In May, the US National Park Service, Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition and other groups coordinated a first-of-its-kind health check-up for Sequoia National Park’s General Sherman, the world’s largest known living tree.
Volunteers scaled the tree by rope, observed satellite imagery and, for the very first time, utilized an industrial-grade drone to inspect the tree for signs of damage from a native bark beetle that’s damaged and destroyed other trees in the area under duress caused by climate change and extended drought.
A drone used in the inspection was Freefly Systems‘ Astro Prime, a new NDAA-compliant and Blue UAS-approved version of its workhorse commercial UAS platform. The drone used various swappable payloads, including a Lidar scanner and HD video camera, to quickly and safely examine all 275 feet of the ancient sequoia, which is more than 2,200 years old.
The Astro Prime calls on Doodle Labs Mesh Rider Radios to establish a resilient datalink, maintain connectivity and full control of the drone in an off-grid environment and reliably send high-bandwidth data back to the ground.
The capabilities of the Astro prime and its NDAA-compliant status will enable the US Forest Service and other Department of Interior groups to call on the platform for continued use in land mapping and inspection much faster than older manual processes.
The commercial use cases for drones unlock new possibilities to complete tasks quicker, safer, more efficiently and on a much larger scale.
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