I work for a school district with a tech school and AFROTC that is collaborating with the US GIF and another group to teach GIS/geospatial intelligence. It is the first of its kind and we already have certified students. We are looking to expand into using drones for data collection in collaboration with the university here as well. After seeing your Inspire 2/R1A video, do you think this would be a cost-effective solution for bringing LIDAR to a school? The Inspire 2 would also be utilized by our broadcast/video and agriculture programs.
Always great to see schools get involved! It would be AMAZING to see Rock LiDAR (or any LiDAR ) in a school program. My son will enter high school next year and will be joining the AFROTC program.
Where are you located? I would like to help in bringing LiDAR to the school. We have a few different LiDAR units and would be more than happy to assist!
We are located in Cape Girardeau, MO. It’s about 1.5 hours south of St. Louis, an hour south of NGA at Arnold. We are just getting started with drones, but GIS/GI is why we are looking into LiDAR. Our AFROTC is the first in the country to try GIS out. The official review is upcoming from command to see whether or not we get to do it again, with the AFROTC that is. We offered it last year as a 12-week summer course.
@russellj This sounds fantastic! I wish I had this kind of opportunity when growing up!
It all depends on the school’s budget. Send an email to sales@rockrobotic.com and we would be happy to discuss options!
@russellj What a cool deal for your students! Truly what a cool program. I hope that someday sooner than later we can have an i2 LiDAR solution for you. The video we created was certainly pushing the i2 a bit past its weight limits, and we can’t currently recommend it as an everyday LiDAR solution. We will never say never though!
Keep your finger on the ROCK pulse though, we have high hopes for revisiting the i2 as a viable platform!
Hi,
I have seen your video with Inspire 2 Lidar. Could you please share with me how you powered the lidar from the drone?
Thank you. 
Through the skyport!
Hi, Thank you for your answer. I’m a little bit dumb, I don’t understand Could you please specify how exactly look like this connection
Thanks.
From here you can adapt your payload and provide power.
Thanks, but I thought inspire 2 doesn’t support skyport. So I can lock the skyport connector to the inspire 2, the drone is able to give power to the lidar just the drone can’t control it, for example when to start the scan etc. Am I right?
There are adapters for this, I believe?
And your supposition is correct, the payload will draw power from the aircraft and the payload will function independent of the controls of the aircraft.
Doing some quick calculations, the Inspire 2 IS NOT THE ideal aircraft to haul the R2A Lidar. The maximum carry capacity, according to DJI is 810 grams. The mass of the R2A is 1,200 grams. Sure, the I2 may lift it, however, the moment you need performance from your aircraft due to changing conditions, you may have created a very large risk scenario where you may loose your aircraft, or worse.
@FlyingRadioWaves is absolutely correct. From a POC perspective, the Inspire 2 will technically lift off the ground. But, it is not advisable to fly a mission with it with this size payload.
M300 is really what you want.
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