Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
I am an FAA certified commercial drone pilot. Here in the Center for Geospatial Sciences, we use a state-of-the-art unmanned aerial system for fieldwork in California and beyond.
The WingtraOne (Gen II) is a fixed-wing platform with a span of 125 cm that weighs approximately 3.7 kg with a radio link range of 10 km and an onboard 42 megapixel camera. The Wingtra maintains a cruising speed between 16 meters per second (i.e., 35ish mph).
In ideal flight conditions, the Wingtra has a maximum flight time of approximately 55 minutes and can cover about 24 square kilometers in a single flight. However, in warm environments like SoCal, both the flight time and maximum area covered are reduced to about 45 minutes and 9.5 square kilometers. The Wingtra is capable of acquiring oblique imagery between 0 and 50 degree inclination, while achieving a ground sampling distance of less than 1 cm per pixel.
Calculated solar potential for homes and their roofs in a Phoenix, Arizona neighborhood. Red = high; Blue = low; Yellow = ok. Our imagery and associated modeling approach is so high-quality, if you look closely, you can see where existing solar installations are located, the presence of trees (and shade) on the houses, air-conditioning units, etc.
UAV derived, georeferenced point cloud of a neighborhood in Lewisville, Texas. The parent file for this image contains 88,676,584 points with an average density of 575 per cubic meter (medium resolution).