#12 The Drone Boom

No-one knows how many penguins are in the Antarctic, but thanks to the use of drones this is set to change as scientists are using these unmanned aerial vehicles to fly over colonies of chinstrap, adelie and gentoos. And that is not all. Academics at the University of East Anglia are developing artificial intelligence that can count the birds massively cutting down the processing time required to determine the numbers. Such techniques have applications in the built environment too. Drones that can use AI to report cracks on buildings for example could transform surveying methods. Just a decade ago unmanned aerial vehicles were the prevail of the military surveillance teams undertaking reconnaissance missions but today they can be found in engineering, agriculture, scientific research and other industries. With growth forecast for construction alone of $11bn in new drone related jobs worldwide by 2020 we examine how organisations such as Highways England, Northumbrian Water, Skanska and of course the British Antarctic Survey, investigate the pros and cons of implementing drone technology on their networks and in their research. GUESTS Norman Ratcliffe, British Antarctic Survey Dave Cummins, IRIS Group Aero Nicky Mather, Northumbrian Water Oliver Viney, Atlantic Geomatics and The Survey Association Grahame Grover, UAVE Limited SUPPORTERS Pix4D Topcon The post #12 The Drone Boom first appeared on Engineering Matters.