The FAA has approved commercial flights for the C-ASTRAL Bramor rTK unmanned aerial vehicle (UAS)
Operator, Modern Technology Solutions’ (MTSI) announced the milestone on 28 September.
Approval for a Section 333 waiver and broad area Certificate of Waiver Or Authorization (COA) is beneficial for operations up to 200ft over land, and entire the US, where UAS are allowed within the National Airspace System (NAS).
MTSI's Bramor provides accurate surveying and mapping and has the capability to cover thousands of acres in one flight. It has an endurance of up to 2.5 hours and carries one of two payloads: a traditional digital RGB camera for mapping; and a modified digital camera intended to perform agricultural assessments.
The data collected by both these payloads can be used for the creation of point clouds, geo-referenced ortho-mosaic maps, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) products, digital surface models (DEMs), and custom data analytics.
Paul Linnell, director, national security division, civil and commercial small UAS (SUAS) team, MTSI, said: ‘MTSI is investing in expanding commercial opportunities that will provide new customers smart analytical solutions.'
He added: 'We are working on turning the Terabytes of Bramor data into cloud accessible imagery products. Alongside imagery products and maps, novel algorithms are also actively under development to extract features from the thousands of acres that this aircraft covers during each flight.’
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