University of Wyoming hosting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle symposium
Recent developments in drone usage along with technology challenges, acquiring data and legal issues are among topics at the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Symposium at the University of Wyoming.
Sessions are May 30 to 31, at the University of Wyoming Convention Center in the Hilton Garden Inn.
Experts and users of drone technology will share experiences on developments in hardware and software along with applications in agriculture, geology, photogrammetry, communications and many more, said Ramesh Sivanpillai, research scientist in the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center on campus.
WyGISC is hosting the event. Visit http://bit.ly/2018drones for a complete list of speakers, topics and to register.
Cameras and sensors onboard drones acquire images and videos providing valuable information for agricultural producers, foresters, hydrologists, geologists, meteorologists, city planners, real estate agents and others.
But collecting images is more than deciding what drone model to buy and how much to spend, he said.
“One has to carefully plan for the amount and type of images to collect, obtain adequate resources to post-process those data, and most importantly, stay within the legal requirements while these UAVs are in the air,” said Sivanpillai.
Overall session topics across the two days are safety and legal issues; advances in hardware and software; applications; and a panel discussion of the FAA remote pilot certification examination.
Javier Leon, senior lecturer and physical geography program coordinator at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, is presenting the luncheon keynote address Wednesday, “Drones in Environmental Sciences: A Quick Tour of Promises, Lies and Future Applications.”
Jeff Sloan, a cartographer with the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center with the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado, will present the Thursday morning keynote address, “Role of UAVs for Collecting Remotely Sensed Data.”
Gregory Crutsinger, founder of Scholar Farms in California, is presenting Thursday’s lunch keynote address, “Current and Future Challenges of Vegetation Mapping using Drones.”
Individual presentation topics include building custom drones for crop dusting and monitoring thermal plumes; legal issues; recent advances in hardware, flight controller software, and using Artificial Intelligence for autonomous UAVs; how UAVs are changing farming; photogrammetry applications with drone imagery; and comparing unmanned aircraft vs. satellite imagery in plant invasion monitoring.
Contact WyGISC interim director Paddington Hodza at 307-766-3709 or [email protected], or Sivanpillai at [email protected] or 307-766-2721 for more information.
