It hasn’t been long since Hurricane Laura wreaked havoc in America – many have recorded the damage with drones, and scientists say it’s a very good and precise method that, combined with artificial intelligence, could benefit us. A hurricane struck the United States again – this time on Laura, Aug. 27, severely hitting the states of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. People used their drones flying in several places to try to assess the damage, and they also posted videos on social media sites. These videos are precise sources, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have noted. They are currently working on drones that can be used for rapid damage assessment. Using artificial intelligence, researchers are developing a system that can automatically identify buildings and, in the first instance, determine if they are damaged and how severe these damages can be.
“Current damage assessments are mostly based on individuals detecting and documenting damage to a building,” said Junwei Liang, a PhD student at the CMU Institute of Language Technology (LTI). “But it’s a slow, expensive and labor-intensive task.”
Satellite images do not provide sufficiently detailed images and only show damage from a single – vertical – perspective. At the same time, drones can provide close information from many angles and perspectives. Of course, it is possible for anyone to send drones into the air as a first reaction, but today many of the residents have it and are already routinely sending it out after a natural disaster.
“Many drone videos are available on social media after one such incident, meaning these devices can be valuable resources in damage assessment,” Liang said.
Xiaoyu Zhu, a student of artificial intelligence and innovation at LTI, remarked that the rudimentary system can cover parts of buildings that appear damaged and determine if the damage is severe or less – or whether the building has been destroyed. The results of the research group will be presented at the Winter Conference on the Application of Computer Vision in 2021. The researchers, led by Alexander Hauptmann, a research professor at LTI, have downloaded drone videos of hurricane and tornado damage in Florida, Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Alabama and North Carolina. The videos were then recorded to identify the building damage and assess its severity. The resulting data set, which was the first to use drone videos to assess building damage caused by natural disasters, was used to train an artificial intelligence system called MSNet to be able to detect building damage. The data set is also available to other research groups through Github. The videos do not yet include GPS coordinates, but researchers are working on a geolocation scheme that would allow users to quickly identify the location of damaged buildings, Liang highlighted. This would require training the system using Google Streetview imagery. MSNet could then adapt the positioning signals learned from Streetview to the characteristics of the video, the expert added.
Recent article
Drones News & Articles
Maple fruit inspired a drone that spins on its own axis
Electric airplane News & Articles
The Hungarian solar-powered airplane plan has hit the world press
Electric airplane News & Articles
NASA’s first electric aircraft to take off soon
Drones News & Articles
An Australian drone can plant 40,000 trees in a day
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Airbus and ITA Airways jointly develop Italian urban air transport
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Airbus and ITA Airways jointly develop Italian urban air transport
Air taxi News & Articles
The first air taxi airport opens in Britain
Electric airplane News & Articles
Slovenian Pipistrel becomes part of Textron’s electric aviation business
Additional aircraft News & Articles
Another aircraft: the air yacht
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Testing Volocopter’s eVTOL
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
A solar-powered device on Mars could make rocket fuel from waste water
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Suzuki promises to launch flying taxis by 2025
Drones News & Articles
Amazon drone delivery is far from taking off
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
CycloTech and Yamato reveal innovative cargo eVTOLconcept with CycloRotors
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
EHang Receives Pre-Order for 100 Units of EH216 AAVs from Indonesian Aviation Company Prestige Aviation
Drones News & Articles
A Hungarian company is developing an agricultural drone with a French partner
Additional aircraft News & Articles
A futuristic, electric rival to the rocket backpack is already in operation
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
FedEx puts drones to work
Additional aircraft News & Articles
British paramedics to start testing rocket backpack rescue in the summer
Air taxi News & Articles
Air Greenland acquires VX4 Air Greenlands from
Air taxi News & Articles
Japanese flying taxis now almost have a timetable
Flying Cars News & Articles
French startup to launch hydrogen-powered flying race car
Drones News & Articles
The silent spy drone designed for the Pentagon is ready
Flying Cars News & Articles
Bruno Senna joins Airspeeder as pilot and ambassador
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
EHang Receives Pre-order for 60 Units of Passenger-grade AAVs from AEROTREE, Malaysia’s Leading Aviation Company, under Strategic Partnership
Additional aircraft News & Articles
NASA may launch inflatable stingray drones to Venus
Drones News & Articles
The Gambit combat drone opens a new era in air warfare
Drones News & Articles
Hydraulic drone that will have a much longer range than its electric counterpart
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
Swiss buys solar-powered sustainable kerosene
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Minor accident at Joby Aviation
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
Airbus tests hydrogen propulsion on its A380 prototype
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
CAAC Formally Adopts Special Conditions for EH216-S AAV Type Certification
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
A Chinese company has shown how their eVTOL can cope with the most critical part of flying
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
World’s first electric air taxis to be launched in Japan
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
Hungarian engineers develop unique parallel hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion system
Air taxi News & Articles
Startup Natilus is set to revolutionise air freight transport
Drones News & Articles
Drones go on duty at the giant Singapore seaport
News & Articles Points of interest
Hydrogen-powered, hypersonic aircraft
Flying Cars News & Articles
Why don’t we use flying cars ?
Additional aircraft News & Articles
MIT’s miniature robots fly using artificial muscles
More articles you may be interested in...
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
Hydrogen-electric ATR 72 development agreed with ASL Airlines
Additional aircraft News & Articles
A flying vehicle was presented by a Chinese company
Drones News & Articles
Triton drone: Germany backed down, Australia convinced by the manufacturer
EVTOL & VTOL Flying Cars News & Articles
Audi’s flying car
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
EHang 216 AAV Completed First Trial Flights in Beijing, Capital of China
Flying Cars News & Articles
People rescue flying car
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Czech hybrid aircraft takes off for the first time
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
CycloTech eVTOL technology
Drones News & Articles
Emergency drone delivery tested in North Carolina
Air taxi News & Articles
Around 2020, the Boeing air taxi will launch
Drones News & Articles
Volocopter transport drone
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
CAAC Formally Adopts Special Conditions for EH216-S AAV Type Certification
Air taxi News & Articles
3 years and here are the flying electric taxis!
Flying Cars News & Articles
Turkey’s first flying car was successfully tested
Electric airplane News & Articles
Slovenian Pipistrel becomes part of Textron’s electric aviation business
Additional aircraft News & Articles
The jetpack soldiers are coming
Air taxi News & Articles
Air Greenland acquires VX4 Air Greenlands from
Drones News & Articles
Drones, artificial intelligence, video making
Flying Cars News & Articles
How much will flying cars cost ?
Additional aircraft News & Articles
Two – person aircraft
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
Battery that works well in the cold
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
New sodium-ion batteries for energy storage
Electric airplane News & Articles
What changes with electric flying ?
EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles
Boeing invests $450 million in the development of electric air taxis.
Drones News & Articles
Wingcopter’s new drone can take you to multiple locations in one flight
Additional aircraft News & Articles
Autonomous flight performed by a Cessna Caravan
News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel
Potassium can make electric vehicle batteries more efficient
Flying Cars News & Articles
Will flying cars come in ten years ?
Air taxi News & Articles
South Korea is already testing its air taxi control system
Flying Cars News & Articles
At the starting line is Lilium Aviation