Inside Unmanned Systems

APR-MAY 2016

Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.

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71 unmanned systems inside April/May 2016 ENGINEERING. PRACTICE. POLICY. "This involves attendance at a ground school, familiarization with an operations manual, much f lying practice and a f light exam." Future Trends Rauxloh said future drones will feature im- provements in battery and motor technologies, extending f light duration. He also anticipates increasing automation. "The BNUC-S pilot certification already has a class of f light exam standards suitable for SUAs (small unmanned aircraft) that follow a preplanned route imme- diately from launch, and that will recover and land themselves autonomously too." There will also be more advanced imaging technologies available for small drones. Back at the Welsh hillfort, Lock said the ability to generate 3D models and digital terrain models (DTMs) from vertical aerial photos was already extremely valuable, but his group is now hop- ing to undertake a more advanced survey using drone-mounted LiDAR, targeting an Iron-Age hillfort known as Badbury Camp. Any number of sensor system types can the- oretically be mounted on a drone for archaeo- logical purposes, depending on weight and size. Dennis Menick, sales and marketing director at Switzerland's SwissDrones, said tests have been carried out using the SIR3000 3D ground pen- etrating radar system made by Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc., a traditionally ground- based measuring device, in combination with a vertical take-off and landing UAV. Mounting a handheld device such as the SIR3000 onto a drone implies several things: human physical effort is reduced during the actual survey; operators don't have to move the device across the ground themselves; ir-

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