Drone Photogrammetry Software for Accurate 3D Mapping

When a trail runner went missing in the rugged Southwest Colorado wilderness, a volunteer drone SAR team led by Morris Hansen stepped in to assist. Operating from altitudes over 11,000 feet, the goal was to capture ultra-high-resolution aerial imagery across four large and steeply sloped zones, totaling over 250 acres. With no margin for error and no time to waste, the team relied on UgCS to plan and execute terrain-aware autonomous missions across two drones simultaneously.

For the volunteers at Western States Aerial Search (WSAS), the clock is always ticking. When someone goes missing, every minute matters, and wrestling with technology is the last thing they need. For years, that's exactly what they did, fighting a clunky, three-program system just to plan a drone flight. It was a process so frustrating it nearly grounded their entire volunteer mission for good.

When Trident Industries’ drone team set out to photograph and map hundreds of kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines in Missouri and Illinois, they ran into the same road-block every utility inspector knows: long, twisting corridors that rise and fall through forests and hills. Flying close enough to spot damaged hardware meant staying low and level—yet one wrong waypoint could send an aircraft either into a tower or too high for crisp imagery.