UAVs & Sensors

UAVs

WISPR Ranger Pro 1100
WISPR is a UAS manufacturer based out of Batesville, MS and founded by Mississippi State University alumni. Their first UAS model, the Ranger Pro, is a medium-duty quadcopter with a maximum flight time of up to 30 minutes. With a payload capacity of 3 kg, it can carry most commercial sensors. At GRI it can host a LiDAR payload, the hyperspectral sensor, any multispectral sensors, or the bathymetric SONAR.

Skyfish M4
Skyfish is a Montana based UAS manufacturer. The M4 is a medium-sized multi-rotor capable of a flight time of approximately 25 minutes with a common payload attached. It currently hosts a 61-megapixel Sony A7RIV RGB camera with a 40 mm lens and a Micasense Rededge P multispectral camera mounted on the same gimbal for near co-aligned mapping.

Inspired Flight IF800 Tomcat
The IF800 Tomcat is a medium-lift UAS manufactured by Inspired Flight in San Luis Obispo, California. With up to a 40-minute flight time and a max payload of 3 kg, the Tomcat can tackle most missions. It has a proprietary Smart Dovetail mounting system to allow a multitude of sensor integrations and the ability to quickly swap between mission sets. It is a DIU Blue approved UAS which are commonly required for federally funded projects.

Wingtra One Gen II
The Wingtra One is a vertical take-off and landing UAS that combines the mobility of a multi-rotor and the extended coverage of a fixed wing. With a maximum coverage of more than 1000 acres in a single flight and a variety of Wingtra supplied payloads this UAS is a huge asset for large area mapping. Wingtra offers multiple payloads including nadir and oblique RGB sensors, LiDAR, and a Micasense Rededge P. Currently, GRI has a Micasense Rededge P payload to facilitate multispectral imaging.

Sensors

Micasense Rededge P
The Rededge P is a 5-band radiometric 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. It also contains a panchromatic band used for pansharpening the radiometric bands. At 120m and 60m altitude the Ground Sampling Distance will be 8cm and 4cm respectively without pansharpening and 4cm and 2cm with pansharpening.

Micasense Rededge P Dual Kit
The Dual P contains both the Rededge P “Red” camera and contains the Rededge P “Blue” camera. The Blue sensor has radiometric bands at Blue 444 (430nm – 458nm), Green 531 (524nm – 538nm), Red 650 (642nm – 658nm), Rededge 705 (700nm – 710nm), and Near-Infrared 740 (731nm – 749nm). Both the Red and Blue sensors combined cover Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 satellite bands.

SPH Engineering Bathy Kit
SPH Engineering is a Latvian company that produces many UAS payloads. GRI has the Dual Bathy Kit which has two frequencies (200kHz/40kHz) for shallow and deep-water bathymetry mapping. The bathy kit has a transducer hanging on a tether beneath the UAS and captures the bottom of the water body in orthometric elevations and depth. This sensor is well suited for Mississippi’s water ways where optical sensors like LiDAR may not be able to penetrate the turbidity.

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.