Unmanned Aerial Vehicles James England NDF, BSc(Hons)For, MicFor - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

South of Scotland Cluster Meeting Short Presentation about New technology in the Forest 12 th March 2014 James England

Structure Overview of the presentations • Introduction & background • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles James England NDF, BSc(Hons)For, MicFor • GIS & Mobile Mapping Technology • Treemetrics • Questions

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) James England

Overview • What are they? • Types • Quadcopters, hexacopters • Fixed wing airplane • Blimp • Uses?

• Very stable and with practice easy to fly!! • Capture 14 mega pixel still images & video • Live view through smartphone • GPS stabilised, compass and altimeter • Relatively low cost £800 • Lands itself if signal is lost or when battery is low • 25min flight time

B723 Sandyford near Eskdalemuir

B723 Sandyford near Eskdalemuir

Automatic Flight control.

• Hand launched • Aerial mapping 2-5cm • Digital elevation models <10cm • Topographical Surveys • Orthorectified • GIS integration.

Potential Applications: >>> Video • Forest Surveying • Site Planning • Disease Detection • Drain Inspection • Assessing Windblow Safely • Bridge Inspection • Forest Research • Tree Survey • Invasive Weed Management • Forestry Education • Forest Fire Management

Mobile Mapping GPS

Mobile Mapping Devices • What do they do? • Rugged, waterproof • GPS, compass, altimeter • With the right software can plot points, lines and polygons/areas. Applications in Forestry

Treemetrics - 3D Laser Scanning

Treemetrics • 3D laser scanning from ground and air • Automatically map and analyse the crop. • Effectively 3D Forest Measurement. • Accurately measure height, straightness, taper and volume. • Fewer trees cut to maximise value. Purpose is to get the maximum value from every tree…. http://youtu.be/QBQN-CKefj4

Treemetrics 3D scanner - it helps foresters determine width, height and volume of trees, as well as wood quality

3D Scan showing tree variability . • Some are more suited to be used to make pulp, while others are better suited as sawlogs • Such trees are greater in diameter, straighter and have fewer knots. Cutting down valuable sawlog trees for producing pulp is a waste and reduces the crop’s worth. The system helps to address this……

Decision Making Tools • Can analyse DBH, height, LIDAR 3D Stem profiles and actual harvester head generated stem data. • Input log prices. • Cutting simulations can be investigated. Management plans Harvesting Plans Sales Planning Business Analysis

Real Time Harvest Monitoring • Communicating directly with harvester machine • Real time information can be shared from remote locations • Can pin point each tree • Forest Manager can watch current harvest log production.