Can a drone prevent the loss of life from volcanos?

David Adjiashvili is Co-Founder and Vice President of Products at Drone Harmony.  Drone Harmony is a software as a service company that automates mission planning in the most challenging vertical inspection scenarios.  Their software enables cost-effective deployment of drone technology in industries where existing technologies are unable to deliver. And it enables pilots with minimal training to collect high quality, reproducible data.

As a Swiss company, Drone Harmony understands that the safety of your data is essential and even deploys their system on your premises. The company was founded in 2016 by a team of problem solvers with a passion for drones, software and automation.

In addition to being one of those founders and Chief Scientist, he is also senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. His field of expertise is Algorithm Design and Mathematical Optimization, and he has been responsible for algorithmic development of the Drone Harmony Mission Planner.

David received his Bachelors degree in computer science from the Tel Aviv University and his Master’s in applied mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the ETH Zurich in 2012 specializing on algorithm design for planning and optimization problems. He has since been employed in the Mathematics Department at ETH and worked on various research and industrial projects in the field of optimization.

In 2021 Drone Harmony assisted DERYL Group KK and the Kyoto University in generating an up-to-date high-resolution 3D model of Japan’s Sakurajima volcano. 

Sakurajima is one of the world’s most active volcanoes.  It is located in the south of Japan, with approximately 600,000 people living within 4 kilometers. Scientists are predicting a major eruption within the next 30 years.  The project team used Drone Harmony to develop the 3-D model and run various simulations for disaster prevention and response, with the goal of developing evacuation and mitigation plans for all potential disaster scenarios. Mapping a terrain is typically a straightforward process, but the Project Team quickly learned that a large geographic area, much of which is inaccessible, hostile and changing poses several challenges.

In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, David talks about Drone Harmony, the company’s 3-D mapping services and how that technology can be used to accurately map  and model large vertical geographic areas.

How is NOAA using drones?

Commander Paul Hemmick is Chief of NOAA’s UAS Division at the Aircraft Operations Center.  Commander Hemmick received his NOAA Commission in 2004, serving in multiple operational and staff level assignments throughout his 16-year career.  He’s piloted large ships, flown planes and is now heading NOAA’s UAS operations.  In this role, he oversees safety, policy, and fleet oversight spanning a wide range of UAS missions.  With the recent formation of NOAA’s UAS Operations Center, he is involved with implementing emerging UAS technologies to force multiply data collection and scientific observations across the Agency.

In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Paul talks about NOAA’s mission, the use of uncrewed systems to study hurricanes and the role of NOAA’s UAS Division in spearheading value-added research using drones.