Drones fly themselves under canopy
DRONES ARE RARELY FLOWN UNDER THE FOREST CANOPY, for obvious reasons – it’s an obstacle course filled with trees that can destroy a UAV. Until now.
Auckland University is currently researching technology that can be incorporated into a drone to allow under-canopy flight, while an Australian company has already developed an add-on device that navigates the drone through a forest and takes LiDAR images at the same time.
The university work is still some way from being commercialised, but the Aussie Hovermap has been on sale for the past year and was demonstrated at the ForestTECH 2019 conference in Rotorua last month.
The Hovermap was developed by Melbourne-based company, Emesent, which was spun out of the CSIRO research organisation. It’s a device that weighs just 1.8kg and clips underneath a suitably sized drone to enable it to automatically fly around a forest, about two metres off the ground, without hitting anything while it collects data from its surroundings.
Currently undertaken manually, LiDAR readings from the ground are essential in helping forest managers to map out what’s underneath the canopy, since aerial mapping mostly picks up the tree tops and upper foliage. Both sets of information can be combined, using special software to provide an overall 3D picture of the complete forest and ground for future harvest planning. Emesent CEO, Stefan Hrabar, says the Hovermap uses the LiDAR signals to “create a virtual bubble” around the drone to ensure it can effectively fly around trees and other obstacles without human input – the bubble is increased to provide a wider safety zone, or decreased where the under-canopy is crowded.
Mr Hrabar says the Hovermap was originally developed for use in mines and areas where GPS reception is poor or non-existent, but its value to forestry was also recognised and it is now being offered to customers in New Zealand on either an outright purchase or monthly subscription basis.