"Photogrammetry with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) is a rapidlymaturing technology. Being versatile and inexpensive, it has the potentialto offer solutions in a wide range of applications, such as forestry inventory, precision agriculture, flood hazard assessment, pollution monitoring, land survey, and integrity assessment of industrial facilities. Written in the form of a fieldguide, this book explains, in easy-to-understand language, basic concepts ofphotogrammetry and spatial data, and techniques for mosaicking drone photos.The book is not intended as a complete "do-it-yourself" guide, but after reading it, you get a good sense about what hardware and software parts you will need toassemble a drone system on your own. Or if you have the funds, simply purchasea commercial product and follow the steps laid out in the book to design yourapplication. Towards that end, you will find the survey of industrial leaders ofenvironmental drone applications particularly useful.The author of the book, Kike Calvo, is an experienced National GeographicCreative photographer. The explanation of technical jargons is based on his ownexperience and interviews with his colleagues. Some of the questions and answersare included in the book. These are questions you probably would have and Calvohas already got expert answers for you. I find this style of writing quite effective, injecting liveness into what otherwise could be dry reading.UAV photogrammetry is not just about obtaining pretty pictures. To realize itspotential you must "georeference" the pictures, produce an "orthomosaic," andmake "3D point clouds." Read the book to find out what all these mean, and muchmore."Foreword by Xuhui Lee. Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor, Yale University.Editor-in-Chief, Agricultural and Forest Meteorol

This book was written for educators who want to incorporate drones into their curriculum but have no idea where to start. It covers all you need to implement a drone program in your school, including recommendations as to the drones that are best for specific students' age levels and subject areas, and which drones need to be registered and where you can fly them. It provides.lesson plans, real-world applications, and tips on securing funding for drones.

Within the last couple of years, the usage of drones in both the public and private (military) sector has exploded. People are talking about drones, building drones, and something most people didn’t know of a few years ago is now a household name. Build a Drone will not only teach you how to build your very own drone, but will explain their history in the military and the impact they will have—and are starting to have—on our everyday lives. Author Barry Davies has built drones for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and AAI (one of America’s largest drone manufacturers), as well as six experimental ones for MIT. He not only understands their use in the world, but knows the ins-and-outs of how they can be created and handled. Explained in simple terms with full-color step-by-step directions, Davies will explain how to build your very own drone from ones created specifically for this book. Whether you plan on using drones for recreation or a more serious purpose (from search and rescue through farming to scanning construction work on a high-rise apartment buildings), Build a Drone will make sure that you not only understand how to construct a drone, but the proper and safe ways to maintain and handle them.

This book is an everything-included approach to understanding drones, creating an organization around using unmanned aircraft, and outlining the process of safety to protect that program. It is the first-of-a-kind safety-focused text book for unmanned aircraft operations, providing the reader with a required understanding of hazard identification, risk analysis, mitigation, and promotion. It enables the reader to speak the same language as any civil aviation authority, and gives them the toolset to create a safety risk management program for unmanned aircraft. The main items in this book break down into three categories. The first approach is understanding how the drone landscape has evolved over the last 40 years. From understanding the military components of UAS to the standards and regulations evolution, the reader garners a keen understanding of where we came from and why it matters for moving forward. The second approach is in understanding how safety risk management in aviation can be applied to drones, and how that fits into the regulatory and legislative environment internationally. Lastly, a brief synopsis of the community landscape for unmanned aircraft is outlined with interviews from important leaders and stakeholders in the marketplace. Drones fills a gap in resources within the unmanned aircraft world. It provides a robust understanding of drones, while giving the tools necessary to apply for a certificate of authorization, enabling more advanced flight operations for any company, and developing safety risk management tools for students and career professionals. It will be a mainstay in all safety program courses and will be a required tool for any and all individuals looking to operate safely and successfully in the United States.

Ants are found everywhere from garden to mountaintop. They are at their most diverse in the tropics, but that does not make the 60 or so species in our part of the world any less intriguing or significant. As social insects, ants have fascinating life histories. Ecologically, they are highly important and influential. From tiny guest ants living in the nests of bigger species to gigantic wood-ant mounds with hundreds of thousands of workers, there is a lifetime of possibility for study. This edition of Ants covers the general biology and ecology of species occurring in Britain and Ireland, including the Channel Islands. The book presents photographs and descriptions for all the species on the regional list, together with distribution maps. There is also an account of some of the exotic species that may turn up in heated buildings. The extensively illustrated keys deal with workers, queens and males of all the species. These have been specially written and are the first comprehensive keys since those of the original edition 30 years ago. There are also quick-check keys to workers and nests, as well as a detailed list of kit suppliers and extensive references. Ants are among the most familiar of insects and can form a crucial part of their ecosystem, having an impact far greater than their small individual size would lead us to expect. This book is for anyone wanting to learn more about these endlessly interesting insects, by reading and by applying some of the methods discussed to make new discoveries.

In the Nevada desert, in the near future, a brilliant biologist and single mother named Naomi Chiang sets off a chain reaction that threatens to bring the networked world to its knees. When her seventeen-year-old son, Colt, who spends most of his time in the comfort of virtual reality, secretly releases her latest findings—a process for regrowing human tissue—Colt’s estranged father crashes into their lives again, backed by the secretive security organization he heads. The U.S. government wants Naomi’s research . . . and her son, who must leave the virtual sphere to discover the pleasures—and pains—of a life fully lived. Page-turning and thought-provoking, Connect is a whip-smart novel that explores what connection—both human and otherwise—might be in a digital age. It is a story of mothers and sons; but it is also about you, your phone, and the world to come.