Noel Zinger and Robin Sundal have expanded the scope of SkyReel Aerial Imaging to include industrial stack and wind turbine inspection flying the Draganflyer X4-P and Sony NEX5n. Read more about their background, business, and extensive experience flying and operating Unmanned Aerial Systems.

Regulatory Organizations

Transport Canada is the organization that controls rules and regulations related to aviation in Canada and are responsible for regulating UAV activity.

Definition of a UAV

Transport Canada defines an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle as a power driven aircraft, other than a model aircraft, that is operated without a flight crew member on board. They define model aircraft as an aircraft, the total weight of which does not exceed 35 kg (77.2 pounds), that is mechanically driven or launched into flight for recreational purposes and that is not designed to carry persons or other living creatures.

This means that the Draganflyer UAV helicopters are not considered UAVs when operated for recreational purposes only. As soon as they are used for a nonrecreational purpose, they are subject to the rules and regulations of Transport Canada.

Operating a UAV:

The Canadian Air Regulations require that potential UAV operators obtain a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) before flying. Once issued, the SFOC gives you permission to fly unmanned aircraft subject to the rules set by Transport Canada. SFOCs can be granted as a one time event or for a period of up to one year. Applying for an SFOC is done by sending a request to your nearest Transport Canada regional contact. In addition to including the following information, the request should state that the UAV will be operated within visual range at all times.

• The name, address, and, where applicable, the telephone number and facsimile number of the applicant
• The name, address, and, where applicable, the telephone number and facsimile number of the person designated by the applicant to have operational control over the operation (Operation Manager)
• Method by which the Operation Manager may be contacted directly during operation
• The type and purpose of the operation
• The dates, alternate dates, and times of the proposed operation
• A complete description, including all pertinent flight data on the aircraft to be flown
• The security plan for the area(s) of operation and security plan for the area(s) to be overflown to ensure no hazard is created to persons or property on the surface
• The emergency contingency plan to deal with any disaster resulting from the operation
• The name, address, and telephone and facsimile numbers of the person designated to be responsible for supervision of the operation area (Ground Supervisor), if different from the Operation Manager during the operation
• A detailed plan describing how the operation shall be carried out. The plan shall include a clear, legible presentation of the area to be used during the operation. The presentation may be in the form of a scale diagram, aerial photograph or large scale topographical chart and must include at least the following information:
  • The altitudes and routes to be used on the approach and departure to and from the area where the operation will be carried out
  • The location and height above ground of all obstacles in the approach and departure path to the areas where the operation will be carried out
  • The exact boundaries of the area where the actual operation will be carried out
  • The altitudes and routes to be used while carrying out the operation
  • Any other information pertinent to the safe conduct of the operation requested by the minister

Additional Resources

Transport Canada has the stated goal of eventually “normalizing” UAV operations within civil airspace. To this end, there is a Transport Canada UAV working group. The UAV working group report is available online.

You can contact us if you require more information or if you require assistance during any part of the process of obtaining an SFOC.

There are no limits to your creativity using new payloads being offered with the Draganflyer X8 aircraft.

One of the many new camera payloads being offered this year is the Olympus Pen EP-2. The EP-2 is an interchangeable lens, micro four thirds, 12mp sensor with the TruePic V Image Processor. The Olympus processor offers excellent dynamic range, accurate color and reduced noise, all the way up to ISO 3200. Combining this powerful new payload with the recently announced Draganflyer X8 helicopter and the new auto-leveling camera mount, this system yields a very high percentage of “vibration free” images over lesser cameras.

The expanded artistic filters of the Olympus Pen opens the door to new innovative aerial shots and by simply pushing the shutter button expands upon your creativity.

Diorama filter:

The filter featured in this article is the “Diorama” filter, an integrated “tilt-shift” technique performed in real-time creating the illusion that your subject matter is that of a miniature model.

Benefit:

The ability to quickly get an aerial perspective and capture this high quality imagery in one single step is a tremendous benefit to Professional Artistic Photographers, Real Estate photographers, Wedding and event photography, architects and community planning/design.

How this was done:

To get the best effect often you need the right subject matter and as you’ll see lighting also plays a significant factor. In the example images you’ll see a shopping center cafe, new building construction and rail switch yard.

Lighting:

To get a flat lighting model, you’ll see that in many of the photos, the shots were captured just before sunrise. There is ambient light in the scene, but local lighting from signs and street lights plays a factor. The combined smooth flight characteristics of the Draganflyer X8 with the new auto-leveling camera mount yields excellent results even in these low-light conditions.

Subject matter:

If you’re going for that scale model look, it’s best to select a subject that can be realized by the viewer as a model. For example trains, buildings, trucks, cars or bridges that could be perceived as models. These are but just a few example shots using this technique.

Helicopter altitude and position:

The angle and altitude is also something that needs to be considered when creating this illusion. You want to position the helicopter and frame the shot in the same perspective as a viewer would see the model. For example, if you visited a friend with a scale train set-up – what is the angle and overall field of view you would experience. When you’re viewing an architectural model of a new building, how would you be positioned and in what type of lighting would you expect to view the model. The more you can closely create the same atmosphere and perspective of the shot the more believable it will be.

In most of these photos the helicopter was only flying between 14 and 35 meters AGL in an effort to find that viewing angle needed.

Please take some time to look through sample images below and if you’re interested in learning more, contact the team at Draganfly to talk with their experts and request full size image samples.

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The Draganflyer Wireless Video & Telemetry Base Station includes an integrated telemetry transceiver. Using any lap top meeting these requirements you can view live video and telemetry from the Draganflyer X6.

The Draganflyer Wireless Video & Telemetry Base Station also comes with Dragan View Software which can run on any laptop meeting these requirements. Using the Dragan View software you will be able to view in real time:

Heads Up Video Screen






Telemetry Screen

• Draganflyer X6 Helicopter Battery Voltage
• Data Link Quality
• Number of GPS Satellites locked on
• GPS Reception Quality
• Heading
• Bearing
• Altitude
• Climb Rate
• Speed
• Altitude (Roll, Pitch, Yaw)
• Magnetometer Readings
• Velocity
• Temperature
• Throttle
• GPS Latitude & Longitude
• Altitude (GPS & Barometric)
• GPS Accuracy & Position Errors

The photos are Geo Tagged on the Flight Path

The Dragan View software also allows you to view a 3D representation of your flight path on Google earth. The GPS data is recorded each time you take a picture, and the Dragan View software takes this information along with the pictures from your flight and marks them along your flight path.

When you click on the thumbnail image that is located on the flight path Google Earth™ will display the full image. Above the full image the longitude, latitude and altitude information is displayed.

The aerial video on this page is the first in a series of videos to address some of these requests along with a brief description of how we got the shots.

Objective:

Shoot Draganflyer X6 1080p HD aerial video tracking moving subjects and flying in wind.

Equipment:

• Draganflyer X6 UAV RC Helicopter
• Panasonic SD9 1080p HD video camera
• Draganflyer SD9 camera mount with 5.8Ghz wireless video transmitter
• Video editing software – iMovie09
• Video editing workstation – 24” iMAC

Safety:

For those of you that have been shooting aerial video with traditional nitro or electric RC helicopters hopefully you can relate to this and for those new to aerial photography please understand safety is a big deal to you, your talent and those around you.

The first problem is that when you are flying something really cool it tends to draw a crowd. There have been many times when we are out in the middle of nowhere and to our surprise all of a sudden there is someone standing there watching what we are doing so “crowd control” is essential.

Everything is a trade-off and what we mean is that traditional nitro or electric RC helicopter platforms (yes, we fly traditional RC helicopters too) are very good at carrying a heavy payload and flying in strong winds but from a safety perspective they are often spinning a 1400mm or 1800mm rotor system at approximately 1,800rpm. The tip velocity and inertia in the rotor system is very high and can be extremely dangerous.

One of the great things about the Draganflyer X6 UAV RC helicopter is that it is a relatively safe power packed helicopter in a nice compact package. Because we are using six individual motors and six rotors they are much smaller, have very low inertia and worst case, if there is an accident, the Draganflyer X6 causes much less damage.

Most importantly always develop a safety plan, know where people are and set aside places for an emergency landing. For the Draganflyer X6, make sure anyone near the helicopter is wearing some form of eye protection and if you develop a crowd watching the shoot, make sure they are all together, positioned up-wind from the shoot and away from the action.

About the video:

People ask about video quality and flying in the wind often, and yes, it can be done. We have re-posted an article written last year about flying in the wind that may be of help. The article describes floating the helicopter in the wind and that same principle of “floating in the wind” was used to get the shots you see here.

Whether you are flying a real helicopter, a large RC helicopter or the Draganflyer X6 if you are fighting the wind you will get some form of vibration so get comfortable with the concept of floating your helicopter with the wind.

Shot breakdown:

• Opening shot, Mini Cooper driving up the street. The wind was blowing from behind the car, the pilot was positioned at the intersection and the driver was instructed to drive at the same pace as the helicopter. To get started we set the altitude of the helicopter and let the wind push it up the street with the car following behind. As the car neared the intersection we slowed the helicopter and yawed right to keep the car in frame.
• Lake bed sequences were a lot of fun. The wind was blowing pretty good and we intentionally got shots with the Draganflyer X6 shadow racing across the ground so you could get a feeling for the wind. In all cases we are starting out well past the Honda CRV and as the wind blows the helicopter past the vehicle, we yaw the helicopter to keep it in frame.
• In the clips with the Honda CRV the wind is blowing the helicopter left to right. Later during post production video editing to get the shots going right to left, we simply reversed the video.
• Slipping across the ground – again just letting the wind blow the helicopter. Be careful because the winds can change in speed and direction. From time-to-time make sure that you can stop the helicopter and penetrate the wind. If you cannot penetrate the wind, land, pack-up and stop for the day.
• Pilot walking through the lake bed. In these shots the helicopter is set in Altitude Hold mode and the pilot is simply walking along in light winds with the helicopter. The pilot is adjusting camera tilt and helicopter yaw to stay in frame.
• Swooping transition shot – we couldn’t resist … that shot was accomplished using an RC airplane equipped with the same Panasonic SD9 1080p HD camera. And it is just a fact that if you are going to pursue the aerial photography business you will end up having a variety of camera platforms. Think of them as tools. We know several people that use a wide range of platforms from the Draganflyer X6 to large turbine powered helicopters and planes to get the shots they need.
• Reflection transition – after the still image of the Draganflyer X6 in the video there is a reverse video shot of the Draganflyer X6 approaching the CRV to a hover. You will see the Draganflyer X6 reflection in the passenger window and in the next scene, we transition to the Mini Cooper with the Draganflyer X6 reflection in the drivers window. Again, the wind carries the Draganflyer X6 with the vehicle as we yaw to keep everything in frame.
• Rock formations and jeep – this clip was shot last year and honestly it was just good luck to have the jeep drive through the scene when it did.

Video Editing:

We use a wide range of video editing tools and video editing work stations but this particular video was electronically stabilized and edited using iMovie 09 on a 24” iMAC with 2GB of memory and 1.3TB of disk.

iMovie works very well with the Panasonic SD9. After shooting the footage we simply pop-out the SD memory card from the camera and using a USB adapter, plug it into the iMAC. If iMovie is already running it will think the SD memory card is the camera and allow you to preview the clips and select what clips you’ll import into the system.

Conclusion:

We hope you found this brief write-up, flying in wind article and video of interest. Enjoy your flying be safe and take some time to get comfortable floating that helicopter in the wind. The more confident you are in your flying abilities the better shots you will be able to get. Practice, practice, practice.

Draganflyer UAV Helicopter Virtual Tour Panorama

In order to make visually stunning virtual tours a Draganflyer X6 or Draganflyer X4 needs to be flown to the desired altitude. Then aerial photos need to be taken at every 20° resulting in 18 aerial photos. Next a photo is taken with the camera pointing directly down. These photos will then be combined by using panorama tools graphical interface (PTgui) software.

PTgui can stitch any number of photos into a panoramic image creating 360° cylindrical panoramas and even spherical 360×180 degree panoramas. The software stitches most panoramas full automatically how ever to achieve the results such as NorthStudio.com achieved in this panorama virtual tour some post production photo shop work is required.

For more information on how to get your Draganflyer X6 or Draganflyer X4 pictures made into a virtual panoramic tour we recommend you check out the PTgui forums or contact NorthStudio.com.

UAV aerial photography has many applications, and each requires a different type of picture. Aerial photography is very flexible, you have complete control over the angle, lighting, and overall appearance of the images you are taking. This flexibility allows it to be used for a variety of projects, from aerial surveying to making inspections of equipment, or even promoting real estate. All of these projects should be approached differently – listed below are the general approaches suitable for each.

UAV Aerial Inspection of Equipment

UAV’s are excellent tools for inspecting industrial equipment. In many cases, the area that you need to look at is inaccessible or hazardous. Sending in a UAV gets you the pictures you need, without any risk to staff members or property.

So how do you get an adequate image of equipment? Your goal is simply to capture as much information about the target object as possible, ideally, in several images or in a video. Choosing between still pictures and video can be difficult, but in general, still pictures are better for the inspection of equipment. Video cameras increase the chances of you getting what you want to see in the image, but the resolution of each frame is much smaller than with a comparable still camera.

If you are using a still camera to do the inspection, the best strategy is to get as many pictures as possible. Even though the Draganflyer X6 wireless video receiver will give you a general idea of how to position the helicopter, vibrations, wind gusts, and other movement will make affect each image. By taking as many as possible during a flight, you are guaranteeing that at least a few of them will be suitable for your purposes. The objective is not to obtain perfectly aligned or tilted images, but to get a sharp and well focused picture, that contains everything you are interested in inspecting.

The unprocessed digital image of a natural gas compression station taken with the Draganflyer X6 UAV

In many cases, the images you obtain using this “shotgun” effect will not be perfectly horizontal. There is nothing wrong with this. If your objective is to get visual information about the overall state of your subject, then you can do so without worrying about the camera angle. If you need to publish pictures that are not completely horizontal, your best option is to crop them digitally, using software such as Adobe Photoshop®.

The picture on the left was used for the aerial inspection of a stack where natural gas is compressed (click for a larger version). When the image was obtained, winds were gusting in excess of 30 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour). The autopilot was able to hold off most of the wind’s interference with the image, but it was left with approximately a 5 degree tilt from the horizontal. This is of no consequence, because cropping the image yields the following:

A cropped image of the same tower taken with the Draganflyer X6 UAV

We can clearly see the top of the pipe in this image, and everything that is occurring around it. This is more than sufficient for a quick visual inspection.

UAV Orthophotography and Aerial Surveying

Orthophotography is aerial photography done with the camera facing straight downwards. This creates an image where the scale is constant through out. Because the scale does not change with position on the image, you can make accurate measurements of angles, areas, and distances using relatively simple methods. When doing orthophotography, make sure that the camera is as close as 90 degrees to the ground as possible. We have written an in-depth how to for doing orthophotography with the Draganflyer X6 UAV, feel free to read it if you want to learn more.

UAV Aerial Photography for Aesthetics and Real Estate Promotion

When taking aerial pictures for real estate promotion, the aesthetics of the image matter more than anything else. Your goal is to take a single picture, that at a glance, shows potential customers the entire property in a very positive way. People should be able to look at the completed image and be pleased by its beauty, elegance, or simplicity. How do you do this? There is not a really simple answer, but here are few general rules to follow when taking pictures for aesthetic purposes:

• The Rule Of Thirds – Generally, people find pictures of an odd number of objects more pleasing than pictures of an even number of objects. When presented with an even number of objects in a group, the brain tends to look for asymmetries in the image, decreasing it’s aesthetic appeal. The same problem occurs when the primary focus is placed in the direct center of an image – your mind assumes that it’s perfectly centered, and looks for misalignment’s. You can avoid these problems by putting the focus of your image near the first or last third of the field of view. Doing this removes the sense of symmetry, and improves how the overall image appears.
• Level and Well Focused – Keep your images level, and be sure to allow the camera time to focus before moving. Ensuring that all of your aerial pictures are level is difficult, so take many of them while in the air. Out of all the ones that you obtain, at least a few will be excellent.
• Distracting Objects and Highlights – The last thing you want in promotional images is distractions that take away from the images main focus. Try to avoid including objects that stand out to much, such as reflections, highlights, and those that are brightly colored.
• Lead the Eye – One technique used by photographers is called “leading the eye”. By arranging visual cues in the image, you can guide the viewer to the main focus. This makes the image both more aesthetically pleasing, and more interesting for the person looking at it. Rivers leading to mountains, highways leading to houses, and green lawn leading to a house are all examples of this technique.

If you’re interested in learning more about aerial photography, or photography in general, we highly recommend reading www.photography-basics.com.

ImageJ (Image Processing and Analysis) is a powerful, free, and industry standard image processing library.

An orthophoto is a geometrically correct image -  taken with the camera pointing straight down, at exactly 90 degrees to the horizontal. Orthophotos lack any distortion in shapes and distances, which are a side effect of projecting a 3 dimensional world onto a two dimensional camera sensor. Because they lack distortions, orthophotos can be used to measure the distances, angles, and areas of objects on the ground. Ideally, orthophotos are calibrated against a three dimensional model of the ground. This compensates for changes in ground level, which can cause distortions and changes in scale. Although the scale will change slightly – you can obtain a reasonable estimate of distances, areas, and other measurements without this calibration, just make sure that the camera and aircraft are as close to 90 degrees relative to the ground as possible. Be aware that measurements decrease in accuracy as the distance from the known measurement used for scale calculation increases. This is discussed in depth in the next sections.

The Draganflyer X6 UAV can take aerial pictures in a number of formats, and is fully compatible with the ImageJ software library.

Obtaining the ImageJ Software

ImageJ can be downloaded and installed on any operating system. If you don’t want to install imageJ to your computer, you can also run it as a Java Applet in your web browser.

Assuming that you opt for a hard drive installation, download a copy of ImageJ that matches your computer and operating system. Versions are available for Macintosh, Linux, and Windows, and are displayed on the download page. Windows users don’t need to install the version with Java included, if they already have Java installed.

Once you’ve downloaded ImageJ, double click the installer and select a directory that’s convenient for you to use. C:/Program Files works well on Microsoft Windows.

Image Analysis Basics: Measuring Distance, Angles, and Area

You can use the Draganflyer X6 UAV (equipped with the Panasonic LX3 digital camera), and the ImageJ software to do aerial surveying. ImageJ can measure the distances and angles between two objects on the ground, and compute the areas of selected regions. To do this, you have to provide ImageJ with a known length, or distance between two objects on the ground. The software uses this known distance, and divides it by the number of pixels that the same object occupies on the picture. This gives the picture scale, which is then used to do the calculations.

Finding an object with a known length in the same field of view as the object you want to measure can be challenging. Instead, we suggest this procedure for making aerial measurements:

1. Take the Draganflyer X6 UAV and a meter stick to the location you want to survey.
2. Place the meter stick on the ground, near to the object or area being measured.
3. Fly the Draganflyer X6 UAV over the target area, taking several aerial pictures.
4. Land and download the images to your computer for analysis.

Try to fly the UAV at a moderate altitude. The accuracy of the measurements will decrease with height, but you need the object that you’re measuring to fit into one picture.

Once you’ve obtained the aerial pictures needed, you’re ready to begin analysis with ImageJ. Click on “Start” if you’re using Windows, and then click on the ImageJ menu entry. The initial screen looks like this:

The top toolbar contains all the commands you can apply to an image. and the buttons show the various tools that you can use. Open an image by clicking “File”, and then clicking “Open”. Most file formats are supported, but we’ll use a JPEG file for this example. The file selection dialogue that appears looks like this:

After opening the file, a new window will appear. It may display the image as a thumbnail, scaled down to fit in a small window. Zoom in and out using Control + and Control -, until the image fits comfortably on your monitor. Now that you’ve got the image opened in ImageJ, we’ll go through some of the most common analysis procedures, starting with measuring the distance between two objects.

Calibrating the Image Scale

ImageJ must be calibrated before you can use it for measurements. When you took the images, you set a meter stick (or other object with a known length) on the ground. Find this meter stick in the image that you took, and click the line tool (highlighted in the screenshot below.)

Moving over to your image window, click on one end of the meter stick, and drag the mouse over to the other end, while holding the left mouse button down. Release the mouse button, and click the “Analyze” toolbar entry. Click the “Set Scale” entry in the menu that appears. A small window will appear, which looks like this:

The “Distance in Pixels” is the length of your meter stick, measured in pixels. Enter the meter stick’s actual length in the “Known Distance” entry, check the “Global” box, and then press “OK”. ImageJ will now calculate the image scale, and return you to the picture you’re working on.

A Real Life Example

The picture on the right was obtained using the Draganflyer X6 UAV, which was flown over a farm at a moderate altitude. An aluminum meter stick was set on the ground near the flight area, and can be clearly seen in the image (you may have to click and view the larger version.)

Using the meter stick, we followed the instructions above and found the picture scale to be 7.532 pixels per foot.

Measuring distances with ImageJ is easy – click and drag using the line tool mentioned earlier. Before you release the left mouse button, note the distance in ImageJ’s main window. For example: the distance between the shed and red car was found to be 94.48 feet. This can be seen in the following screenshot:

Measuring angles is also possible with ImageJ. Angles are always measured relative to the positive X axis, and the result is displayed in the ImageJ main window.

Perimeters and arbitrary areas can also be measured with ImageJ. Click any of the selection tools (such as freehand, ellipse, rectangle, etc) and make a selection. View the measurement data by clicking “analyze”, and then “measurements”. The window that appears looks like this:

You can change what information is displayed here by clicking the edit, and then set measurements. Additional information that can be found includes the integrated density, center of mass, and many others. Read the ImageJ documentation for a full description of it’s measurement capabilities.

Disclaimer

Using ImageJ and the Draganflyer UAV for aerial measurements can produce accurate results, but Draganfly Innovations makes no claim as to how accurate this method is in your particular case. Always assume an error of at least a few feet when taking distance measurements, and make sure that the helicopter is level when taking pictures. The camera must be set at 90 degrees to the helicopter for this method to work – do this by turning the camera tilt knob.

ImageJ is a powerful software program, and you can explore more of it’s functionality by reading the documentation.