Sentera’s Direct Georeferencing System Increases Efficiency 3X

Ditch stitching. Sentera has developed its Direct Georeferencing (DGR) System that allows drone operators to do just that. 

Ryan Nelson, chief mechanical engineer, Sentera, says this system adds high accuracy location to the drone-mounted camera. Instead of requiring five hours for processing after the drone lands, the DGR system requires 10 minutes. 

“Ultimately, DGR eliminates the extra steps for location awareness. You have an accurate awareness of where the camera is and where it’s oriented,” Nelson explains. “The system is designed to work together and have the positioning and the camera synchronized and calibrated, so you know where and when the information was measured.”

The Sentera DGR System features a tactical-grade inertial measurement unit paired with RTK GPS, which integrates with a sensor (such as Sentera’s 6X Multispectral or 6X Thermal.) The DGR system and its enabled sensors are compatible on drones such as the DJI Matrice 300.

Nelson says processing had not just been a limitation on time but also introduced further complexity to the flying process. 

“It’s about providing insights faster,” he says. “The technology has developed rapidly in terms of quality of insights—and this improves the time required to achieve those insights.” 

In the field, DGR reduces the necessary overlap in the flight pattern of the drone. Instead of overlapping 75%, the system allows for only 25% overlap. 

“So in addition to the processing gains, we are improving overall flight time up to 60%,” Nelson says. “And there is less of a data load to manage. With DGR, you are collecting 1/9 of the data volume you would otherwise.” 

The DGR system is priced around $25,000.