Author Archive: Felix.Weber

Part 1: Introduction to Vegetation Indices and Pix4D

By Jacob Nederend

MSc Candidate, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

What is a vegetation index and why can’t I just use NDVI?

In the previous post, I provided a general overview of how to obtain high quality orthomosaics from your eBee’s raw imagery. For agricultural UAV mapping, the last step in that workflow is obtaining reflectance maps from which vegetation indices (VIs) can be calculated. There are numerous resources available online that explain how VIs exploit patterns in the reflectance of visible and near-infrared light, however, a brief definition is the mathematical transformation of at least two spectral bands to enhance the definition of vegetative cover. All of the multispectral sensors currently used for UAV mapping are broadband, with the exception of very expensive and specialized hyperspectral sensors that measure hundreds of narrow bands (<5nm). Since most VIs were developed from broadband [...]

Toronto-based Deveron UAS Corp., an enterprise drone data services company focused on agriculture, has commenced flying for this year’s farming season in Canada.

Deveron says it is focused on revenue-generating and research-driven drone data collection for the growing season in western and eastern Canada as it continues to build an on-demand, enterprise data collection network using drones.

Unmanned aerial vehicle technology has advanced to the point that an RTK-equipped drone with elevation accuracy of plus or minus five centimetres can find the best route for water across a field.

Airware, which provides end-to-end solutions that turn aerial data into actionable business intelligence for enterprises, has signed a global distribution agreement with senseFly, the world’s leading producer of fixed-wing mapping drones, to bring the survey-grade eBee Plus to its enterprise customers.

 

[fp-button type=’link’ link=’https://www.suasnews.com/2017/04/airware-sensefly-sign-global-partnership-agreement-bring-survey-grade-aerial-mapping-enterprise/’]Learn More[/fp-button]

Step 1: Initial Processing

Pix4DMapper makes it simple to process your UAV imagery into high-quality orthomosaics and vegetative index maps. For the first-time user, the learning curve is often steeper than expected, and the variety of processing options might lead to extensive trial-and-error before the outputs are deemed acceptable. How do you judge a successful processing job? That will depend on the goals of every flight, from multispectral mapping to visual colour surveying, however, there are four priorities you should keep in mind:

The WINTEX 1000s is an innovative soil sampler which works quickly and effectively in all kinds of soil. It has a hydraulic hammer which, together with pressure from the hydraulic cylinder, ensures that the probe goes into the ground, down to the desired depth. The pressure from the cylinder can be adjusted according to the type of soil, and the depth can be adjusted according to the user’s needs.

 

 

Ag Business & Crop offers a 4 day training program that is structured to give you the tools and information needed to operate a small UAV/UAS.

In addition to 20 MP resolution and 1 inch sensor both cameras can output images in both JPEG and RAW (CR2/TIFF) image format. For most applications, JPEG format is sufficient, but for those demanding applications the raw image format ensures you receive sharper reflectance maps, and a wider dynamic range.

senseFly collected the images from both the Sony WX camera that comes standard with the eBee and the new Canon G9X.