Drone technology supporting environmental applications

As part of the roll-out of its activities in the environmental application sector supported by drones, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) organised a dedicated workshop in partnership with DroneProvide on Monday 23 October 2017. Entitled "Hyperspectral/Narrow Band Remote Sensing with Unmanned Aerial Systems", experts from LIST and their partners took stock of the latest technologies available in terms of fixed-wing, multi-rotor drones and ultra-lightweight hyperspectral cameras. Invited for the occasion, Dr. Paulus Gernot and Dr. Anders Karl-Heinrich  from Carinthia University in Austria presented their expertise and shared their experience. The two professors are recognised specialists in the field with experience of over a hundred assignments performed with drones fitted with various sensors (RGB, near infrared, multispectral, hyperspectral).

These latest-generation technologies offer major support for medium altitude cartography, visualisation of objects and surfaces, accuracy measurement (photogrammetrics), thermal profiling, infrastructure inspection, flood and forest fire management and precision farming and environmental monitoring. It is, moreover, in the two latter domains that LIST is taking more specific action.

Drones, the subject of much research

For many years, LIST has undertaken precision farming activities, notably in terms of expertise in crop protection. This expertise also led, in May 2016, to the creation of a spin-off Agroptimize, which sells the results of several years of research led with the University of Liège.

Currently, LIST is one of the European partners of the GRONE project entitled "A Fresh View From Above". Funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the aim of this project is to unite stakeholders from the Greater Region in the emerging market of aerial robotics by developing drones and their environmental applications. Researchers from LIST, specialising in remote sensing and monitoring of water quality, more precisely work on the integration of images obtained from fly-overs at the Haute-Sûre Lake using drones. This work, undertaken in the framework of risk management for public health, will allow for better understanding and analysis of seasonal proliferation of toxic cyanobacteria in recreational areas.