Monitoring vegetation with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) are an exciting new tool for gathering high resolution spatial data. Low cost UAV’s based on cheap, readily available remote controlled aircraft are becoming increasingly popular with the improvement of available sensors and GPS units. This project aims to investigate the feasibility of combining data collected from a variety of sensors (visible, near infrared and thermal infrared cameras, along with a miniature Light Detection and Ranging [LiDAR] unit) to create high resolution spatial datasets of vegetation communities and agricultural crops. Current methods of gathering spatial data for vegetation communities include satellites and aerial photography. These methods have relatively low spatial and temporal resolutions and thus detection of subtle but important changes in vegetation structure can be difficult. On demand, high resolution mapping with UAVs has the potential to assist with management and sustainability of natural vegetation communities and high value crops. In this presentation, 1) initial system development and field testing data will be displayed; 2) a proof of concept and LiDAR prototype will be explained and 3) case studies and future developments will be discussed