Sony Cameras on Drones Enable Engineering-Grade Data: the Skyfish Solution

Miriam McNabb

3 years ago

In a new integration deal, U.S.-manufacturer Skyfish will leverage Sony cameras on drones to acheive engineering-grade digital twins of large infrastructure.

The partnership is a “technical integration with Sony Electronics’ Alpha series mirrorless cameras[1], to deliver high-quality data capture and drone-enabled photogrammetry – the science of leveraging photography, proprietary algorithms, and accurate metadata to create precise 3D models or digital twins of large infrastructure,” says a Skyfish press release.

Skyfish’s drones are designed for precise engineering use cases. Skyfish 3D infrastructure models are measurable and accurate to within 1/32 of an inch. Engineering-grade photogrammetry use cases include 3D modeling for precision inspection, measurement and analysis of physical features including cellular towers, bridges and roadways, wind turbines, airports, power lines and energy infrastructure, specialized land use management and more. Sony’s cameras and Skyfish’s unique autonomous drone enables the exact data capture necessary to achieve these results.

Skyfish is already integrating Sony cameras on drones. This new relationship will allow Skyfish to work with Sony’s engineers as they continue to develop new solutions to make their products the most reliable and accurate on the market. “One of the issues with using a high-end camera is that various gimbals don’t always give the best HDMI connection to the device,” explains Skyfish CEO Orest Pilskalns. “While that should be a given, it hasn’t been – but Skyfish knew we had to solve this to make our solution useful and provide a reliable, high-definition feed. We’ve done that.”

“We appreciate the close working relationship and deep technical integration of Sony’s Alpha series cameras,” says Pilskalns. “The unique ability to remotely control a flying 61-megapixel camera in real-time lets us manage ISO, shutter speed, EVO and zoom while in flight, and collect the data and images required to generate highly accurate 3D photogrammetry models. The high-quality data collected can then be stored, viewed, shared and exported in various formats from Skyportal, our secure, AWS-powered, customer data center.”

“With the integration of Sony Alpha cameras, the engineering-grade photogrammetry platform from Skyfish sets the market-tested standard for 3D modeling, inspection, measurement and analysis of critical infrastructure,” said John Monti, Director Industrial Camera Solutions, Sony Electronics Inc. “We greatly value our work with Skyfish as one of the leading implementations for commercial inspection and mapping, the demand for which is booming.”

Sony rarely allows close integration of their cameras with unmanned systems: but the Skyfish engineering drone solutions are unique in their capabilities and their use cases.

“Sony looked at their various partners using their cameras in commercial environments and they saw something special in Skyfish,” says Pilskalns. “Doing the photogrammetry that we’re doing, with the precision that we have, is unusual – there is a huge market in modeling infrastructure.”

“We feel privileged to be working with them.”

[1]Compatible models: Alpha 1, Alpha 7R series, and Alpha 6400.