UAV poll results and business applications

One-third of GPS World readers who responded to the latest poll think air traffic control and the FAA regulatory environment constitute the biggest challenges facing the UAV industry today. Other answers receiving top votes, from 10 to 27 percent of the total, included

• Better, smaller, more lightweight sensors: inertial, Lidar, infrared, spectral, etc. (16 percent)
• Integration of other sensors with GPS/GNSS. (10 percent)
• Competition from satellite and aircraft imagery/mapping. (9.8 percent)

“Other” answers, summing 28 percent altogether, included:

• Battery technology and flight times
• Battery capacity
• Control from normal Android phone
• GNSS disruption
• Definition of sensor performance specifications for navigation, in particular GNSS & SBAS MOPS-like standardisation.
• Something simple that will make it visible on primary radar
• Longer flight time

To learn more about overcoming such challenges, tune into the free April 20 webinar, “From Flying Drones to Doing Business,” addressing ease of use for the user in business applications.  The webinar will cover a broad range of issues concerning sensor integration aboard a flying platform, and in particular their use for commercial purposes. Webinar attendees will have the opportunity to ask direct questions of the speakers, both upon registration and during the live event. Register free at www.gpsworld.com/webinar.

Speakers

• Gustavo Lopez, product manager GNSS solutions for UAV applications, Septentrio
• Jan Leyssens
, managing director, Sales and Business Development, Airobot
• Francois Gervaix, product manager – Surveying, senseFly SA
• Zak Kassas, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Riverside