{"id":5154,"date":"2016-10-04T17:55:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T20:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=5154"},"modified":"2016-10-04T17:55:40","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T20:55:40","slug":"crewing-on-a-forensic-drone-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/04\/crewing-on-a-forensic-drone-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"“Crewing” on a forensic drone flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

I continue to be impressed by the possibilities of forensic aerial photographs taken from drones of the locations of engineering failures and accidents.\u00a0 Most recently when I learned that I could fly as “crew” on a drone and take the photographs myself.<\/p>\n

I’ve used Robert Guertin of Atlantic Camera Man Ltd. in the past to take\u00a0aerial photographs of sites that I’m investigating.\u00a0\u00a0Robert flew the drone and took the photographs as I directed from a distance off to the side.\u00a0 There’s a\u00a0risk with this technique, however, of something being lost in\u00a0explaining the photographs wanted.<\/p>\n

Robert told me recently that he now has a drone that allows me to seem to fly as crew\u00a0on the drone and take photographs when we’re aloft.\u00a0 He demonstrated this last Saturday morning.\u00a0 He flew the drone and I\u00a0operated the\u00a0camera from a station nearby.<\/p>\n

I took\u00a0standard orientation-type photographs from the four points of the compass from a distance and\u00a0also\u00a0up close.\u00a0 Then I took video as the drone slowly descended from an altitude of 385 feet to 8.5 feet – note the\u00a0precision in the altitude – stopping just above a duck on a rock in a pond.\u00a0 We didn’t want\u00a0to\u00a0spook the little\u00a0fella with the\u00a0whirling\u00a0sound of the drone’s rotors as he preened.<\/p>\n

The drone is held so steady by GPS on board that the only way you could know it was video was the moving traffic on a nearby road.\u00a0 Resolution\u00a0was good enough to see the different coloured feathers on the duck’s back.<\/p>\n

There’s no question I’ll use this drone and\u00a0take the photography myself on my next forensic site investigation.\u00a0 It’ll be remiss of me not to.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Drones are being used increasingly and in diverse industries.\u00a0 The Globe and Mail\u00a0reported\u00a0a week ago\u00a0on\u00a0the following industries in decreasing order of potential drone-powered solutions, and a couple of years ago in a\u00a0more descriptive way: (Refs 1, 2)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Infrastructure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $45.2B<\/li>\n
  2. Agriculture\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $32.4B<\/li>\n
  3. Transport\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $13B<\/li>\n
  4. Security\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $10.5B<\/li>\n
  5. Media\/Entertainment\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0$8.8B<\/li>\n
  6. Insurance\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0$6.8B<\/li>\n
  7. Telecom\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0$6.3B<\/li>\n
  8. Mining\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0$4.3B<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Forensic drone photography is likely to be used\u00a0most often in\u00a0the infrastructure and insurance industries.\u00a0 Areas where engineering failures and personal injury accidents\u00a0occur.\u00a0 But drone photography is getting increased\u00a0use in all\u00a0stages of engineering: Planning, design, construction, inspection, and maintenance of structures.<\/p>\n

    As well,\u00a0traffic accident sites\u00a0in the built environment.\u00a0\u00a0Yesterday I attended\u00a0a meeting of CATAIR in Moncton.\u00a0(Ref. 3)\u00a0I\u00a0learned that at least one traffic accident reconstructionist has a\u00a0drone and is taking aerial photographs of traffic accidents.<\/p>\n

    There’s a good review in the article Drones and Engineering<\/em> by Bill Corbett in the\u00a0June\/July issue of Canadian Consulting Engineer.\u00a0(Ref. 4)<\/p>\n

    Not to be outdone by activity on shore, oceanographers at Dalhousie University are using drones to “fish” with –\u00a0to locate and track the rare North Atlantic right whale off the Atlantic coast. (Ref. 5)\u00a0I learned a couple of years ago\u00a0that drone pilots have no hesitation flying over water, these flying machines are\u00a0that well developed and reliable.<\/p>\n

    I saw it again last Saturday when Robert demonstrated how I could photograph a site myself from his drone, and over water if I want such a shot – see the preening duck above.<\/p>\n

    I will have no\u00a0hesitation about flying as “crew” the next time I personally take aerial photographs and video from a drone during a forensic engineering investigation.\u00a0 You must ensure your expert examines your site this way – many cases lend\u00a0themselves to this forensic photographic technique.<\/p>\n

    References<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The Globe and Mail, Send in the Drones<\/em>,\u00a0 Saturday, September 24, 2016, Report on Business Weekend, page B6<\/li>\n
    2. The Globe and Mail, Rise of the Drones<\/em>, Monday, April 7, 2014, Report on Business, page B1<\/li>\n
    3. Canadian Association of Technical Accident Investigators & Reconstructionists (CATAIR)<\/li>\n
    4. Canadian Consulting Engineer, Drones and Engineering<\/em>, June\/July 2016 page 23<\/li>\n
    5. The Chronicle Herald, Right Whales: Elusive Habitat May Be Found<\/em>, Thursday, September 29 2016, page A5<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I continue to be impressed by the possibilities of forensic aerial photographs taken from drones of the locations of engineering failures and accidents.\u00a0 Most recently when I learned that I could fly as “crew” on a drone and take the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5154"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5171,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5154\/revisions\/5171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}