Forestry services generally don’t make mainstream headlines, until they do. The important work of tracking and managing protected forests or deforestation often goes unnoticed by the general public. However, recent increases in wildfires and their increasing proximity to densely populated areas of the world have shown the general public how important forestry management truly is.
Regulatory and economic changes have impacted many aspects of forestry management as well. This means forest monitors are required to survey huge amounts of forests, often in remote locations. That means when they're in the field they need the latest and greatest tools to provide them with the most accurate data possible.
Autonomous navigation and mapping technology like that found in our Nexys payload is providing forestry management agencies with expanded options to track and survey large areas with more detail, at more frequency, and at a lower cost.
Below, we’ll introduce you to autonomous digital mapping technology and how it can open new possibilities for critical forest and land management tasks.
Forestry services currently rely on a combination of various technologies and methods to aid in surveying and tracking forested areas. The problem is that each of these has a drawback that can limit its use.
Aerial photography allows for snapshots of specific areas that provide a beneficial timeline to monitor changes and species composition. It’s also useful for surveying events such as fires or other natural disasters.
Drawback: The drawback of aerial photography is the cost and the frequency of monitoring. Aerial photography can cost hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars per hour to operate, which limits how often it can be used. This leaves gaps in surveying and can also put strains on budgets.
Aerial LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Mapping systems or those attached to manned aircraft have allowed forest services to create virtual 3D maps of forest areas. These systems use emitted laser light that is reflected back to a sensor, which then creates a 3D image that’s referred to as a point cloud. Each point of light reflected back represents a point in the point cloud.
Drawback: While this technology offers many benefits, when attached to a manned aircraft it still has the high hourly costs associated with aerial photography. There are a variety of different sensors operators will need to capture topographic features such as shorelines, under-canopy, valleys and large open spaces.
Satellite imagery has become critical for forest and land management. Today, these images are available at a high frequency and the resolution is exceptional. These provide almost real-time monitoring of large areas.
Drawback: Satellite imagery is unable to offer granular and focused inspections of specific areas. These images are also captured by a third-party service, so forestry agencies lack full control over this technology. Higher frequency satellite image updates can also be costly.
Finally, all of these technologies only image above the canopy, which leaves land managers without critical data pertaining to what’s going on underneath.
Autonomous digital mapping offers alternatives to the current surveying methods and gives land managers new and more flexible options while increasing the accuracy of the imagery they capture.
Autonomous mapping uses LiDAR technology but it’s combined with a technology known as SLAM (Simultaneous Localization & Mapping). LiDAR SLAM creates a fully autonomous system that can control an aerial drone while simultaneously mapping and capturing images of the forest. There is no piloting required and the drone can fully explore any area to capture the required imagery and 3D point cloud.
Colorized point cloud of a forest, under canopy, captured by Nexys
Our fully autonomous Nexys system can fly above the canopy but can also safely operate under the canopy and between trees and vegetation. This provides a completely new level of detail and information that gives land managers unprecedented data to make decisions.
The modularity of our Nexys system also allows it to be mounted to a backpack or vehicle, combined with a land-based drone or a handheld mapping solution for smaller areas.
Autonomous forestry mapping can provide the same level of detail and data as the current traditional methods, like aerial photography, but with additional benefits those methods can’t offer.
Our autonomous Nexys payload gives you full control of the technology, including when and where you use it. Plan customized missions to survey and update your data whenever it’s required. Immediately deploy Nexys after a major event like a fire or create custom surveying tasks that aren’t feasible with more costly methods.
The autonomous Nexys system is the only digital mapping solution that can safely fly under the canopy to capture a new level of detail. Measure trunk sizes of specific trees or track other vegetation growth over time.
Colorized point cloud of a forest environment, captured by Nexys via autonomous flight
This ability allows you to respond faster and make proactive decisions based on data that other surveying methods may miss.
This gives you full overlay capabilities to supplement your current data and provide more historical references to map forest changes.
Seeing the Nexys system safely fly above or below the canopy is truly an eye-opening experience. The technology may sound complicated, but seeing it in action while safely returning home instantly demonstrates the benefits our Nexys system can bring to forest management.
Book your personalized demo today to witness the fully autonomous Nexys system in action. Autonomous digital mapping is changing how forest services monitor land and the Nexys system offers the most comprehensive and cost-effective solution to gather the critical data you need.
