Forest Inventory with Micro Aerial Vehicles

Associated persons Hanns Kirchmeir, Corinna Hecke, Tobias Köstl
Clients Austrian Research Promotion Agency (Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG))
Partners Lakeside Labs GmbH, Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, AAU – Control of Network Systems Group, Umweltdata GmbH
Regions Austria
Year 2016

The analysis of ecological and economic factors of a forest has a long history. However, assessment of relevant forest parameters is still done by means of time- and cost-intensive fieldwork. Research institutions and companies are now working together on developing a new cost- and time-efficient method for carrying out forest inventories. The FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency) funded project strives to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), that is able to navigate autonomously through a pre-defined forest corridor, collecting all relevant forest parameter data. First test flights with a prototype are scheduled for 2017.