Skydio drones are all about working smarter, not harder, through AI-powered autonomous flight. With the announcement of Skydio 3D Scan, we introduced a new way to think about enterprise drone flights. Now, instead of having to fly manual drones far away from the objects that need to be documented or inspected, Skydio drones use AI to adapt their flight pattern to any scene, and any given resolution requirement. With such a new way to fly the drone, comes an entirely new way to choose which drone to fly. Our Enterprise Drone Inspection eBook, which we are releasing over the course of nine volumes over the coming months, is designed to help program managers navigate this expansive new set of options.
New eBook for Public Safety Scene Documentation
Today, we are releasing Volume 7 of the eBook, which is titled: “Public Safety: Crime & Accident Scene Documentation.” In this installment, we use 3D model examples and rigorous camera benchmarking to help public safety officials understand the tradeoffs of various drone systems, and the impact those tradeoffs will have on the datasets their uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) can generate.
Documentation is Challenging
Mapping and documenting crime and accident scenes pose significant challenges to law enforcement officials. Traditionally, accident reconstructionists had been limited to simple photographs and measurements to document the scene. For car accidents, reconstructionists were unable to capture top down imagery that would show the relative positions of the cars in 3D space, this significantly limited the quality of the evidentiary data. Another side effect was the societal disruption of closed lanes during the lengthy process of evidence documentation.
Capturing Precision Image Data
However, not all drones are created equal. Last generation manual drones cannot be flown up close to metal structures without introducing high crash risk, so manufacturers have raced to add larger, and more expensive, camera payloads that can zoom in from far away. Skydio’s autonomous drones can accomplish better inspections with smaller cameras simply by being able to fly closer to the subject, reducing the requirement to carry such precious camera payloads.
With an expanding set of options, it is no longer good enough to simply buy the drone with the biggest camera. To unlock these next-generation operations, drone program managers need to know they will be able to generate the data they need to make and communicate decisions. We sincerely hope that these materials, with their in-depth dataset comparisons, will make your upcoming drone decisions easier as you build and scale your fleets. Choose confidently and safe flying!
