UAVs & Sensors

UAVs

DJI Inspire
The DJI Inspire is a smaller to medium capacity multi-rotor UAV with a maximum payload of 0.8kg. It has a normal flight time of a little over 20 minutes with a typical payload. The Inspires comes with a quick attach mounting system allowing for rapid transfer of different sensors including the DJI RGB cameras and the Micasense Rededge MX and Altum.

DJI Matrice 600 Pro
The M600 Pro is a tried-and-true heavy lift platform. With a max payload capacity of roughly 5 kg, it can handle any of GRIs sensors. It has a typical flight time of 15-18 minutes and hosts our Headwall Nano-Hyperspec and our Trueview 410 LiDAR sensors.

DJI Matrice 300
The M300 is a new medium to heavy lift UAV that has a max capacity of 2.5 kg with an associated flight time of over 30 minutes. It also has the quick attach mount to be able to host any of the sensors from the Inspire but with a longer flight time which allows for larger tracts to be flown in a single flight.

DJI Phantom 4 Multispec
The Phantom 4 Multispec is an inbuilt sensor with similar spectral bands to the Micasense Rededge MX. It is mounted on a gimbal allowing for nadir or off-nadir data collection and a normal flight time of about 25 minutes. It is well suited to Precision Agriculture research.

Sensors

Micasense Rededge MX
The Rededge MX is a 5-band multispectral sensor used for crop health and precision agriculture needs. It collects Blue (459nm – 491nm), Green (546nm – 573nm), Red (660nm – 676nm), Rededge (711nm – 723nm), and Near-Infrared (814nm – 871nm) bands. At 120m and 60m altitude the Ground Sampling Distance will be 8cm and 4cm respectively.

Micasense Altum
The Altum is a 6-band multispectral sensor with similar characteristics as the Rededge MX, but it incorporates a Thermal Infrared band as well to measure emissivity. It has the same spectral properties in the visible and Near-IR region, but the Thermal band is from 8000nm to 14000nm. The Altum has a little better spatial resolution with a 5.4cm GSD from 120m altitude. The thermal GSD is roughly 80cm from the same altitude.

Headwall Nano-Hyperspec
The Nano-Hyperspec is a hyperspectral sensor that captures 272 bands from 400nm to 1000nm leading to each band being roughly 2.2 nm wide. It is a push-broom sensor with a GSD of about 7cm from an altitude of 45m. The discrete bands allow various species differentiation and a multitude of vegetation indices.

Trueview 410
The TV410 is a LiDAR with photogrammetric cameras oriented to be able to colorize the resulting pointcloud. This allows for a fully colored data set to create 3D models various landscapes. It has a vertical accuracy of 5cm rmse without any checkpoints. It captures 3 returns which aid in the point cloud classification process and is ideal for topographic mapping and anything dealing with accurate X, Y, and Z locations.

Trueview 515
The TV515 has all the same benefits as the TV410 but can be flown from a higher altitude which results in a larger coverage area per flight. Its laser scanner is better at picking up darkly colored and smaller surfaces. The TV515 also has a better vegetation penetration which allows for accurate vertical mapping in heavily forested areas where the TV410 might not get as many returns through the canopy.