Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are a rapidly evolving technology with an expanding array of diverse applications. In response to the continuing evolution of this technology, this book discusses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and similar systems, platforms and sensors, as well as exploring some of their environmental applications. It explains how they can be used for mapping, monitoring, and modeling a wide variety of different environmental aspects, and at the same time addresses some of the current constraints placed on realizing the potential use of the technology such as s flight duration and distance, safety, and the invasion of privacy etc. Features of the book: Provides necessary theoretical foundations for pertinent subject matter areas Introduces the role and value of UAVs for geographical data acquisition, and the ways to acquire and process the data Provides a synthesis of ongoing research and a focus on the use of technology for small-scale image and spatial data acquisition in an environmental context Written by experts of the technology who bring together UAS tools and resources for the environmental specialist Unmanned Aerial Remote Sensing: UAS for Environmental Applications is an excellent resource for any practitioner utilizing remote sensing and other geospatial technologies for environmental applications, such as conservation, research, and planning. Students and academics in information science, environment and natural resources, geosciences, and geography, will likewise find this comprehensive book a useful and informative resource.

The concept of remote sensing as a way of capturing information from an object without making contact with it has, until recently, been exclusively focused on the use of Earth observation satellites. The emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) controlled navigation and sensor-carrying capabilities has increased the number of publications related to new remote sensing from much closer distances. Previous knowledge about the behavior of the Earth's surface under the incidence different wavelengths of energy has been successfully applied to a large amount of data recorded from UAVs, thereby increasing the special and temporal resolution of the products obtained. More specifically, the ability of UAVs to be positioned in the air at pre-programmed coordinate points; to track flight paths; and in any case, to record the coordinates of the sensor position at the time of the shot and at the pitch, yaw, and roll angles have opened an interesting field of applications for low-altitude aerial photogrammetry, known as UAV photogrammetry. In addition, photogrammetric data processing has been improved thanks to the combination of new algorithms, e.g., structure from motion (SfM), which solves the collinearity equations without the need for any control point, producing a cloud of points referenced to an arbitrary coordinate system and a full camera calibration, and the multi-view stereopsis (MVS) algorithm, which applies an expanding procedure of sparse set of matched keypoints in order to obtain a dense point cloud. The set of technical advances described above allows for geometric modeling of terrain surfaces with high accuracy, minimizing the need for topographic campaigns for georeferencing of such products. This Special Issue aims to compile some applications realized thanks to the synergies established between new remote sensing from close distances and UAV photogrammetry.

This book provides an overview of the basic concepts and components of UAVs, the various sensors used, architecture of autonomous UAVs, communication tools and devices to acquire real-time data from UAVs, the software needed to analyze the UAV data, required rules and regulations to fly UAVs, various application areas, and future areas of research which is needed to handle relevant challenges. FEATURES: Explores the utilization of UAVs in different application areas, such as construction, oil and gas, mining, agriculture, forestry, search and rescue, surveillance, transportation, disaster, logistics, health, journalism, and many more Covers the theory, hardware, and software components of UAVs Includes end of chapter review questions for better understanding of the subject matter.

First used in military applications, unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming an integral aspect of modern society and are expanding into the commercial, scientific, recreational, agricultural, and surveillance sectors. With the increasing use of these drones by government officials, business professionals, and civilians, more research is needed to understand their complexity both in design and function. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a critical source of academic knowledge on the design, construction, and maintenance of drones, as well as their applications across all aspects of society. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as intelligent systems, artificial intelligence, and situation awareness, this publication is an ideal reference source for military consultants, military personnel, business professionals, operation managers, surveillance companies, agriculturalists, policymakers, government officials, law enforcement, IT professionals, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students.

This book, consisting of 8 chapters, describes the state-of-the-art technological progress and applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in precision agriculture. It focuses on the UAV application in agriculture, such as crop disease detection, mid-season yield estimation, crop nutrient status, and high-throughput phenotyping. Different from individual papers focusing on a specific application, this book provides a holistic view for readers with a wide range of subjects. In addition to researchers in the areas of plant science, plant pathology, breeding, engineering, it is also intended for undergraduates and graduates who are interested in imaging processing, artificial intelligence in agriculture, precision agriculture, agricultural automation, and robotics.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "UAV or Drones for Remote Sensing Applications" that was published in Sensors

In the current chapter, we aim to present an overview of the advantages and limitations of UAV-RS platforms and their applications in PA. To properly review these applications, we formulated the following questions: What are the available UAV sensors for PA applications? How should one select the best UAV platform for different PA tasks? What needs to be considered in flight planning and in performing the necessary pre-processing to obtain high data quality? What are the main applications of UAV-RS in PA? Finally, we will discuss the future applications and challenges that lie ahead.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "UAV-Based Remote Sensing" that was published in Sensors

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are a rapidly evolving technology with an expanding array of diverse applications. In response to the continuing evolution of this technology, this book discusses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and similar systems, platforms and sensors, as well as exploring some of their environmental applications. It explains how they can be used for mapping, monitoring, and modeling a wide variety of different environmental aspects, and at the same time addresses some of the current constraints placed on realizing the potential use of the technology such as s flight duration and distance, safety, and the invasion of privacy etc. Features of the book: Provides necessary theoretical foundations for pertinent subject matter areas Introduces the role and value of UAVs for geographical data acquisition, and the ways to acquire and process the data Provides a synthesis of ongoing research and a focus on the use of technology for small-scale image and spatial data acquisition in an environmental context Written by experts of the technology who bring together UAS tools and resources for the environmental specialist Unmanned Aerial Remote Sensing: UAS for Environmental Applications is an excellent resource for any practitioner utilizing remote sensing and other geospatial technologies for environmental applications, such as conservation, research, and planning. Students and academics in information science, environment and natural resources, geosciences, and geography, will likewise find this comprehensive book a useful and informative resource.