the use of third-party drone analysis software for undertaking surveys. We will outline the most important factors which need to be considered when considering autonomous flights, including best practice, system limitations and associated costs.

This webinar will involve the use of third-party software DroneDeploy, an orthorectification software which converts drone images. This software is not required for this webinar, but analysis software is required to undertake autonomous flights.

We will also cover:

• Orthorectification – Structure from motion analysis explained.
• Autonomous flight settings, laws, regulations and best practise.
• Setting up an autonomous flight using third-party software (DroneDeploy)
• Autonomous flight limitations and issues impacting successful flights.

At the end of the session, learners should feel more confident incorporating automated drone surveys into their ecological projects and research.

The 90-minute event will consist of a 1-hour presentation followed by a Q&A with the tutor using questions provided by the live audience.

The presentations will be recorded and shared with those who booked alongside Q&A transcripts and relevant links following the event via a password-protected website.