Cast your mind back ten years or so, to a decade when drones were a relatively new, untapped market and a rarity within survey practices. Of course, KOREC was there from the start. When we choose a supplier of new technology, we make sure that we absolutely select the best for our UK and Irish customers. In 2011, we were delighted to announce our new partnership as a distributor for AgEagle.
Headquartered in Switzerland, AgEagle was originally an offshoot of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL – an organisation at the cutting edge of research into collective aerial robotics, vision-based flight control for mini UAV and smart locomotion. Today AgEagle is a commercial drone subsidiary of Parrot Group and is renowned for its market leading fixed wing offerings under the AgEagle eBee brand including the eBee GEO (affordable fixed wing drone), the eBee X (wide range of camera options) and the eBee Ag (advanced agriculture drone).
AgEagle, has always based its surveying drone development on a firm ethos – the company believes in using technology to make work safer and more efficient. Consequently, all its solutions are designed to simplify the collection and analysis of geospatial data, allowing professionals in surveying, agriculture, engineering and humanitarian aid to make better decisions, faster.
In particular, KOREC customers rate the flexibility of the eBee X and have shared their thoughts in many KOREC case studies. TriTech Surveys were the first to purchase in the UK and used their eBee X with the corridor option for a 4km road job, whilst PDS Surveys used theirs in conjunction with a Trimble SX10 for a tricky ‘bats in tunnel’ survey!
Another KOREC customer used a AgEagle eBee X fixed wing drone with the S.O.D.A 3D camera, to produce an aerial survey of such clarity that it will be used for comparative coastal erosion work.
eMotion is senseFly’s flight management software used for controlling the eBee range. It is advanced and scalable but also extremely easy to use, especially for flight planning.
With eMotion, flights are built using mission blocks. Just choose your block (aerial mapping, corridor etc.), highlight the region you want to map, define key settings, and eMotion auto-generates your drone’s flight plan.
This would be up to 90 minutes depending on camera and battery.
The most affordable eBee is the recently released eBee GEO. The first one in the UK was purchased by Sky Revolutions who shared their reasons here
The eBee X includes a range of revolutionary new camera options to suit every mapping job, allowing you to customise your eBee according to your application. Options include:
senseFly S.O.D.A. 3D, (a unique drone photogrammetry camera with a one-inch sensor, which changes orientation during flight to capture three images (two oblique, one nadir) every time, instead of just one, for a much wider field of view).
senseFly Aeria X (a compact drone photogrammetry camera with APS-C sensor).
senseFly Duet T (a dual-camera thermal mapping rig).
The eBee X is also compatible with the Parrot Sequoia+ multispectral camera for agriculture, the senseFly S.O.D.A. drone photogrammetry camera and senseFly Corridor for simple linear mapping.