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STOCKHOLM. To meet the rapidly growing demand for more advanced industrial airborne inspection tools, Sky Eye Innovations, producers of a powerful UAV solution with unique capabilities to control the most advanced sensing technologies on the market, and Spacemetric, a provider of world­class image data management software solutions, announce the start of a strategic partnership to provide powerful turnkey solutions for collection, storage and management of data from airborne sensors.

More and more organisations see the enormous potential for increased efficiency in inspection, monitoring, asset assessment and preventative maintenance through use of drones (UAVs) equipped with different sensor technologies. The huge growth in drone use has been helped by software tools that support data collection and data processing, many of them provided through the cloud. The new partnership connects a leading image management tool with a very high­performance UAV solution built for daily use in the most demanding conditions. The result is an integrated and highly effective inspection tool for preventative maintenance and decision making that uniquely combines imagery from UAVs, satellites and handheld sensor units.

“At Spacemetric we’ve actively developed our software to handle the growing volumes of data coming from UAVs. We’ve actively been looking for a UAV partner and are very impressed by Sky Eye Innovations and their unique offering, which is much in demand” says Erik Eklund, who is responsible for Spacemetric’s new Airborne business area.

The partnership creates a unique set of expertise. Spacemetric specialises in solutions to manage large volumes of imagery and streamline the process of efficient capture and storage to accelerated sharing and delivery of geospatial imagery for users like the Swedish Air Force. Sky Eye Innovations contributes with development and manufacturing of extremely performant UAV platform solutions that alone in the world are able to lift and control FLIR System’s most advanced cameras used for industrial inspection and monitoring tasks.

“Sky Eye Innovations are constantly working on improvements and looking at new ways to address the challenges the industry is experiencing. Our ultimate goal is to offer cost­effective solutions that drive productivity and improve working conditions. To achieve this we need our UAV platform to excel and collaboration with world­leading expertise is critical to providing high quality customized solutions that are in demand. Therefore we are proud to announce our partnership with Spacemetric, and the next generation of industrial inspection tools this will lead to”, says Daniel Sällstedt, founder and CEO of N.M.M Innovation Sweden AB, aka Sky Eye Innovations.



Gas inspection in the Middle East Photo: Mark Murray

About Spacemetric:
Spacemetric is the company behind the Keystone software that handles image and video data from airborne and satellite sensors. One customer is the Swedish Armed Forces where the system is used for reconnaissance data from the Gripen jet fighter and all video data from the Army’s UAV 03, which is currently serving in peacekeeping operations in Mali.

Om Sky Eye Innovations:
We build extreme performance unmanned aerial systems for high­ end industrial use . Sky Eye Innovations offers a turnkey UAV platform for advanced sensing technology, which includes both hardware and software, that is reliable and durable and can work under extreme conditions. With our platform, we help companies within Industry, Surveillance, Search and Rescue and Film and Media who want to become more efficient, reduce costs, increase their output and, most importantly, reduce the risks for their staff.

Contacts:
Erik Eklund telnr? Spacemetric
Daniel Sällstedt
Sky Eye Innovations +46730844723 daniel@skyeyeinnovations.se

Paris, Washington D.C., Montreal, Yokohama, May 31, 2016 – According to Euroconsult’s latest report, Prospects for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, the size of the professional RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) manufacturing and services market is expected to grow significantly in the next ten years, from $1 billion in 2015 to $26 billion in 2025


Advanced economies to be largest drone markets; nearly 600,000 in service by end of the decade

Paris, Washington D.C., Montreal, Yokohama, May 31, 2016 – According to Euroconsult’s latest report, Prospects for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, the size of the professional RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) manufacturing and services market is expected to grow significantly in the next ten years, from $1 billion in 2015 to $26 billion in 2025

The civil and commercial RPAS market is at an early development stage compared to the military and leisure sectors. Recent improvements in the regulatory context in a number of countries and technological advances have led to an increase in the number of applications using RPAS for commercial purposes, with new applications set to develop in the coming years. Their combination has led a number of companies to enter the market in search of new opportunities in a sector with strong growth potential and a large addressable market.

Agriculture was estimated to be the largest user of RPAS in 2015, accounting for 39% of units used, ahead of video & cinema and engineering & transportation infrastructure. Leading regions for the use of UAVs include Asia Pacific, Europe and North America; the commercial RPAS market is still early in the development phase in other regional markets. Japan has the most mature RPAS market, having begun use in agriculture more than 20 years ago. Other leading commercial RPAS countries include Australia, Canada, France, the U.K. and the U.S.

The large number of players present and the market’s current limited size make for a challenging environment. Many stakeholders have to deal with small levels of activity, particularly on the service provision side. A large number of operators, data analysts and software companies are small (<$1 million in revenues) and not yet profitable. Manufacturing is dominated by companies producing micro drones, used for both leisure and commercial applications; DJI is the market leader.

“The current size of the market is pushing a growing number of companies to make themselves present at various levels of the value chain and provide services targeting multiple markets and applications to increase their audience,” said Dimitri Buchs, Senior Consultant at Euroconsult and editor of the report. “It has become increasingly common to see companies focusing on both manufacturing and provision of services. Given the current market environment, a number of consolidation processes and failures are expected in the coming years, with leading players expected to emerge at various levels of the value chain.”

Services should account for 88% of the market size in 2025, with manufacturing revenues reaching more than $3 billion. Advanced economies should be the largest RPAS markets, with North America and Europe combining for about two-thirds of the market value in 2025. The market will be driven by the larger number of RPAS in service, with more than 560,000 units added over the next ten years to the current total of 30,000 units; this growth will largely depend on changes in regulatory frameworks. Agriculture should be the largest user of RPAS in 2025 with almost 300,000 units in service. Several applications, including delivery services, could continue to see their development hampered by regulations; this should hold true particularly for applications requiring airspace in urban areas. Growth in days of use also should contribute to the market’s takeoff; RPAS are expected to be used for over 23 million days in 2025 up from 690,000 in 2015, representing an average of 40 days per RPAS (compared to 24 in 2015). The improved performance of RPAS (e.g., endurance related to the cost) should favor growth in use, helping RPAS become increasingly competitive versus other technologies.

  • 2015 global professional RPAS market value: $1 billion
  • $760 million for services (operation of RPAS & data analysis)
  • $260 million for manufacturing revenues
  • Advanced economies should be the largest RPAS markets, with North America and Europe combining for about two-thirds of the market value in 2025
  • Revenues from outsourced services to reach $9.5 billion in 2025

About the Report
Prospects for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems is a vertical market analysis of major drivers, key issues and demand take-up for RPAS used for commercial and civil purposes. The report focuses on five key vertical markets – agriculture & forestry, civil protection & disaster management, engineering & transportation infrastructure, oil & energy, and video & cinema. The report includes market forecasts through 2025 by vertical market and by region as well as a detailed analysis of the RPAS value chain.

Higher precision and faster data delivery will help produce higher yields

Airbus Defense and Space and the J.R. Simplot Company have signed a multi-year agreement that will enable Simplot to have access to very high resolution imagery products from the Pléiades satellites (50cm resolution) over locations in the United States as well as Mexico for precision agriculture. The data will be processed near real-time in the cloud, and used to automatically generate reports that will be delivered directly to Simplot.

This will allow Simplot to have intensive monitoring and reporting over specific areas that cover their customer geography and give Simplot the capability to deliver analytical reports for growers in the agriculture industry. These reports will help growers focus on producing higher yields for crops such as almonds, potatoes, corn, wheat and soybeans. Additionally, growers will be able to determine several factors for producing higher yield crops such as seed density, fertilizer rates, water ratio, pesticide use and disease control, to name a few.

“This is an exciting era in the field of Precision Agriculture. The relationship with Airbus Defense and Space will enable us to provide our farm customers with improved insight focused on delivering value, efficiency and sustainable productivity of each and every acre” said Allan Fetters, director of technology at J.R. Simplot Company. “The use of data-driven agronomy will allow farmers to do their part in feeding the growing world population with a safe, healthy and abundant food supply.”

“We’re excited to work closely with the J.R. Simplot Company to be their go-to source for all their imagery needs” said Greg Buckman, Head of Airbus Defense and Space’s Intelligence Business activities in North America. “Automating this process in the cloud validates the growing market for customized solutions. By providing this automation we are saving them internal time and costs while delivering meaningful and actionable intelligence to the benefit of their customers.”

Airbus Defense and Space relies upon the twin satellites Pléiades 1A and 1B that operate as a constellation in the same orbit, phased 180 degrees apart and deliver very high-resolution optical data products in record time, offering a daily revisit capability to any point on the globe.

Contact:
Fabienne GRAZZINI + 33 5 62 19 41 19
fabienne.grazzini@astrium.eads.net

geospatial article

London, United Kingdom, 23 February 2016 – CGI to develop a proof of concept to forecast impact of severe wind storms in the next 35 years

CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), has been awarded a two year contract by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for the EU Copernicus programme to develop a proof-of-concept for a Sectoral Information Service (SIS) focused on the insurance sector. Funded by the European Commission, Copernicus uses information collected from satellite, land, sea and air to help industry and business sectors as well as policy-makers and scientists to understand and mitigate climate threat, adapt to change and capitalise on business opportunities. CGI’s project aims to work with the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) to make the Copernicus climate change data more accessible to the different industrial and public sector user communities.

The number and size of losses suffered by the insurance sector due to natural disasters caused by atmospheric hazards, and severe wind storms in particular, has increased steadily over recent decades. CGI will lead a team of specialists including two national meteorological agencies, two universities, and industrial partners from the space and insurance sectors to develop the Wind Storm Information Service (WISC) proof of concept to help the insurance sector better understand the level of risk.

CGI will develop and integrate the WISC platform which will take data on hundreds of historical windstorms, going as far back as 1900, and input it to an advanced catastrophe modelling framework to produce high-quality forecasts of potential future losses from severe windstorms. The project will produce key indicators such as number of European winter windstorms per year, average maximum wind speed of winter windstorms and average storm severity.

CGI will lead the insurance sector engagement to ensure the service delivers the most useful information, including forecasts of the total insurance losses per year due to windstorms and the total losses of transport infrastructure per year. The information generated by WISC will also support planning for the impact of climate change in other sectors such as energy, transport, civil engineering and government.

Jean-Noël Thépaut, Head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at ECMWF, said “A key objective of the Copernicus Climate Change Service is to combine observations of the climate system with the latest science to develop authoritative information about the past, current and future states of the climate and its impacts. We are delighted that CGI is leading this first proof-of-concept and has brought together an experienced team to demonstrate how this service can bring clear benefits to the insurance sector”

“We are proud of our 40 year heritage in the space industry and pleased to have secured our first contract with ECMWF under the Copernicus Climate Change Service” said Steve Smart, SVP of Space, Defence, National and Cyber Security at CGI. “We understand the huge potential of exploiting climate data from space, into information services which bring business benefit to commercial markets. We are excited to work with the insurance sector to demonstrate the value that the Wind Storm Information Service can deliver to them and we intend to develop other services in the future”.

CGI delivers complex, mission-critical space systems and works on the major European navigation, communication and earth observation programs such as Galileo, Skynet 5, Iris Precursor and Copernicus. Our systems produce weather satellite images and data for over 3 billion people across Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa and we deliver the maintenance and evolution of ESRIN’s earth observation ground systems.

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© VITO. Milestones in scientific modeling of urban dynamics in book by Canadian and VITO experts

Long before cities got overcrowded and landscapes were threatened to disappear, scientists looked for the best way to understand the development of changes in land use, integrating all connected parameters. Accurate predictor models are essential as decision support systems for policy makers. Hence, twenty years ago, Roger White (Honorary Research Professor at the Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland Canada), Guy Engelen and Inge Uljee (researchers at VITO’s Environmental Modeling Unit) established the field of cellular automata (CA) modeling of urban dynamics. White, Engelen and Uljee recently have published their work in a ground-breaking book on urban and regional modeling: “Modeling Cities and Regions as Complex Systems: From Theory to Planning Applications”, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA, 332p.

In this book they demonstrate their deep understanding of the recent developments of land use change and integrated models, as well as spatial decision support systems. The book introduces in a stepwise manner one of the most advanced land use models, discusses the dynamics of populations and economic activities, describes the integration with models in other domains such as economics, demography and transportation, and presents their use in practical planning and policy applications, many of which have been developed at VITO. The result is an abundant and realistic representation of the spatial dynamics of a variety of urban phenomena. The book is unique in its coverage of both the general issues associated with complex self-organizing systems and the specifics of designing and implementing models of such systems.

Essential reading for urbanists as well as planners and policy makers alike who are tackling the problems of urban growth and scenario analysis.

More info on the book

This book describes the theory and practice of modeling the spatial dynamics of urban growth and transformation. As cities are complex, adaptive, self-organizing systems, the most appropriate modeling framework is one based on the theory of self-organizing systems — an approach already used in such fields as physics and ecology. The book presents a series of models, most of them developed using cellular automata, which are inherently spatial and computationally efficient. Case studies illustrate the use of these models for real-life urban and regional planning problems. Finally, the book presents a new, dynamic theory of urban spatial structure that emerges from the models and their applications.

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Within the framework of the Next Generation Copernicus Space Component contract launched by DG GROW in June 2015 SpaceTec, with the support of Noveltis and FDC, organised a workshop aimed at identifying specific needs and expectations and likely evolution scenarios for Climate Change-related users in the post-2022 timeframe.

The workshop took place in the auditorium of the EC’s Breydel building on 11 March 2016. The main stage saw the presence of international experts from the EC, ECMWF, GCOS, ESA, EUMETSAT, and from the NEXTSPACE consortium, of which SpaceTec is a partner. More than 100 participants from all over Europe had the unique opportunity to express their needs in terms of data, products and information at large and provide them to the EC.

The presentations and the photos of the event are available at: http://www.copernicus.eu/C3S-User-Consultation-Workshop

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(April 2016) A low cost, domestic launch capability will be of significant strategic value to the UK space sector achieving its ambitious growth target, according to a new report published today by the Satellite Applications Catapult.

The ‘IGS Low Cost Access to Space’ report focuses on the UK’s expertise in the small satellite market – a growing segment of the space sector, for which low cost access to space is crucial.

Identified as a priority market within the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy (IGS), the report highlights the UK’s world-leading capability in all parts of the satellite industry, except for launch. It emphasises the strategic significance of a low cost, domestic launch capability in contributing to the UK space sector’s ambitious growth target of 10% of the global space market, estimated to be £400 billion by 2030.

The report recommends actions for industry, Government, the Satellite Applications Catapult and academia, which will be required to capitalise on existing UK strengths in small satellite manufacturing, satellite applications and services, and future demand for commercial human spaceflight and microgravity research.

The key findings of the report are:

  • Low cost access to space is fundamental to the UK’s growing small satellite industry
  • An operational spaceport in the UK to support orbital access is a top priority

Stuart Martin, CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult and Chairman of the Space Leadership Council Industry Advisory Group on Low Cost Access to Space, said: “The challenge of securing reliable, low-cost access to space creates a real opportunity for a complete end-to-end service from the UK. This report addresses market opportunities that low cost access to space can offer, for small satellite launch, commercial human spaceflight, and for microgravity science research – not just for the UK, but for Europe as a whole.”

The IGS Low Cost Access to Space report is available from https://sa.catapult.org.uk/market-reports.

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A collaborative working environment and the open exchange of design information and data are essential for the successful implementation of any project.

The Concurrent Design methodology promotes the collaboration between multidisciplinary teams, facilitating the agreement and interchange between the different parties involved. The methodology also helps to streamline the design process by integrating and meeting the final customer requirements from the very beginning. This allows the engineering design team to have a comprehensive method of all lifecycle perspective from the start which helps to identify the trends that might later invalidate the design of a system or product.

The Concurrent Design Platform (CDP)™ is an internet enabled distributed software providing the required integrated design and modelling capabilities to support a multidisciplinary team in the execution of Concurrent Design activities. Designed by RHEA Group’s Concurrent Design engineers, the tool offers a fully scalable and customizable platform where the different teams can create and share up-to-date design information in collaboration with the final customer.

1. Reduce design time, production costs, lead time, and time to market

The CDP™ brings multidisciplinary teams together to include all life cycle perspectives from the start, reducing the number of changes during later design phases. This means less time and costs required to bring a product or system to the market.

2. Increase customer satisfaction

The CDP™ offers the team the possibility to create a structured list of user requirements together with the customer, and to continuously monitor the status of the design and evaluate it against those requirements. This supports the customer to take a decision on the most promising solution direction for the project.

3. Facilitate decision-making and risk management processes

The CDP™ provides an overview of the Concurrent Design activity information on all levels for all team members and supports the exchange of design data, the assessment of the various design solutions and the monitoring of the progress of the design work.

4. Increase employee efficiency

Engaging and managing the multidisciplinary team during the design activity is one of the biggest challenges when applying the Concurrent Design methodology. The CDP™ enables the users to define different roles and tasks within the team according to the needs of the organization or project.

5. Increase design control and audit trail

The CDP™ Document Management System allows users to control the flow of information exchange, and to store and manage additional sources of design information and data.

See more at

Energy companies need multiple tools for managing, maintaining and planning their resources.

Our GIS vertical solution for energy sector easily integrates into your existing workflow and into your current IT solution – so your specialists can focus on their jobs and work more efficiently.

Our strength – offering full cycle service to energy companies, comes from the excellence in software development that is combined with the innovative data inputs and usage of Big Data. We focus on data handling processes, quality and validation and visualize this into meaningful and easy-to-understand solution that opens up totally new possibilities for planning, operating and maintaining infrastructure in the energy sector.

​We provide tools to cover the full cycle, from data gathering to managing and decision making in complex GIS environments. Using satellite data to monitor the effects of forces of nature over vast areas or using your own maintenance work process as an input to get crucial information of your infrastructure and use this for further analysis are only some examples.

​For Planning

There are certain parts in the planning process where using GIS tools and best practices is unavoidable. To meet the growing demand for faster and more accurate information, Reach-U provides infrastructure planning solutions that rely on remote sensing solutions with combination of national level registry data and population data from anonymous mobile positioning.

By combining this environment and resource mapping dataset, legislative restrictions and information about land and infrastructure ownership, we can provide software solutions from browser-based web applications to complex corporate level GIS input. There is no need to worry about inputs, data formats and how to align it all together – we help you find a solution that is the best fit for your company to make infrastructure planning and decision making as easy as possible.

For Operation

The key to successful operation is the right use of data at the right time. We help solving the problem of having too many data inputs and overlapping information when the actual decision making is on a very simple level. This is achieved by using a combination of different data layers and visualization in a way that only the required and relevant part is shown.

Another crucial thing is to focus on data quality. With our automatic compliance checks, comparisons of control points and other reference data we guarantee that the risk of misleading information is minimal for decision makers (who obviously have no time to evaluate all the inputs and data sources).

Example: Complex GIS solution (Powerlines asset management)
Client: Elering AS (an independent electricity system operator in Estonia)

For Maintenance

The main focus of infrastructure maintenance processes is to provide the best quality and secure service while reducing maintenance costs. Reach-U offers a three step solution to achieve both: the quality and readiness in case of unexpected events and reduction of costs.

As the first step, we provide inputs for infrastructure monitoring – 24/7 reference data and weekly environment maps (from Copernicus radar data) of powerlines.
The second step is providing data collection and management tools for mobile fieldwork systems so that the data collected on-site reaches company databases with no time delays. By combining LIDAR and satellite data it is possible to generate a dataset that can be used for management and data gathering without leaving the office.
As the third step, our fleet and workforce management solutions help to plan and operate on-site works and save time and efforts by using reference data to plan and execute tasks.

Example: Fieldwork management tool

Example: Forest change detection for powerlines


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