Canon G10 compact camera
We use both a standard G10 and a G10 that has been modified for Colour Infra-Red (CIR) photography.
A G10 RGB (Red, Green, Blue) Photograph.
A G10 CIR Photograph.
Canon 550D digital SLR camera
The Canon 550D Digital SLR has excellent image quality and a lightweight body. The focus of the lens is fixed to
infinity, the ISO is set to 200, and the aperture is fixed to f 3.5 resulting in a minimum shutter speed of 1/2000th
of a second. These settings reduce motion blur. The camera is triggered once per second (1 Hz).
Each flight results in well over one hundred images that are combined in a mosaic with ~1 cm pixel resolution from ~50m.
The detail in the images is impressive and these images are idea for generating 3D point clouds using Structure from Motion techniques.
GoPro Hero 3D system
We were experimenting with the potential applications of 3D movies.
Tetracam Mini MCA
The Mini MCA can be fitted with a range of filters; we have chosen 12 10nm filters for our initial investigations.
False colour composite (Green, Red, Infrared) image of a Nitrogen trial in a Barley Crop.
NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index) of a Nitrogen trial in a Barley Crop.
The high detail multispectral imagery can provide insights into plant health, water stress and irrigation efficiency. The image above portrays a poppy crop under irrigation; non-irrigated poppies are clearly apparent in the left of the image.
FLIR Photon 320 thermal sensor
The FLIR camera and datalogger weigh under one kilogram.
The imagery results in approximately 10cm pixels from ~50m.
Thermal image of a barley crop undergoing Nitrogen trials (flying height = ~40m).
Ibeo Lux LiDAR sensor
The Lidar system we use is found the front grill of high-end luxury cars, it was not designed for UAV use.
The point clouds produced are far denser than traditional airborne systems (approximately 10 times the number of points per metre, i.e. 60 vs 6 points per metre)