Data Processing
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Hummingbird Technologies, a provider of drone-enabled data and advanced analytics for precision agriculture, has partnered with Pix4D to develop a market-ready data analysis platform. The new software integrates Pix4Dengine to process raw image data in the cloud, enabling an automated process of uploading, processing and displaying of UAV-captured multispectral and RGB imagery at any point in time.
Pix4D’s photogrammetry engine processes and orthorectifies aerial imagery ready for analysis. The photogrammetry process is broken down into three stages, each with error reporting, statistics and quality assurance at the end of every stage; thus ensuring that any issues encountered in the early stages are addressed and flagged before any further processing. This also allows for any adjustments to be made to the processing settings so that the best possible results can be obtained.
Gordon Skinner, Chief Technology Officer for Hummingbird Technologies commented: “The implementation of Pix4D’s Enterprise Solution, Pix4Dengine, enabled Hummingbird Technologies to process hundreds of thousands of images with a rapid turnaround time, in a way that was both reliable and scalable without over-engineering the current software architecture.”
Hummingbird has collected data for over 15,000 ha of prime arable land in the UK, with datasets varying in size from ~500 to more than 3,000 multispectral images which have all been processed though Pix4D. Robust algorithms and specific machine learning was then applied to uncover and decipher hidden patterns, to help farm managers and agronomists with more accurate diagnosis and targeted treatments to tackle specific problems.
The analytical products included: key vegetation index maps, determining Nitrogen content, producing Nitrogen application maps and using Machine Learning to generate maps for blackgrass and other crop and plant diseases, all focused to tackle the problems of the farmers in the UK. The turnaround time from data capture to generating map visualizations and insights for users was in less than 24 hours.
The Pix4Dengine end-to-end solution enables Hummingbird to run their full photogrammetry workflow from a command line interface, allowing them to achieve a fully automated data processing workflow with extensive quality assurance through reports and log files at each step.
By using Pix4Dengine, Hummingbird is able to run more than one instance at a time, enabling the parallel processing of many datasets at once. As a result, they can now provide a rapid turnaround service for their customers.
Find out more about Pix4Dengine.
