Equipment
DJI Phantom 4 Pro
The DJI Phantom 4 Pro is a multicopter drone equipped with internal Global Positioning System (GPS) and a 20 megapixel (MP) camera. This camera captures red, green, and blue bands of light, or those bands which are visible to the human eye. Green Drone AZ utilizes this drone to capture high resolution imagery on the Lower Salt River Restoration Project site and other projects affiliated with Ecoculture. Using post-processing software, thousands of images can be stitched together in what is known as an orthomosaic, or single image displaying the entire area of interest.
DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral
The DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral uses the same platform as the DJI Phantom 4 Pro; however, it is equipped with a multispectral camera containing six sensors. These sensors include one RGB sensor for visible light imaging and five monochrome sensors for multispectral imaging. These monochrome sensors (red, green, blue, red-edge and near-infrared) collect different bands of light being absorbed and reflected off a surface. Green Drone AZ utilizes these bands to further analyze vegetation health and classification of plant species. The Phantom 4 Multispectral is the first drone to allow users to experience a live Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) view in an all inclusive platform.
Wingtra
The Wingtra is a Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) drone equipped with a Sony 42MP RGB camera, or a MicaSense five-band camera for multispectral imaging. Green Drone AZ partnered with the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University (ASU) to help collect project data with their Wingtra. This platform can remain in flight for almost an entire hour while collecting data and can eliminate the need of Ground Control Points (GCP) with its Post-Processing Kinematic (PPK) feature. This partnership has decreased our overall survey time to a few hours, rather than several days to weeks.
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