DroneCamp2019 was a blast!

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DroneCamp2019 has wrapped, and it was a lot of fun. We held DroneCamp2019 (the 3rd annual event) in Monterey in collaboration between us (IGIS) and Monterey DART. As usual, DroneCamp was a multi-day affair with one day focused on the technology, regulations and research, one day focused on the drone data workflow, and one day focusing on flying skills: takeoffs and landings, automated flying, and watching eBee barrel rolls. We held the meeting sessions at CSUMB and flew out at the gorgeous UCSC NRS Fort Ord Reserve. Lots of fun. Here are some pics (flight pics are more fun than classroom photos I guess!).

Clockwise from left: the group; Fort Ord Reserve; Fort Ord Reserve; the lovely matrice; data workshop.

Clockwise from left: the group; Fort Ord Reserve; Fort Ord Reserve; the lovely matrice; data workshop.

Flight practice at fort ord reserve. Plus some wildflowers.

Flight practice at fort ord reserve. Plus some wildflowers.

campers posing with uavs.

campers posing with uavs.


Mapping post-fire landscapes at Hopland Research & Extension Center

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The River Fire began July 27, 2018 at 1pm on Old River Road in Hopland. By the evening it had spread, and was threatening numerous buildings in the area. We have a ANR Research and Extension Center (HREC) there, and Shane Feirer from IGIS lives and works here. Evacuations were ordered quickly, and down in the bay area we all held our breath hoping the fire wouldn’t harm people or animals or consume the HREC buildings. By the time it was contained (as part of the Mendocino Complex), it had burned 48,920 acres. We’ve been flying drones over HREC for awhile, and the last month we did more drone flights to map the post-fire landscape. We flew some Hangar 360 flights with a DJI Phantom to get some sweet overviews of the scene (example1, example2, example3), and flew much of the area with our eBee on the first mission and Matrices on the second mission with both multispectral and RGB cameras.

These pics below compare the eBee imagery (2cm) with Planet imagery (3m).

These are pics of the eBee (far left) and the Matrice (far right) getting ready to fly into the blackened landscape, and some snaps from the Hanger pics.