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Cesium Supporting Remote Drone Operations and Unmanned Traffic Management with Sky-Drones

With high precision 3D visualization and measurement tools, global 3D terrain, and 3D Tiling that makes it possible to share even the largest 3D models, the Cesium platform supports unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) projects from flight planning to real-time mission tracking to visualizing UAV-captured data.

Sky-Drones, an enterprise drone hardware and software company, is the latest UAV company to use Cesium in their real-time control and unmanned traffic management offerings.

Flight plan together with real-time video in Sky-Drones Cloud showing the progress of a drone mission.

Sky-Drones reduces the complexity for end users with full stack UAV avionic solutions, including both hardware and software. They specialize in the whole ecosystem of enhanced flight and ground control, encrypted communication systems, and cloud-based management for an organization’s entire fleet of UAVs.

Cesium is an essential component of the Sky-Drones Cloud flight planning services. Instead of relying on elevation profiles to plan missions, pilots get an intuitive 3D view that allows them to visually create flight paths with interactive waypoints, all in the context of high resolution Cesium World Terrain. Terrain data is integrated with weather information and airspace data from Altitude Angel, helping pilots avoid ground hazards, manned flights, and other airspace restrictions.

Sky-Drones displays ground hazards, such as these power lines, to guide pilots in creating a safe flight path. Pilots can view the flight plan from any perspective: rotate, change view angle, tilt, view from surface and get back to orthogonal view.

Sky-Drones Cloud provides entire-fleet readings and status updates on one screen, with clear visuals as to where each drone has been, where its next mission is, and the type of terrain that will be encountered. Meanwhile, located in the same hub of information, flight hours, battery life, and real-time flights and flight logs provide the necessary information to maintain and service a vast fleet of drones.

Airspace data in the Cesium-based viewer provides a detailed picture of potential restrictions, such as airports.

Sky-Drones clients inspect industrial sites remotely, fertilize crops with precision, and make medical deliveries to hospitals fighting COVID-19. Police departments in the UK use UAVs, datalinks, and cloud services provided by Sky-Drones to quickly assess situations before sending in a secondary team. With better clarity in crowded environments, challenging terrain, and expansive rural areas, they’re better able to deliver an appropriate response.

Sky-Drones clients perform remote inspections, such as this cell tower inspection, which includes a stream of the drone’s video view in real time.

For more information about Sky-Drones Cloud visit their website and sign up.

To try visualizing flight data yourself, follow our tutorial to build a flight tracker.