The Harlow Report

The Harlow Report-GIS

2023 Edition


ISSN 0742-468X
Since 1978
On-line Since 2000


first published week of:   05/15/2023

Autonomous Drone Mapping

by  Gavin Schrock

How interior spaces like mines are being scanned and imaged by a drone that works without a pilot or connectivity.

There is a scene in the Ridley Scott-directed 2012 sci-fi thriller “Prometheus” where a deep space exploration crew lands on a planet and discovers an underground labyrinth. They lob a levitating orb down a tunnel, and it scans all the nooks and crannies of what turns out to be a buried alien spacecraft. Many surveyors I’ve spoken with have speculated that such autonomous mapping tools might eventually become a reality. Well, reality is here—just using a drone.

One of the minds that helped imagine such near-future technology is Dr. Vijay Kumar, co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Exyn Technologies Inc. He and the team at Exyn have developed an unmanned aerial system (UAS) that has achieved level-4 autonomy—exploratory SLAM-based scanning of complex GPS- and communications-denied spaces without a pilot.

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