Trimble UX5 Unmanned Craft Captures Images, Maps

Trimble’s UX5 unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is an aerial imaging and mapping tool
 with particular application in precision agriculture, open-pit mining, and construction. The
UX5 enables users to capture aerial images for a wide range of purposes: surveying,
crop and livestock management, and generating topographic maps and models for land
leveling and drainage applications. It combines a GPS receiver, radio, photogrammetry,
 remote sensors, a lithium ion battery, plus an electric motor to propel itself.
A hand-torqued cable launcher deploys it on a pre-programmed flight plan.
The UX5 flies at 80 kilometers/hour (50 mph) and is stable in significant crosswinds and
even light rain. In a single 50-minute flight, the UX5 can cover a two-square-kilometer
area at five-centimeter image resolution. It comes with a camera modified to capture the
near-infrared spectrum, which helps in deducing vegetation indexes for crop health
assessment.
The UX5 can capture a variety of images to be processed post flight, through the Trimble
Business Center. The output of a single flight provides geo-referenced precision images,
a digital surface model showing elevations as a color image,and a dense 3D point cloud
that includes elevations.