Development Intrapreneurs' Networks
I n the first two weeks of May this year I worked with drone experts Matt Cua and the father-and-son team of Walter and Oliver Volkmann to demonstrate the accuracy of drones as survey instrument. Matt Cua is one of the hottest tech start-up guys in the Philippines today. He has linked his company, SkyEye, with a network of universities and colleges, tapping their expertise to use the imagery produced by his drones. Walter and Oliver Volkmann's outfit, MicroAerial, is based in Florida. Walter is a professional surveyor. Oliver is the drone and GPS expert. Together they have used drones to survey properties in several places around the world. We wanted to demonstrate that drone survey data can be as accurate as Total Station measurements. I think we were fairly successful; our experiments showed a difference of only about 5 cm between drone and TS measurements. We’re now working for the adoption of a formal policy recognizing drones as one more survey instrume...