
NDT Webinar | Real-Time Drone Mapping: Achievements and Challenges Towards Autonomous Solutions
Part of the NDT Webinar Series series
7 May 2025, 13:30 (CEST)
Drone, Real-Time, 3D, Mapping, Deep Learning, SLAM
Welcome from the Chair
5th Webinar on NDT
Real-Time Drone Mapping: Achievements and Challenges Towards Autonomous Solutions
Acquisition and data processing have been considered as two distinct phases in remote sensing for decades. Drone mapping has been no exception, with most solutions on the market not providing (near) real-time data processing in their workflow. However, the introduction of more efficient techniques, often leveraging deep learning architectures, as well as significant hardware development in recent years, is changing this paradigm, paving the way for new applications across various fields.
In this webinar, Prof. Dr. Francesco Nex will present an overview of the achievements in 3D real-time drone mapping and explore the existing challenges that researchers must address in developing more autonomous and efficient solutions. The role of AI-based techniques in this process will also be emphasized.
Date: 7 May 2025
Time: 1:30 pm CEST | 7:30 am EDT| 7:30 pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 844 1473 8179
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Webinar Content
In this section, you will find the recordings of this webinar to watch, re-watch and share with your colleagues!
Event Chair

School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London, UK,
The Faringdon Research Centre for Non-Destructive Testing and Remote Sensing, University of West London, London, UK
Prof. Dr. Fabio Tosti is a Registered Chartered Engineer, a Professor of Civil Engineering at the School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London (UWL), London, U.K., and the Director of “The Faringdon Research Centre for Non-Destructive Testing and Remote Sensing” at UWL. His research interests include the development of new algorithms, methodologies, and models for geoscience applications and the non-destructive and remote sensing assessment of civil and green infrastructure, as well as cultural heritage. He has authored/co-authored over 250 research publication records and delivered numerous keynote speeches and invited lectures. Prof. Tosti was a recipient of the ECSs Award, presented by the European Geosciences Union (EGU), in 2017 and several Best Paper Awards at international conferences, including the TSP 2020, IEEE AGERS 2021, and GIRST 2023. He was the General Co-Chair of the Int. Workshop on Signal Processing Techniques for GPR Applications (SPT4GPRA) in 2024, 2022, and 2020. He has also led technical sessions at over 50 international conferences. He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of NDT (MDPI) and an Associate Editor of various international peer-reviewed journals.
Keynote Speaker

Earth Observation Science (EOS) Department, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Prof. Dr. Francesco Nex is currently an Adjunct Professor (UHD1) in the Earth Observation Science (EOS) Department at the University of Twente, where he holds the position of Chair of Real-Time Analytics for Ubiquitous Geo-Sensors. Francesco received his Master's degree in Environmental Engineering (2006) and his PhD (2010) from the Politecnico di Torino (Italy). From 2011 to 2015, he was with the 3DOM unit of FBK (Italy), working as a Marie-Curie Post-Doc in the CIEM Project. In 2015, Francesco joined the University of Twente, initially as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor, in the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). His research focuses on the development of innovative solutions integrating elements from photogrammetry, deep learning, and adjacent domains such as robotics to promote the application of UAV imagery in a variety of real-world remote sensing and geomatics applications, as well as their geometric and semantic integration with terrestrial, airborne, and satellite data. He aims to implement automated, real-time, and transferable solutions to be adopted in contexts such as disaster management, infrastructure monitoring, and precision farming. He has been involved in several European and national research projects investigating the use of UAV data for remote sensing applications. He is the Chairman of the ICWG II/Ia (Autonomous Sensing Systems and Their Applications) of the ISPRS (International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), and he was the PI of several different ISPRS scientific and education initiatives. He has chaired more than 15 conferences and workshops and held multiple distinct roles on several Editorial Boards of indexed journals.
Program
Speaker |
Presentation Title |
Time in CEST |
Time in EDT |
Time in CST Asia |
Prof. Dr. Fabio Tosti |
Chair Introduction |
1:30-1:40 pm |
7:30 – 7:40 am |
7:30 – 7:40 pm |
Prof. Dr. Francesco Nex |
Real-Time Drone Mapping: Achievements and Challenges Towards Autonomous Solutions |
1:40 - 2:10 pm |
7:40 – 8:10 am |
7:40 – 8:10 pm |
Q&A Session |
2:10 - 2:25 pm |
8:10 – 8:25 am |
8:10 – 8:25 pm |
|
Prof. Dr. Fabio Tosti |
Closing of Webinar |
2:25 - 2:30 pm |
8:25 – 8:30 am |
8:25 – 8:30 pm |