Events

Drone Camp 2021

2021 will mark the fifth anniversary of Drone Camp, which was initially launched in 2016 by the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources at UC Davis. Over the years, Drone Camp has evolved into a multi-campus and industry collaborative intensive short course that provides comprehensive training on the use of drones for mapping and data collection. From 2016 – 2019 the 4 day workshop was held on the UCB, UCSD, and UCSC/CSUMB campuses, and in 2020 the workshop was moved online due to COVID-19. Drone Camp 2021 will be a combination of online and in person training as conditions allow.  It is designed for a wide range of skill levels and interests, from complete beginners with little to no experience in drone technology, to intermediate users who want to learn more advanced data processing and analysis.  Instructors from the University of California and California State University systems will provide workshops and focus on the following topics:

  • Flight Skills: Safe Launch and Landings, Basic Operations, Traversing and Avoiding Obstacles, Night Flying
  • Safety and Regulations: Safety and Regulations Overview; How to be a Good Visual Observer; Operating in Controlled Airspace
  • Hardware: Sensors, Platforms and Field Accessories
  • Data Collection: Mission Planning; High Precision Mapping
  • Data Analysis: Stitching Drone Images with Pix4D, Agisoft Metashape, ArcGIS Pro, and OpenDroneMap; Analyzing Processed Drone Data in QGIS and ArcGIS Pro; Advanced
  • Analytics for Vegetation Analysis, Vegetation Analysis and Classification in ArcGIS Pro; Sharing Data and Outputs; Analysis of the Intertidal Zone

These skills are applied across a wide range of applications including:  Agriculture, Land Management, Facilities Inspections, Environmental Monitoring, Forestry, and Research.