The European corn borer

The European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) is a lepidopteran species of the Crambidae family.

Caterpillars of this species are known to attack maize crops, of which they are the main pest, as well as other crops such as sunflower, hops, hemp, chrysanthemums, potatoes, etc.

1 larva/plant = 5.5 q/ha loss

 It can cause 7 to 30% loss and impact quality through the development of mycotoxin-producing fungi.

Treatment by trichogramma

The trichogramma is a tiny parasitoid insect of the order Hymenoptera, which naturally controls the moth by destroying its eggs.

Female trichograms lay eggs in codling moth eggs and their larvae develop inside by killing their host. The technique therefore consists in hanging capsules releasing large quantities of adult trichograms to “nip in the bud” the next generation of the pest. 

UAV drop: a solution developed by AltiGator and Agenium Drone Solution

UAV dropping replaces conventional anti-borer treatments such as leaf diffusers or trichogramma capsules dropped by Ulm or helicopter, or manually attached to corn husks.

In addition to the speed of implementation and the economic gain compared to manual treatment or by manned aircraft, the UAV allows a precise release of the capsules with a flow rate of 70 to 100 ha per UAV per day.

1 ha is being treated in 3 to 5 minutes.

The solution, consisting of AltiGator’s OnyxStar FOX multirotor UAV and the integrated dispenser, guarantees rapid and homogeneous release and distribution of the capsules, ensuring the effectiveness of the trichogram.

The Agriload platform

The AGRILOAD service platform offers a complete service that includes all the steps necessary for the successful completion of the missions of releasing trichogramma capsules: from receiving the capsules to storing them at the right temperature, including the organization of each operator’s roadmap to the proper execution report of the operation.

The mission plans previously established by the application allow each operator to release trichogramma capsules in a homogeneous and regular way.

In 2017, more than 400 plots were treated, representing more than 2000 ha throughout France. 

In the 2018 season, more than 5000 ha were treated with several agricultural cooperatives. 

Agenium and AltiGator are also working together to develop other solutions for treating agricultural surfaces, such as the granulator integrator – particularly for semi-covered areas – or the spraying of vineyards.

La publication Organic agriculture: The treatment of European corn borer by dropping trichograms by drones est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

Flight navigation systems are essential in a world where the global air traffic growths continuously. These systems enable Air navigation service providers to ensure that aircraft can reach their destination in due time safely, despite the permanent density increase.

Indeed, Air Traffic Management (ATM) companies strongly rely on advanced, unfailing and efficient navigation aid equipment in order to accomplish their mission in the best conditions.

Among the numerous requirements from ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), Flight navigation systems must be regularly calibrated, inspected and maintained to ensure that all essential navigation aids for pilots are always working properly. This means that these systems must be tuned to radiate the correct signals in the airspace, at any time.

To achieve this, a combination of ground and air inspections are necessary, like the localizer measurements for ILS CAT III (Instrument Landing System).

ILS is an essential navigation aid to help pilots land their aircraft in low visibility conditions during IFR flights (Instrument Flight Rules). In order to maintain the ICAO ILS certification, dynamic measurements need to be performed by the airport operators, their subcontracted flight inspection organizations or government agencies. These companies are always looking to improve these processes.

The regular ILS (Instrument Landing System) calibration control is made in flight, using a manned aircraft. It requires preparation together with ground measurements in order to optimize the manned flight intervention.

Both of the above operations have their limitations: the manned aircraft is costly, noisy and environment unfriendly while the ground one is limited in terms of reachable distance and height.

The ground ILS (Instrument Landing System) calibration operations are indeed restrained to the runway threshold, since they are performed using masts that generally don’t go higher than around 25 meters, from the ground.

This is where the solution developed in a partnership involving AltiGator and skyguide intervenes. Thanks to its lifting power, efficiency and reliability, the CNS drone performs inspections in the far field. Elevation profiles and mini approaches are conducted by the ILS inspection UAV in order to analyze the ILS signal (course alignment, slope angle, alarms, displacement sensitivity, etc.) and complete the ground and manned flight measurements.

The development of the ILS-check UAV solution involving an OnyxStar® ATLAS drone, started in 2015 and is operational since January 2018. The ILS check drone is currently used by skyguide in Geneva (GVA – LSGG) and Zurich (ZRH – LSZH) airports.

The ATLAS drone allows to improve the ILS inspection operations by dramatically reducing the manned aircraft flight check frequency and thus decreasing the overall operational cost for airport operators. Among the numerous advantages brought by these ILS flight inspections performed by the CNS drone are:

• Extension of ILS ground measurements
• Excellent repeatability
• Cost & time saving
• Reducing operational disturbances
• Reducing CO? and noise emissions

This major step in ILS maintenance domain for preventive and corrective maintenance is only a beginning. Thanks to the CNS drone, skyguide and AltiGator are going further in developing the next generation ATM systems. In addition to ILS flight checks, new horizon also arise for other systems like VOR, DF, PAPI, radars, etc. from this successful partnership.

Contact us to discover more about this ILS/UAV calibrating solution.

About skyguide

Skyguide, the Swiss Air Navigation Service Provider, manages and monitors Switzerland’s airspace on behalf of the Swiss Confederation. This includes ensuring the daily safe, fluid and cost-effective management of air traffic. It is therefore essential to find the optimum balance between safety, capacity, cost and sustainability of equipment and work process for the benefits of skyguide’s customers. Innovation is the key to reach this optimum balance target.

Additional information on the ILS drone calibration

La publication Airport automatic landing systems: ILS, calibration using drones est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

Drones are decidedly one of the best new tools made available to the Police forces.

Only a few years ago, when drones appeared on the market, the Police forces leaders still did not imagine the added value of these unmanned aircraft for police operations.

The use of Police drones can be very efficient and particularly in the context of:

• Traffic accident scene investigations
• Search for missing persons
• Location of suspects
• Perquisitions
• Rescue operations
• Detection of illegal activities or operations related to public safety or inconvenient to the population
• Securing sensitive areas
• Crime scene investigations
• Interventions during various incidents like:
  • industrial sites
  • Seveso-classified sites
  • sites that may contain other hazardous products
  • case of disturbance of public order
  • etc.
• Surveillance of public events (sports meetings, concerts, etc.)
• The anti-drug fight
• The hostage rescue operations
• The anti-terrorist fight
• Border surveillance
• Some specific and well-targeted police operations

Police drones are equipped with high-definition cameras having powerful zoom capabilities, combined to thermal cameras, able to see during the night like in daylight.
These drones can take-off almost anywhere or keep hovering for a long time.

From the air, flying high and away from its target, the police drone provides an “eagle vision” to the officers.

Ready for immediate take-off at any time, the Police drone can be quickly on site without involving any greater resources. This way, the manned Police helicopters remain available for other missions for which the transport of people by air is essential.

By observing from above, the drone can limit the risk of exposure of Police officers and thus save human lives.

Police operation headquarters are in permanent contact with the drone pilots so they can guide the ground special units and squads (SWAT).

The decision-making is easier and faster thanks to the site overview that the embedded cameras offer in real time to the Police officers in charge of the operation.

The Police drone pilots team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The high mobility of the drone allows the Police officers to get to the scene very rapidly and have the aircraft airborne almost immediately.

As a conclusion, today even more than yesterday, the Police drone air support contributes significantly to improve the public security, including for the policemen deployed in the field.

La publication Drones: the new tool used by Police forces est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

The thermographic survey by drone makes possible to support the research thanks to the experimental analysis carried out by the engineers of institutes and laboratories performing in agronomic research. It also serves farmers to inspect, control and improve crop management to optimize harvests.

Drones prove indeed to be the perfect partners for this type of missions. Rapidly deployed, UAVs cover plots of large areas in a short time by recording high-precision data in order to obtain Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) mapping.
The photogrammetric processing of the images facilitates the localization of the affected areas, thus making possible to precisely target the application of appropriate treatments, limit the use of fertilizers and better manage the crops irrigation.

UAV survey in real conditions

Our teams received recently the mission to carry out several surveys in the countryside.
The goal was to record radiometric videos by flying UAV over experimental cultures.

The recorded thermograms had then to be analyzed with Optris’ PIX connect software, and then used to reconstruct orthophotos afterwards, thanks to Agisoft Photoscan Pro –  one of the state of the art software that performs photogrammetric processing of digital images.

At the end of this chain are provided data that are extremely valuable for the scientists, allowing them to precisely visualize the entire state of health of the plots.
These images had to be georeferenced accurately by means of ground control points (GCPs).

It would also have been possible – in other circumstances – to georeference directly the videos, either by injecting into the Optris thermal camera the GPS data from the drone, or by using a separate GNSS receiver connected to the thermography system.

In our case, the alternative solution to the ground control points (GCPs), in order to obtain the required accuracy, could have been to use a drone equipped with a precision GNSS system, such as the Septentrio’s AsteRx-m2 UAS RTK board. This method is indeed the fastest and the most efficient when parts of the field are not easily accessible to place the targets (GCPs), or when the area to cover is too wide.

Drone equipement deployed on the field

For this operation, AltiGator’s team used an OnyxStar XENA drone together with its embedded Optris PI 450 thermal camera and its mini PI Lightweight computer. The camera was installed on an OnyxStar brushless gimbal.

An HD video transmission link was allowing the pilot to follow in real time the progress of the mission. The camera was triggered directly from the ground control station. Between two flights, the collected data were downloaded from the Optris PI Lightweight mini-PC via a USB key and verified in order to validate their integrity.

Result of the thermographic survey mission

Thanks to this mission, it has been possible to map the different cultivated zones of the parcels overflown by the drone and the thermal camera.
The results are excellent. They confirm that drones have a major role to play in agronomic research.

AltiGator systems have also proven to perfectly comply with such precision applications.

Thanks to its technical characteristics and performance, the XENA Thermo drone is indeed the ideal tool for the rapid capture of qualitative radiometric data.

Processing and rigorous analysis of the geolocated thermograms obtained makes possible to efficiently guide the scientists in their decision-making process.

The XENA Thermo is a professional, robust and versatile UAV system that can easily embed the Optris PI 450 or 640 with its PI LightWeight computer, two thermal imaging cameras designed for aerial capture.

These allow the recording of precision radiometric data and are perfectly adapted to aerial use by drone thanks to their compactness and light weight.

Conclusion

This UAV mission confirms once again that agricultural drone technology is an extremely efficient way of gathering crop growth and health status information. Thanks to the combination of aerial thermal survey together with photogrammetry, the benefits of drones in agriculture are becoming more evident in agronomy.

Drone applications in agriculture were frequently known for crop spraying in the past, which is interesting for relatively small plots and reduced areas.
With this mission’s UAV gathered data, agronomists have valuable information to study more in depth cropdusting and health research.

La publication Drone thermography for agronomic research and crop control est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

Acquiring a professional drone system with the appropriate sensor for aerial photogrammetry is the first step in the process that will take you to the expected result.
This choice is obviously decisive since the quality of the photos and the calculation of the images overlap are the first key elements of the chain.

If the available equipment is now numerous, selecting the most effective and affordable software tools best suited to your needs is a major challenge.
The offer for post-processing software is already rich and still in full development.

Agisoft Metashape Pro, photogrammetry software

Agisoft is a pioneer in this field, with its Metashape – formerly PhotoScan – application available in Standard and Pro versions. It allows the automatic generation of classifiable dense point clouds, textured polygon models (3D model), geo-referenced orthomosaics, DSM-Digital Surface Models (DEM-Digital Elevation Model) and Digital Terrain Models (DTM).
From the multiple formats that can be exported, there are many possibilities, such as volumetric calculations, distance measurements, contour line generation and smoothing, and so on.

New: As official Agisoft training center, AltiGator can provide support and training upon request.

Data georeferencing with RTK, PPK or RPK methods

Georeferencing can be done in local mode (for vertical walls or multi-temporal comparisons that do not require very fine positioning information), in manual mode with GCPs (ground control points) or Google Earth coordinates (metric accuracy), or finally in automatic mode based on the positioning metadata contained in the EXIF of the images or imported in a second step.

To be accurate, this last technique must be based on data corrected in PPK (Post Processed Kinematics) or RPK (Re-processed Kinematics), which will allow to merge corrected coordinates with the images.

This can be done, for example, with the GeotagZ software from Septentrio -provided with the PPK version of the AsteRx-m2 UAS GNSS board embedded in the drone- in which will be loaded on one hand the images and the coordinates file recorded on board , and on the other hand either the file recorded by a precisely localized GNSS reception base (such as the Septentrio Altus-NR3) or the RINEX data obtained from a fixed base in real time (via NTRIP) or in PPK.

Global Mapper, all-in-one GIS software

Topographers and other professionals for whom these points clouds, orthophotos or DSM/DTM are a working basis can then open these files in a GIS and / or a CAD software, in order to vectorize them, integrate them in projects or serve as background map, etc.

Blue Marble Geographics is the editor of several applications in the field with Global Mapper, LIDAR module and GeoCalc, which give access to an unmatched variety of spatial datasets and provide the right level of functionality to satisfy both experienced GIS professionals and beginner users. More than a utility, Global Mapper has a surprisingly extensive set of data analysis and processing tools that support virtually all known spatial file formats as well as direct access to common spatial databases.

This application can read, write and analyze all your current data, and allows accurate map creation and optimized spatial data management. In addition to its powerful analytics tools, you will find a complete suite of raster and vector creation and editing features, from simple intuitive drawing to image correction and vectorization.
For a fraction of the cost of traditional GIS solutions, as well as flexible licenses – including a single user, network and USB Dongle license-, Global Mapper is a great tool to add to your software package.

Contact us for more details about these software and license purchase.

La publication Post-processing software for drone aerial photogrammetry and geographic information systems (GIS) est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

When carrying out inspections of wind-turbines, high-power lines, industrial buildings, for example,  RTK can provide not only the necessary levels of precision, but also reliability and safety.

Such system allow fixed-position and attitude hovering to increase the resolution and granularity of information on a particular feature. Additionally, it enables a reliable navigation even near high-voltage power lines and metal structures which have traditionally been problematic for magnetic compasses. The GNSS receiver should also be robust against interference from both intentional and non-intentional sources.

Piloting UAVs makes use of real-time high-precision information however, offline RPK (ReProcessed Kinematics) can be used to combine the AsteRx-m UAS data with that from local reference station to achieve centimeter-level positioning using Septentrio’s GeoTagZ software, especially for GIS applications like photogrammetry.

Mikrokopter electronics for multi-rotors are designed for professional use. This reliable German technology has proven its stability and robustness on the field. The modularity and backwards compatibility of the system means that integrated boards can be maintained, updated and repaired. This is why AltiGator’s team has been putting all efforts integrating Septentrio’s multi-frequency RTK technology together with the Mikrokopter Flight-Ctrl v3 allowing to get the RTK fix positioning in less than a minute after the power on.

“AsteRx-m UAS is an ultra-low power GNSS OEM solution particularly suited for high multipath environments typically encountered in drone inspections” stated Laurent Le Thuaut, Account Manager at Septentrio. He continued: “Thanks to AltiGator’s integration, any Mikrokopter UAV can now be upgraded to benefit from high grade RTK centimeter-level positioning”

La publication AltiGator integrates Septentrio’s RTK technology for centimeter-level positioning accuracy on UAVs equipped with Mikrokopter flight controller est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

UAVs success rely on the cost reduction together with the speed of implementation they offer.

In some cases, aerial operations are requiring a long effective flight time of a couple of hours, or even more. Even if several improvements have been made lately in this area, drone batteries are remaining the key-limiting factor on UAVs flight time.

This is why AltiGator successfully tested an innovative solution, the SAFE-T from Elistair in order to offer a brand new option to its systems: tethered flights.

In other words, it is now possible to operate an AltiGator drone for an unlimited flight time and at a height of up to 100m AGL.

In such case, the UAV is plugged to a ground generator from which it continuously receives electric power to operate. Therefore the flying time of the UAV becomes virtually unlimited.

This option allows countless opportunities in several new domains:

• Events management (cultural events, sport events, demonstrations, event parades, etc.)
• Traffic management
• Air quality monitoring
• Industrial sites surveillance
• Telecommunication
• Search & Rescue operations management
• Live aerial broadcast
• UAV surveillance missions

Thanks to this tethered flight technology, it is now possible to conduct missions without breaks as the drone never runs out of battery. In addition to that, it remains an extremely mobile solution, combining the advantages of a fixed camera with a useful flexibility on its position (height, place, quick deploy, etc).

The use of Elistair SAFE-T together with a XENA Observer, aerial surveillance UAV was made for this test. However, any AltiGator system can be equipped to operate with the tethered flight technology.

La publication Tethered flights with drone est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

Nowadays, power lines inspections are performed by remote sector tests, binocular inspection from the ground and heavy crane intervention for final stages. Because most of the lines are located in areas difficult to access, current methods used are costly and time consuming.

In order to perform quicker and more accurate power line monitoring, the idea of operating drones came to the minds of infrastructure management and energy companies. Indeed, because it can carry a high definition camera while remaining extremely mobile and stable, a UAV is perfectly suitable for such kind of mission.

Real life test performed in Belgium

Therefore, AltiGator was invited to perform some tests by inspecting several electric lines located in the countryside of Wallonia, in Belgium. These lines were suspected to be slightly damaged due to unidentified events.

Prior to AltiGator’s venue, the inspection area was reduced to 1 Km of power lines and pylons thanks to some prior checks and binocular monitoring made from the ground.

The goal of the mission was to spot and locate some damages on a specific line by taking some aerial pictures and recording videos using the OnyxStar XENA.

Equipment involved

For this operation, the AltiGator pilot was equipped with an OnyxStar XENA embedding a Sony RX 100 II camera on a 2-axis brushless camera mount. HD live video link was displayed to the pilot and a power line expert. Shutter, recording and other camera functions were controlled directly from the ground station. An expert was also present in order to analyse the data captured between flights after downloading records from the camera SD card.

During the mission, the drone was following the power line from a distance of 1.20 meters at an average height of 30 meters AGL. Such parameter allowed to get high quality and exploitable data.

Results of the mission

Thanks to the operation performed, damages have been located close to suspected spots previously seen by ground identification. The use of the drone confirmed these observations while also clearing the surrounding parts. This monitoring has been performed in only a couple of hours, involving two operators and light equipment as the OnyxStar XENA system had a Take-Off Weight of only 4.6 Kg.

In the end, results of this mission are highly promising. It confirms that drones have a key role to play in power lines monitoring but not only, as many infrastructures can also benefit from aerial view inspection. AltiGator systems have proved to be perfectly suitable for such applications.

>> Discover the OnyxStar XENA <<

La publication Aerial power line inspection est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

After two years of elaboration, the civil drone regulation for commercial use of UAVs in Belgium was officially published on April 15th. It took officially effect on April 25th.

In addition to conditions concerning the drone pilote licence and the commercial use of drones, the law contains all the elements for drone certification. This aims at ensuring that the drones will be operated by trained professionals that are flying with systems approved by the National Civil Aviation Authorities of Belgium (DGLV) for safety reasons.

AltiGator, pionnier of the civil drone industry

As a Belgian based company active in the UAV industry since 2011, AltiGator is among the first drone manufacturers to have ever produce certified UAVs for the French sky. Therefore AltiGator has already several years of precious experience in the manufacture of drones for civil applications.

These certificates obtained from the French National Civil Aviation Authorities already permitted some Belgian operated to fly their AltiGator drones in Belgian thanks to special authorizations from the DGLV like the SPW (Public Organization of Wallonia) and the ILVO (Research Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries of Flanders).

In the light of the provisions from the Belgian regulation, all AltiGator drones already approved for the French sky are automatically certified for commercial use in the Belgian one. This is why AltiGator is, from now on, the first UAV manufacturer ever certified by the DGLV.

Launch of drone commercial use

Choosing an AltiGator drone allows to be directly operational as soon as the drone licence is obtained. All the possibilities these powerful and reliable solutions can offer are now available in Belgium (aerial thermography, aerial spectrography, aerial photography, aerial photogrammetry, aerial laser scanning, LIDAR, industrial monitoring, aerial sruveillance, etc.).

Quality, efficiency and reliability of AltiGator systems have been demonstrated for years already. This explains why so many professionals worldwide are relying on AltiGator drones for their applications (INRA, IRSTEA, Norwegian Sea Rescue Society, L’Avion Jaune, Aberystwyth University, Hellenic Rescue Team, Gävle University, National Research Institute of Quebec, etc.).

See in Dutch: AltiGator, Eerste Belgische producent van drones met goedkeuring van de DGLV (Directoraat-Generaal voor de Luchtvaart) – DGLV gehomologeerd drones

See drones certified by the DGLV for use in Belgium

La publication AltiGator – First Belgian drone manufacturer with solutions certified by the DGLV est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.

This is asserted by the quick development together with their increasing presence for professional tasks and on media. The core interest of commercial drones is their lifting ability. In other words, being able to carry sensors in the air, in order to easily perform measurements and recordings, is making UAS successful.

Currently, the most frequently embedded systems on drones are lightweight and compact cameras as it can be regularly seen.

However, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles potential is much wider than that. Indeed, several other sensors (Hyperspectral cameras, LiDAR, Speed cameras, etc.) also have a great interest in being lifted. These systems are generally bigger and heavier than regular retail cameras. This can be explained by the complex and precise elements inside that require powerful and heavy data processing units.

This is where the OnyxStar HYDRA-12 intervenes.

AltiGator designed this drone as the ready-to-fly professional solution lifting the heaviest payload for a multirotor.

From a technical point of view from the aircraft industry, the payload value includes the weight of both fuel and carried elements. Contrary to heat engine aircrafts, Multirotors are powered by electric energy provided by lithium batteries whose weight doesn’t decrease while flying.

AltiGator is aware that a UAS operator wants to know the real performance of the tool at his disposal. This is why we decided to show our drones’ capabilities in a different way.

Therefore, instead of declaring that the OnyxStar HYDRA-12 can lift 16 Kg of payload, AltiGator prefers pointing out the fact that our solution carries 12 Kg of effective payload. This only includes sensors and gimbal.

Thanks to this outstanding qualities, the OnyxStar HYDRA-12 is THE heavy lift multirotor. This drone, designed and manufactured in Belgium, in the centre of Europe, is able to lift many kind of sensors since AltiGator possesses the know-how to integrates the tools you really need to use.

If your project implies lifting heavy sensors and you are looking for a powerful, efficient and robust UAV capable of doing so, then our HYDRA-12 will bring the heavy lift solution for all your requirements.

Contact us in order to launch your project together.

La publication HYDRA-12, the Heavy lifter multirotor UAV est parue d'abord sur AltiGator Drone & UAV Technologies.