Boeing, Qinetiq, the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) and the Wales-based Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) are to jointly explore the commercial provision of environmental monitoring services using UAVs.
The initiative is intended to help develop the commercial UAV marketplace in the UK and, according to Dr Sue Wolfe, technology and innovations manager for the WDA, to “drive the market, the business opportunity”.
The four partners plan to spend up to nine months defining a series of demonstration projects to be carried out over three years. UAV flights under the programme are expected to begin in the next 12-18 months.
Programme launch costs are forecast at £40,000 ($73,000) a year initially, but could reach up to £1 million a year depending on the scale of demonstration activities.
Payload technologies for the project will initially be drawn from airborne sensing and data processing systems developed by the IGER. Prof Howard Thomas, a member of the IGER team, says candidate approaches include using low-cost hyperspectral sensors in a “point-and-shoot” mode to map plant growth and disease patterns. Consideration is also being given to mapping plant gene flow within an environment by using IGER-developed “electronic nose” technologies to monitor pollen spread patterns.
Source: Flight International
