sUAS Data Processing Software for Surveying

This is an important area to understand before companies purchase a sUAS. The output of the data processing software must integrate with the system being used by the company at this time. Companies can request data files from the data processor, and companies can use free trial offers for evaluation purposes.

Note: this course does not cover the methods of using data processing software. The intent of the section is to describe the operation of the sUAS, though the type of sUAS and the software which operates it is dependent upon the software required to process the data because they are intertwined.

There are several black box solutions to create point clouds, meshes, maps, etc. using the data collected from a sUAS. You can purchase the software and have it reside on your computer, or you upload the images to the cloud. There are advantages and disadvantages of each method. You may choose to have both. There are many software companies to choose from and more are becoming available each day. Here are a few of the more popular ones : Drone Deploy, Pix4D, Data mapper, Identified technologies, Agisoft, AgPixel, AgerPoint, Site scan, and Dronifi. Some of the data processors also provide software to operate the autopilot of the sUAS. Having both from one source simplifies troubleshooting of data so that there is no finger pointing from one company to the other. When there is a problem the data processor can blame the way, the data was obtained and vice versa. These companies usually offer free trial packages. The packages are for most all the features for a limited time or a limited amount of features for a long period of time.

Software – pay once or pay monthly – your choice. You can pay once and purchase the software and have it reside on your computer or you can pay monthly and have the software reside in the cloud. The issue today is that the data crunching is very power intensive for large jobs, is time consuming, requires an expensive computer system (and maintenance), and requires a large amount of storage capacity. Some companies spend $20,000 for a computer system. Then you need a way to get this information to the customer. Will the customer keep the information, or do you need to keep it forever? These are large data sets, so be prepared and have a lot of storage space. What if a new technology comes out in two years and you want to crunch all the old data with the new software? Will you be keeping all the raw data on file as well? Will your customer? In some cases it is easier to simply upload the data to a cloud processor. Your client pays the monthly fee, you upload to their account. If you are using the data internally, then you pay the fee. Check to see if they also keep the raw data in case a new technology comes out and you want to run the data again. Security is a big issue. Highly sensitive data may not be able to be stored on a remote server not under the companies complete control. This is a big decision that companies make early on in the process. It may not be possible to use online processors for all your needs.