“Drones are those flying cameras that can take fantastic holiday pictures, right?" Absolutely, but drones can do so much more. In the book Drone Professional 2, Maayke Leenstra, a Geospatial Data Consultant at TAUW, explains how we can use drones to create sustainable, future-proof living environments.
In Drone Professional 2, 21 drone experts from around the world share their vision on the future of drone technology and offer surprising insights on the use of drones for commercial purposes. The book is not only highly relevant for professionals in the drone industry, but also worth reading by those whose work does not involve the use of drones. Judging by the successful launch of the book, the drone industry is a hot topic nowadays. After being published (in early February 2021), the book ranked among the top three best-selling books in the Commercial Aviation category within no time.
As a Geospatial Data Consultant at TAUW, Maayke works with various types of geodata (location-bound data) originating from a variety of sources and used for diverse applications, on a daily basis. In this book, she provides a glimpse into the ways in which drones can contribute to shaping a vital living environment.
Maayke: “Nowadays, we can use high-end drones to collect millions of accurate measurement points (point cloud), enabling us to map a project site with extreme precision in 3D. A point cloud lets us generate, for instance, a Digital Terrain Model, that we can subsequently use for hydrological analyses (to clarify the cohesion within and between water systems) as part of efforts to make a location more climate-proof. And for our industrial clients, a 3D replica of a physical project location (i.e. a digital twin) helps with important aspects as safety and efficiency. Consequently, digital twins are used increasingly for training purposes, sightline analyses and comprehensive data and information management, among other objectives.”
Apart from concrete examples of applications, Maayke also mentions the relationship with other relevant technologies as Augmented and Virtual Reality, satellites and airborne LiDAR within the book.
In the previous edition, Drone Professional 1, Jasper Schmeits, Innovation Manager at TAUW, talked about how drones must compete with other measuring techniques, such as satellites and increasingly sophisticated smartphones. Maayke also devotes attention to this in her contribution. In Drone Professional 2, she talks about the technological acceleration to which drones have been subjected in recent years:
“In terms of hardware, they are increasingly better equipped and also more compact, while in terms of software, there have been quantum leaps in the simplification of data processing. But I also see comparable accelerations occurring within other technologies, so competing technologies will most likely be preferred for some applications in the future. Incidentally, this is less relevant for TAUW since the technology is subordinate to the intended result!”
The printed version and e-book of Drone Professional 2 are available via Amazon.
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