Geospatial firm Geographica was commissioned by the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water and the World Bank Group to develop the flood risk map of Sofia, the capital.
The mission involved mapping a large area over people in the city center and flying near Sofia International Airport with the eBee X fixed-wing drone and its S.O.D.A. 3D camera.
Geographica works with all types of drones but chose the eBee X for this project. The reasons were its ease of use, large area coverage, safety and flight permissions. Weighing less than 2 kg, the eBee X eases the authorizations for operations over people in urban areas in Europe and the U.S.
Results:
Interested in Geographica’s projects? Check out this webinar in which they shared another project they did in Sofia to estimate solar energy potential on rooftops and calculate the green areas of the city: https://ageagle.com/webinars/multi-drone-customer-stories/
*Please note that, due to the large scale of the project, the below dataset contains only a fraction of the entire data.
NGS Lab and Agro Solutions mapped 8,000 ha / 19,768 ac with multiple drones for a client looking to identify arable land and calculate its profit potential. Challenged by the scale, the team’s eBee X and eBee Ag captured in 3 days the same data that would have taken 45 days using traditional methods.
Project Details
The geospatial and agro consulting companies NGS Lab and Agro Solutions, collaborated on a mapping project for a private client who needed clear business intelligence for an 8,000 ha / 19,768 ac investment property in Georgia.
The client wanted to evaluate the land to determine what percentage of it was arable, what crops -almonds, corn or wheat- would be best suited for cultivation, and what options existed for irrigation planning and design.
The project’s scale made the team choose two fixed-wing drones that would be flown simultaneously. By deploying a multi-drone mission, the data was collected in 3 days with three operators in the field.
“We calculated that using a classical approach, it would take us 45 days, just over a month to collect enough information and sufficient data to move onto the second and third parts of the project, the agronomic selection of crops and estimates for the irrigation design” Irakli Chikava, Commercial Director, Agro Solutions Group.
“We calculated that using a classical approach, it would take us 45 days, just over a month to collect enough information and sufficient data to move onto the second and third parts of the project, the agronomic selection of crops and estimates for the irrigation design”
Similar to other large agricultural sites, the mission in Georgia also presented its share of challenges.
The first was the scale of collecting and processing 8,000 ha / 19,768 ac. Agro Solutions is no stranger to large mapping projects, however, it was their first time using drones. Thanks to NGS Lab, the company was introduced to the efficiency of fixed-wing UAS, and added an eBee X with a S.O.D.A. 3D camera and an eBee Ag with Duet M sensor.
The field operators consisted of three people vs. the eight they typically would send, and they collected 10,120 images using 65% overlap with an accuracy of 4 – 5 cm /1.57 – 1.9 in GSD.
Following, the team processed the data in PIX4Dmapper, which took 2 weeks to complete. “A lesson we learned with such a large dataset is that PIX4Dmapper needs a huge amount of computing power, which took more time; when we rendered it on PIX4Dmatic it took 3 days to process,” says Sandro Khutsishvili, Product Owner, NGS Lab.
The orthomosaics and DSM maps generated were critical to the property valuation and irrigation design.
In total, the project – mapping and processing – took 2 weeks thanks to using two drones simultaneously, compared to the 45 days that would have taken the team using traditional surveying methods.
Next was unpredictable weather. Conditions in the wide-open field were hot during the mission and the area did not have many trees for shade.
“The sun was scorching hot, and the multi-drone mission was really helpful because the field time would have been much longer otherwise,” adds Khutsishvili.
In addition, weather patterns, in general, were constantly changing on-site, but the team could easily shift their flight plans on the fly.
Lastly was multi-drone training. With Agro Solutions adding drones to their toolbox for the first time, its pilots needed to learn the new solution capabilities quickly. NGS Lab took the lead on flying both drones simultaneously while at the same time training Agro Solutions’ employees. The eBee X and eBee Ag are very easy to use. Hence, since this project, the company employs only eBee drones in all their missions.
When Agro solutions compared their ROI using the multi-drone mission to their traditional surveying methods they found several key savings.
“We reduced the workforce by at least 40%,” says Chikava. “Conventional methods would have required surveyors with GPS sticks to go out with agronomists and measure sites of interest across the entire 8,000 ha / 19,768 ha.”
Mission time was reduced by at least 55%. The team considered 30 – 45 days as the potential amount of time they would spend on the ground using traditional methods. Moreover, if the weather didn’t cooperate, the process could take months.
Less time spent in the field meant that Agro Solutions could ensure they would be able to deliver recommendations to their client ahead of schedule. Today, Agro Solutions uses eBee fixed-wing drones in all their missions, most of which are multi-drone.
“It definitely makes a lot of sense for consultant companies or engineering companies to use these drones to economize the time,” comments Chikava. “Any ag consultants should go and get this solution. At the end of the day, it’s very precise and delivers measurements and figures in the software that works in real life.”
For more information on the project, check the fly-through.
Do you want to watch the webinar with this customer story and three more? Click here.
SysCAD selected the eBee X drone equipped with the S.O.D.A. camera because of its regulatory advantages, which allowed it to:
Learn more about the challenges and the ROI of the project in this webinar.
The client wanted to determine the percentage of arable land, the most suitable crops for cultivation, and irrigation planning and design options.
The project’s size made the team choose two fixed-wing drones, eBee X and eBee Ag, that would be flown simultaneously. By deploying a multi-drone mission, the data was collected in just 3 days with three operators in the field.
Learn more about the challenges and the ROI of the project in this webinar and blog post.
In the 65 km2, there was a linear site, Al Khaznah, a major highway connecting Al Ain to the capital Abu Dhabi, requiring a massive corridor map of 50 km2 long and 500 m wide.
As the area was inaccessible, FEDS used six eBee X fixed-wing drones with the Corridor camera and the customized corridor mapping feature in eMotion flight planning software to quickly survey and map all eight flood-affected sites.
Thanks to the eBee X’s flight time and large coverage, the mission took 30% less time than a quadcopter and required 50% fewer flights and batteries.
The lightweight eBee X fixed-wing drone meets all the safety requirements of the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) and ensures safe flights over people in Lausanne, which counts a population of 137,810. Live air traffic of the nearby airport and heliport is monitored with the eBee X’s Ping USB accessory.
*Please note that, due to the large scale of the project, the dataset contains only one mapping.
The company’s survey team uses the large-area mapping drone to gather data quickly without interrupting operations while improving data quality and completely avoiding high-risk areas for increased safety.
Drone photogrammetry allows the mining company to increase its data volume, data quality and overall accuracy, all while removing surveyors from harm’s way.
The drone engineering consulting Jab Visual recently made a digital twin of 18,000 ha / 44,480 ac of the city with the eBee X drone and the S.O.D.A. 3D camera for the Municipality. After the post-processing with PIX4DMatic, they obtained high-accurate 3D models and orthomosaics of 97% of Medellín.
Main applications:
Update cadastral maps of the city, urban and rural classification, maps of hard-to-reach sites and monitoring construction sites.
*Please note that, due to the large scale of the project, the dataset contains only a fraction of the entire data.
In April 2021, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a rule allowing drone Operations Over People (OOP) and Moving Vehicles (OOMV). With the new rule, approved UAS don’t need a waiver to conduct these operations.
AgEagle’s eBee X series drones are the first and only UAVs to date approved by the FAA for OOP and OOMV in the United States under the new rule.
In this guide, AgEagle’s Head of Regulation, Pierre-Alain Marchand, explains the current U.S. regulations for flying over people and over moving vehicles.
The U.S. rule Operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Over People is divided into four categories that determine the eligibility and operational conditions under which it is permitted to fly certified drones over people and over moving vehicles:
Eligibility
Fly over people (OOP)
Fly over moving vehicles (OOMV)
Drone example
Currently, AgEagle’s eBee X series drones are the first and only approved sUAS by the FAA for Operations Over People (OOP) and Moving Vehicles (OOMV) in the United States. Moreover, they are Remote ID approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Other professional drones, such as Wingtra, Quantum-Systems, or the DJI M300 RTK drone are not eligible for OOP and OOMV until a change in their design is made (for example, adding a parachute).
Note, however, that adding a parachute increases the weight and hence decreases the flight time. Moreover, parachute mitigation can fail, while mitigation on drone design doesn’t.
Waivers are granted case-by-case for a specific drone, flight location, mission, and more unalterable parameters. If something in the mission changes, a new waiver is needed.
With the new rule, once the aircraft and its potential risk of injury are assessed according to an FAA-accepted method (MOC) and get the OOP approval, the complex waiver process is no longer necessary.
Getting a waiver is still technically possible. However, the number of approved waivers in the U.S. for OOP (107.39) was low in 2022 – only 19, mostly for delivery drones – and it’s expected to continue decreasing in 2023.
Waivers already issued and still in the process are valid. Nevertheless, the renewal procedure can be complex now that a new rule is in place and that the FAA has shown a clear preference for OOP certified drones.
Moreover, with a waiver, flights over people are generally limited to sparsely populated areas.
To be an OOMV and OOP approved drone, the aircraft must undergo thorough testing to demonstrate operational safety around people.
The only approved drones to fly over people in the U.S. are the eBee X series sUAS. The assessment was done by Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (VT MAAP), and it consisted of:
If you want more details about the testing regime, read VT MAAP’s article.
Pilots that would like to fly over people in the United States must have the following:
Drone pilots are responsible for checking outside conditions when planning a mission. The airspace is shared with other aircraft, and the ground has restricted zones, such as prisons or airports, which prohibit flyovers.
In eMotion, the flight planning software for eBee drones, U.S. geo-zones are integrated, making it easier to plan your mission.
For air traffic awareness, the eBee X Ping USB accessory is an ADS-B device that allows the operator to view live air traffic data directly within eMotion.
Purchasing a drone that matches your operational needs while bearing in mind U.S. drone regulation compliance can greatly simplify your operations. We strongly recommend that you check:
For more information about the U.S. or other drone regulations, contact us directly at regulatory@ageagle.com
OOP – Drone Operations Over People
OOMV – Drone Operations Over Moving Vehicles
BVLOS – Flights Beyond Visual Line of Sight
sUAS – Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Synonyms: UAS, UAV, drone.
FAA – Federal Aviation Administration of the United States. The agency regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country.
Remote ID – UAS remote identification. A drone with Remote ID built-in and approved by the FAA, like the eBee X, provides identification and location information during the flight. This electronic license plate ensures public safety and reduces security risks by notifying other aircraft of the UAV’s identity, position and altitude. All drone pilots are required to fly Remote ID-compliant drones from September 2023.
Waiver – Official document issued by the FAA which approves certain aircraft operations. You may request to fly specific drone operations not allowed under Part 107 or when the drone is not OOP certified by requesting an operational waiver.
Part 107 – The FAA Part 107 is the regulations for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in the U.S. In order to fly your drone under the sUAS Rule (Part 107), you must obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate from the FAA.
MOC – Means of Compliance. Testing method to prove operational drone safety around people. The FAA must approve the MOC. The method evaluation process includes drone failure mode and safety defect assessment, impact and laceration testing, and more.
DOC – Declaration of Compliance. Form submitted to the FAA page where the manufacturer declares that the drone complies with the MOC. Besides the form, the manufacturer must submit the testing report (received by the testing center) and the user manual for OOP. The DOC is necessary for final OOP drone approval.
Geo-zone – Information on the geographical zones that a drone can fly over. Generally excluded geo-zones are prisons, airports and other national security key points.
ADS-B – Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast technology. Live air traffic device.
DISCLAIMER
AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc provides this information for informational purposes only. The texts, graphics, images, and references don’t constitute legal advice. While we try to keep the information timely and accurate, we make no guarantees. AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. is not liable for the actions taken based on this document’s information.
