October 7th, 2016, Published in Articles: PositionIT
Aciel Geomatics, in partnership with Yellow Scan and Aerial Kopter Solutions, recently held an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and lidar demo day at Barnstormers Flying Club in Ekurhuleni where a range of multi-copter and fixed wing UAVs were put through their paces.
The audience was impressed with the Aibot multi-rotor’s manoeuvrability, its protective orange ultra-light carbon frame, and the demonstration of its fail safe functionality. Aciel Geomatics’ Johan Erasmus demonstrated the Mexican-built Skybot’s overhead takeoff, and the lightweight fixed wing whizzed effortlessly through the choppy air. Kopter Solutions’ sturdy South African designed and manufactured multi-copters, the Raven and the Pegasus, handled the windy conditions well, and the Pegasus took Yellowscan’s new 2,1 kg Surveyor lidar scanning system for a spin. The robust and fully integrated lidar system generated an impressive dataset and will be effective for mining, civil engineering and corridor mapping applications. Aerial Kopter’s locally developed Skywalker fixed wing platform, with its lightweight polystyrene frame, was also a hit offering 40 minutes of flight time and up to 100 hectares of coverage capturing detailed and actionable data in the process.