Forestry

The forestry industry has seen major leaps in technology that have subsequently benefitted productivity and work flows. Challenges such as road mapping, inventory management, forecasting for harvests, bare earth models, floodplain mapping, monitoring regrowth, adherence to regulations and planning expansion zones are a few of the areas that drone and Lidar technology can assist with streamlining.

Many have realized major benefits from the adoption and implementation of recent improvements in UAV and sensor technology including increased safety to workers and lower insurance costs among other operational efficiencies. Companies that onboard and include cutting-edge technology are positioned well to increase profitability and grow their operations substantially. With Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) regulations around the corner, companies will benefit from starting the integration process of drones and sensors early. In particular, drone integration can reduce helicopter and aircraft time and subsequently fuel cost, positively affecting the bottom line.

Top Three Advantages

PROVIDE ACCURATE
TREE COUNTS

Map harvest units and
conduct post-harvest
waste assessments

PLAN ACCESS ROADS
AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Remove trees with
software for bare earth
terrain models

3D SCAN OF
FORESTS

VR walkthrough
and inventory
management

Challenges

The sheer size of natural forestry land makes projects extremely labour intensive, resulting in time-consuming, tedious and often dangerous tasks for crew. Furthermore, manual estimations are prone to inaccuracies that compound into large expenses that ultimately impact the bottom line.

Challenges facing the forestry industry:

Inaccessible Land and Terrain: Danger to crew.
Sampling estimates: Inaccurate data.
Vast Plot Sizes: Labour and time intensive to inspect and monitor.

Solutions

Drone and sensor technologies are being implemented by organizations today to mitigate these challenges, but most importantly, make accurate data-driven analysis and decisions.

Operators are able to efficiently assess acreages of remote forestry land from a single vantage point - drastically reducing the need for labor and time consuming traditional methods.

Lidar and imaging sensors accurately reproduce the forestry environment in 3D formats such as photogrammetry and point-cloud.

Powerful analytical software can extract metrics such as tree heights, diameter, volume, and counts.

Technology enables repeatability and automation which allows for active monitoring, precision and up-to-date data.

Applications

Our team has found success working with industry professionals, using DJI Matrice 600 drones, and Green Valley International Lidar sensors.

Candrone and the Green Valley team worked with the California Fire Department, using drone and Lidar technology to map and assess vastly forested lands. The fire department was able to use the data to proactively plan fuel breaks that would traditionally require intensive labor and expensive manned-aircraft operations.

As well, Candrone and researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) used Lidar data to supplement their research on the ecology of streams and the effects on the surrounding forestry environment. We set out to the vast natural forests in Port Alberni, BC and were able to collect data from over 50 acres of inaccessible forestry land.

Inventory Management Solutions

COUNT YOUR TREES

TREE SIZE DATA

INDEX YOUR INVENTORY

HELICOPTER MOUNT

Cover a lot of terrain fast with Lidar sensors
Fly 100 - 900 metres
RIEGL sensor
Integrated camera (24 megapixel)

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DRONE MOUNT

Take off car or helicopter and put on drone
Fly slow and low to acquire more data points
More thorough penetration of canopy
Higher resolution than a helicopter
Quick to deploy
18 - 20 minutes of fly time
Built-in camera
Highly portable
Live view of data collection via laptop connection
Average 40 acres / flight

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CAR MOUNT

High resolution
Great for forestry roads
Easy to mount
Live view of data collection via laptop connection
Good for spotting potential future hazards that otherwise would close the road (i.e. falling trees or potential landslides)

MOBILE SCANNING

If you already have your team walking, collect value datasets to merge with your aerial datasets
Effective for under the tree canopy
Walk the forest and gather valuable data
Trunk size
Forest floor data
Colourized point cloud
Camera
GPS / GNSS
4 - 6 hours run time on each battery
One-click operation

FIXED WING VTOL

Vertical take off and landing
Cover large areas
Automated flights
Ready for Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS)
Optional integrated camera systems

Forestry