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.

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