1. The View from Above
Often, accurate, and low-cost map
making from UAVs
Brandon Basso
Skolkovo Robotics Conference
March 1, 2014

2.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
what can we
see from
the air?

3. 3D Robotics
o
170 Employees
•
•
•
Berkeley – Business, R&D
San Diego – Engineering
Tijuana – Manufacturing
o
Leading open universal autopilot
o
Ready to fly multirotors and fixed wing aircraft
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

4. The Community: DIY Drones
o
o
o
o
o
48,000 active users
2 million page views / month
8,000 blog posts
10,000 discussion threads
100,000 comments / year
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

5. 32 bit ARM M4
Redundant sensors
Plane, copter, rover, boat
Android, Windows, Mac, Linux
100% open source

6.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Agriculture &
Aerial Survey

8.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Mapping Workflow
Mission Definition
Aircraft Operation
Camera Operation
Data Handling
o user interface
o mission planning
o path planning
o takeoff/landing
o path (re)planning
o aircraft control
o camera settings
o camera triggering
o metadata recording
o
o
o
o
downlink
stitching
localization
post-processing

9. Long time-scale phenomena
Ryan Kunde, DRNK Wines
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

10. Short time-scale phenomena
Airphrame
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

11. NDVI Health
3DR, Merced, 2013
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

12. Post flight analysis
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

13.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Fly every hour
Auto takeoff, auto land
Complexity
1-3 hours endurance
Disposability
1 centimeter/pixel
Utility
1-5km2 area
<$1000

14.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Complexity
Tablets, not handsets

15. Disposability and the “cost spiral”
Disposable robots.
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

16. Utility
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Robot?
...or washing machine?

17.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Questions?
brandon@3dr.com
@3Drobotics

18. Extra
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

19.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Economic Potential
US Crop Loss:
$28 billion
Weeds 32%
Disease 39%
0.5X
x
Pest 29%
Sharma, Plant Pathology, 2006.

20. Disposability
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

21.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
How
Cost

22. Frequency
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Cost
Established
Practices
Yield
Plan
Plant
Grow
Harvest
Months
Hours/days
Months
Hours/Days
Closed-loop farming.

23. High Benefit, Low Barrier
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

24.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Ardupilot evolution
• Arduino
• Thermopile
• Arduino
• IMU
• Multicopter
• Single board
• Sensors
• Packaging
• ARM Cortex M4
• 32 bit

25.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

26.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Complexity
Tractors, not robots.

27.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Why Agriculture?

28. Arducopter: 2011-2014
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

29.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Landscape
Ryan Kunde, DRNK Wines

30.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Platforms
Plane
•
•
•
•
3kg airframe + payload + battery
Endurance: 30min – 3hrs
Coverage: 5km2
Operation
• Auto takeoff/land
• More susceptible to wind
Copter
•
•
•
•
2kg airframe + payload + battery
Endurance: 10min – 30min
Coverage: 1km2
Operation
• Auto takeoff/land
• More points of failure

31.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Plane v. Copter
Plane – 150m
5cm/pixel
Copter – 50m
<1cm/pixel

32.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Aerial mapping today
Frequency
Cost
Resolution
Frequency
Cost
Resolution
Frequency
Cost
Resolution

33.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
Fly every hour
Auto takeoff, auto land
5 pounds payload
1-3 hours endurance
1 centimeter/pixel

34. Data
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

35. GIS
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
3DR, San Diego, 2013

36. Digital Elevation Model
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

37. Point Cloud
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

38. 3D Reconstruction
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

39.  Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
False Color
3DR, Sonoma, 2013
GreenBlue = (G-B)/(G+B)

40. Advanced Features
o
o
o
o
Precise georeferencing
Real-time path planning
Multiple aircraft control
Vision-based event detection
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery

41. Summary
 Why Agriculture
 Three Messages
 Existing Solutions
 Aerial Imagery
The challenge and the opportunity.
x
0.5X