Drone mapping: at the crossroad of remote sensing, artificial intelligence and big data analytics

The technological development of sensors and electronic devices in the last decade has allowed the acquisition of higher resolution and larger datasets with drone platforms in several applications. Despite the initial challenges in handling larger amounts of data, this has paved the way for developing more advanced data processing techniques and delivering higher quality and (near) real-time information to end-users.

In this presentation, some of these solutions will be presented, showing how the integration of different domains, such as remote sensing, artificial intelligence and big data analytics, has led to efficient products in several contexts. Urban monitoring, road and infrastructure inspection, indoor mapping and patrolling for search and rescue are some of the applications that will be considered. It will also be presented how the combination of edge and remote processing, or the integration of “hand-crafted” and deep learning techniques, can often be the solution to deliver more efficient and fit-for-purpose solutions.