Septentrio Offers Enhanced Georeferencing Solutions for Drone Aerial Surveys

Torrance, Calif. – June 27, 2016 – Septentrio is featuring its enhanced suite of drone survey tools for GIS professionals at the 2016 Esri User Conference in San Diego this week. 

“Aerial surveys by unmanned aircraft are increasingly becoming the technique of choice over ground-based data collection for many GIS applications,” said Neil Vancans, vice president of Septentrio Americas. “Our GNSS solutions enable UAV companies to give GIS professionals the ability to capture and georeference images with the highest levels of accuracy and reliability, while maximizing productivity on the jobsite.” 

Septentrio’s product suite for drone surveys includes the AsteRx-m UAS GNSS receiver, its companion GeoTagZ software utility and the Altus NR2 RTK base station. 

The AsteRx-m UAS board is about the size of a credit card, and has been designed for easy integration into the drone’s autopilot and camera. Key features include: 

  • Lightweight and low power consumption, providing longer air time on station
  • Industry-leading multipath and interference rejection for reliable performance under challenging propagation conditions
  • Automatic synchronization with camera to log events with precise time stamps 

GeoTagZ is a high-accuracy drone positioning and image georeferencing software package that works with the AsteRx-m UAS receiver. Key features include: 

  • Centimeter georeferencing of images captured by the drone’s camera
    No ground control points needed
  • No real-time data link needed to achieve RTK-level accuracies
  • Intuitive graphic user interface
  • Automatic integration into Drone2Map and ArcGIS workflows

Open architecture to work with other popular image processing platforms, including Pix4D and PhotoScan 

For optimum performance, Septentrio’s versatile Altus NR2 base station can be used as a base station to provide RTK-level reference data for GeoTagZ. 

“The combination of AsteRx-m UAS and GeoTagZ reduces complexity and improves efficiency in field operations by providing centimeter-level geotagging of images from the drone camera without real-time data links or ground control points,” said Septentrio’s product manager Gustavo Lopez. “GeoTagZ also streamlines the process for Esri users by interfacing automatically with Drone2Map without manual intervention.” 

Septentrio invites Esri User Conference attendees to visit Booth 2633 to learn more about state-of-the-art solutions for drone GIS applications. 

About Septentrio
Septentrio designs, manufactures and sells high-precision multi-frequency multi-constellation GPS/GNSS equipment, which is used in demanding applications in a variety of industries such as marine, construction, agriculture, survey and mapping, geographic information systems (GIS), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as well as other industries. Septentrio receivers deliver consistently accurate GNSS positions scalable to centimeter-level, and perform solidly even under heavy scintillation or jamming. Septentrio receivers are available as OEM boards, housed receivers and smart antennas. Septentrio offers in-depth application and integration support to make its customers win in their markets. Septentrio is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and has offices in Torrance, Calif. and Hong Kong, and partners throughout the world. To learn more about Septentrio and its products, visit: www.septentrio.com.