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## Why D’Avion LLC Does What It Does

D’Avion exists as a business to provide a service to our clients safely. Our safety manual goes into great depths of how we are to c onduct our daily flights in preparation, maintenance, pre

- flights, flights, post flights and download/interpreting data for our clients. Clients are our bread and butter. It is them whom we serve safely, cheerfully, and provide a quality product. Our goal is to become the leader in the Unmanned Aerial System community as well as the World!

What we do:

• Produce actionable, reliable, valuable maps/data (video/photograph) for clients

• Safely and reliable collect, survey, and grade data for clients

• Autonomously process the data we collect into an usable tool for our clients

What areas of the UAS busin ess world do we work?

We are a multifaceted UAS company that has the expertise to provide UAS service all over the world in the following areas (but not limited to).

• P recision agriculture aerial s urveying

• site inspection s via video/photography and patrol ling,

• wildlife/nesting are evaluations and forestry monitoring,

• public entity support operations,

• real estate photography;

• inspections/patrolling/monitoring for the public safety/entities pipelines (gas/oil/chemical), and communications industries;

• aer ial photography and videography (architecture, land surveying), engineering, television, public events, cinematography and newsgathering (and other related professional activities);

• aerial inspection/photography of residential/commercial structures;

• residential/commercial utility infrastructure;

• aerial video/photography to assist with search and rescue operations and training for UAS operations;

• geo

- phone/geospatial data collection, photography, infrastructure inspection services, and

disaster area damage and debris assessments/aiding certain rescue operations such as locating snow avalanche victims/flood/earthquake/other disasters/lost child/adult dementia;

• cellular/utility/antenna/power line/radio/water tower/bridge inspections/compound surveys

and painting of same and other large structures;

• educational/academic uses;

• aerial imaging, photography, videography and p erform closed

- set motion picture and television filming and production.

We use state of the art UAS and our service includes:

• 2 D measurements

• 3D Volumetrics36 • Secure Sharing

• Activity Heat Maps

• Plan Overlays

• Feature Extraction

• Live Feed (depending on area)

Because of the varied services we offer

, our UAS fleet will consist of many types of UAS’. All of

our UAS’ are either partial or f ully capab le to navigate via GPS waypoints to cover an area that needs to be mapped, surveyed, patrolled, inspected, etc. Our UAS fleet also have various commercial autopilots along with consumer autopilots (Ardupilot, Pixhawk, NAZA , etc., flight

co ntrolle rs) as well as flight controllers (FC) that are unique to the UAS and controllers attached by

USB such as iOS devices :

• iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad Air Wi

- Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 2, iPad

mini 2 Wi

- Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Wi

- Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 3, and iPad mini

3 Wi

- Fi + Cellular.

Our data is processi ble from RGB, multispectral and ther mal, so long as payload is on a damp ened/stabilized mount or gimbal.

Our data is sent via USB/memory cards or blue tooth / Wi

- Fi to a PC/Mac laptop/desktop computer

where it is processed, as the client desires. We also upload geotagged data images for processing

and then e

- mail the client the data they requested.

How We Gather Data:

Our image acquisition plan gathers data via a UAS flyover utilizing an overlap process of the images and/ or the use of sensors on the UAS/the camera/or sensors on the ground.

We normally utilize the following overlap when gathering data from ground sources :

A 75% frontal overlap (with deference to direction of flight)

And a 60% side overlay (between flying paths )37 Speed and Altitude affect our data gathering, accordingly:

• The further up you go the less detail the camera will acquire. At D’Avion LLC we focus on quality and our flight sessions are normally as follows:

o Recommended settings for our mission planning:

§ Ground Speed = 3

- 8 meters/second (6.7

— 17.895 mph )

§ Altitude = 60

- 120 meters (196.85 ft.

— 393.70 ft.)

For Best Results a Constant Height and Grid Pattern is used:

§ D’Avion LLC normally takes images utilizing an automated grid pattern (Figure 1) . And in doing so our cameras stay at a constant distance over the terrain or object being photographed and doing so ensures a high quality photo for the

client.

Camera Position Affects The Product:

§ Majority of shoots are either straight down or straight at an object.

o Accordingly angle of the camera is critical.

o Either angle the camera straight down.

o Or at the object (i.e. Cell Tower/bridge/water tower)

Angle camera down.

§ Avoid pointing the c amera at the horizon.38 Unfavorable mapping.

Angle your camera towards the ground for best results

.

Favorable for inspection.

Correct Camera Settings Are Paramount There is always a tradeoff between the camera’s shutter

- speed, aperture, & ISO. When the images are sharp and have the least noise a better product will be delivered.

Camera Settings and Shutter Speed Can Make or Break Your Picture Quality

§ Shutter speed allows light to reach the image se nsor.

§ The camera’s auto settings can usually do the job.

§ Fast shutter speed = image taken it is frozen in time.

§ Use a fast shutter speed to take sharp photos

Camera Settings (Aperture)

§ The aperture of a lens is the diameter of the lens opening

§ Set Aperture to Auto to k eep all images similar in focus

— as this will save you

some headache of a reshoot.

Camera Settings (ISO)

§ ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light.

§ The camera’s auto settings can usually do the job depending on light/overcast

.

§ Recommended custom settings for most shoots :

o Use ISO 100 or 200 when flying in sunny conditions.39 o Use ISO 400 to 800 if the sky is overcast.

Camera Settings (Illumination)

§ Best to o btain images when the scene is well illuminated

.

§ Best to o btain images when parameters of camera are well adjusted

.

§ Best to obtain c ell tower shots are around noon time with the sun overhead illuminating your object for proper shots.

Camera Settings (Less Illumination)

§ When the s cene is not illuminate d = images will usually be more noisy and less sharp, lowering the accuracy of the results for the client.

§ Shutter speed should be fixed between 1/300 sec & 1/800 sec

§ ISO should be set at low value = doesn’t produce noisy images

§ Aperture (f) settings for camera should be set at “Automatic”

§ Make sure the s tabilization disabled as it will interfere with the algorithms

§ Intervalometer should be set to take 1 photo every 2 seconds

§ 4000 pixels by 3000 pixels = is the recommended image size

At D’Avio n LLC we often use georeference to get a better image.

How to Get Georeference Images at the Job Site:

§ We use GPS & Wi

- Fi enabled cameras to obtain georeference images.

§ Peruse your UAS /camer a user manual for instructions as each UAS/camera is slightly different

§ Each georeferenced image will have the following metadata:

○ Altitude, Longitude, and Latitude,

Processing with Georeferenced Images is Critical to a Quality Map

Utilizing georeferenced images will produce:

§ Fast and high quality ma ps.

§ Offers higher map accuracy.

D’Avion LLC desires to hit the target each time it does a job!