DroneLab is dead.

 Well, it's been a long and protracted death, but it doesn't look like we're going to be able to resuscitate the patient, and before we can lay the corpse of DroneLab into the grave, it still seems like you end up paying Amazon for all manner of storage costs and service costs for obscure little bits of architecture that have been running in the background all this time. 

I'm also having to pay for glacial storage, as I can't bring myself to delete the 5TB of data that we've amassed over the years. 

Apparently, we might be able to bring back static maps, which would be nice, as this would mean we could keep those deep links that are out there and potentially bring the website back. I think this might be a good idea. I'm reluctant to throw away the past ten years of my life without keeping some sort of record online that proves that we actually used to exist. 

I suppose you could always visit the Wayback machine, but that's not really the same.

Wow. If you ever wanted an example of how quickly you can slip from the number one spot on Google, just try searching for 'DroneLab'. We were number one for years, and now we're languishing down in seventh place. 

Update - October 2025. 

It seems that DroneLab might not be dead after all. Well, we might be as a business, things move fast in the tech world, but thanks to the power of AI it looks like I might be able to restore some of the basic functionality. These are super early days - I can't say for certain if I'm going to be able to figure all of this out, but I've made a lot of progress today, and I think I might be able to get something back in the next couple of weeks. One thing is for certain, there will no longer be a free tier - and I will most probably look at implementing pay-as-you-go pricing for processing any data. Perhaps we'll be able to evolve DroneLab into a service that people actually need in today's environment. Perhaps we won't. But it will certainly be interesting, with all these new tools at our disposal! Onward! 

 

DroneLab is down...

Unfortunately, DroneLab is down right now. 

Please bear with us while we investigate the issue. 

If you want to be notified when the site is up and running again, please add your email address to this form and we'll let you know what's happening. 

Again, sorry for the inconvenience, but thanks (in advance) for your patience. 

If you really want DroneLab to come back, we're going to need more funding to maintain and operate the servers. 

All we need is six supporters, paying $70/£50/€60 per month. 

Here's the new DroneLab Patreon page. I've set it up as an easy way to take payments. If we can sign up six new generous benefactors/clients/supporters then I can get the site running again. 

Until then, I'm afraid we're defaulting to this page for all embedded maps as I can't figure out anything more sophisticated than this right now. 

I'll give this until the end of the month to run (it's half term next week and I'm looking after the kids). If we reach the target, I should be able to get it up and running again in a matter of hours. If there's literally no interest, then DroneLab has expired. It's been an interesting 10 years, I've learnt a lot, and I'd like to thank you if you have supported us over the years - it has meant a lot to me, but the start up grind is exactly that - it grinds you down over time, and 10 years is a long time in this industry. 

If you want a copy of the code so that you can run your own instance locally on your own infrastructure - send me an email. 

Ciao, for now. 

p.s. If you can't stretch to a monthly subscription, perhaps consider getting me a coffee?

Update - September 2025 - total number of coffee purchases = 0.

Well, potential startup founders, here's a lesson for you all (and I think we're a bit past the startup label now. Or are you always starting up until a certain point? I guess so...). Anyway - maybe you should ask people to buy you a coffee at the beginning of your journey, rather than the end. That might be a better indicator of how many people might be prepared to pay for your services rather than going to all the effort of enabling payment gateways and shopping carts. I will use this lesson before embarking on my next quest...

Drone Operator Profile Page

This is just a test post to make sure the redirection service is working. I'm setting up page rules to direct traffic from an old 404 page to a new profile page. Hopefully, this will work. If not, please consider this link, which will take you back to the dronelab homepage.

Status Update

...and it looks like we're working again. Anything that's been uploaded previously will be processed later this afternoon. Email notifications have been resumed, too, so you should get an email again to tell you that processing is complete. Send me an email (at the usual address) if you have any questions or queries.

Status Update

Unfortunately, DroneLab is experiencing some problems at the minute, primarily with regards to the login and the admin system.

We're working on getting things up and running again, but at the moment we don't have a timeline for getting things back to normal again.

Certain core components of the site are getting near their end of life and the site could really do with being rebuilt from the ground up again using more appropriate technology. This will obviously require some more investment, which is difficult to find in the current climate.

We will update all existing subscribers shortly with more information.

In the meantime, the viewer and storage parts of the site are still working, so any datasets that have already been processed are still be available to view.

It's 2022 now, and I haven't posted anything for a very long time!

 Here's another test post, just showing how it's possible to embed an orthomosaic in a blog post. 

...and here's another one, testing if it's still working now that it's 2024.

Another interesting week on DroneLab

Just a quick post to highlight the range of datasets that people have been uploading to the platform this week. It's not just drones that generate very large image files! 

First, this old aerial photo from Dunkirk was shared on Facebook earlier in the week. The dataset has been created from a series of images obtained from the IGN (Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière) 

 In this project, images were obtained from an aerial campaign carried out in 1949 on the city of Dunkirk, in northern France (171 shots), which allowed the creation of an area covering 4900 hectares at a resolution of 11 cm. 

 "A delicate and imperfect exercise (in) some areas but the result remains very satisfying for applications of cadastre or archaeology". 

  

Here's a link to the original article which contains a link to the project on the DroneLab website...

https://www.dronesimaging.com/realisation-dune-orthophoto-de-la-ville-de-dunkerque-a-partir-danciennes-images-argentiques-captees-en-1949/

Demonstration of embed code to show how an interactive map can be displayed as part of a webpage on another site.



Map data collected by UK Drone Surveys using a Small Unmanned Aerial System from Quest UAV.

National Churches Trust

Drone Photography

So, this afternoon I've mainly been messing around with drone photography, but not in the usual sense. This is actual photography, of physical drones. This has been quite interesting. Here's a test image, which was just something that has been sat on my desk, but this should give you the general idea...

...and another one.

In the next couple of days we should see our first drone acquired orthomosaic from India. Nice to see that drone technology is being adopted on the subcontinent with both hardware and software being developed using locally, rather than just buying in an off-the-shelf UAV system. We've recently seen drone data from Papua New Guinea on the site, too. Perhaps it's time to build a drone projects map using anonymised location data from the database - that would look pretty neat!

Very minor site news post, nothing major, mainly for my own benefit.

New sign up last night from Argentina.

I need to add an option to the sign up page that lets a new user choose their country from a dropdown list. Primarily, I need this for reporting so that I can get an understanding of where new users are coming from, but secondarily, I should be able to use this data to provide a localised service where the demand exists.

We now have operators in Portugal, France, Spain, Poland, Romania, Latvia, South Korea, Jamaica, Canada and the United States.

Pix4D - Drone Mapping Software

We often get asked about our workflow here, and, due to the nature of the industry, we also tend to field quite a few questions from new operators who are getting into the business. Nine times out of ten we're asked about processing software and what we'd recommend. For people who are getting into drone operations I'm most likely to recommend Pix4D. Agisoft's Photoscan is another great product, but the learning curve is steeper and (to me) it's not as intuitive. 

MOLA - Museum of London Archaeology

This is not a blog

This isn't supposed to be a blog.

This is where I tinker around and play with ideas for DroneLab.io

However, it seems like we're getting visitors for some reason, so if there's anything specific you'd like to know about the industry, or typical applications of the technology then drop me a line.

ben [AT] dronelab [dot] io

We've got data from pretty much every sector so if there are any examples you'd like to see then let me know.

I'll be featuring some of the public datasets that get uploaded to DroneLab, and if people are interested I might also start doing little features on some of the operators who are using the platform and the type of techniques they use to collect their data.

If I publish this, and put it into a public forum, then I'm more likely to actually do it!

above surveying

Above Surveying are a UK based drone operator who specialise in thermographic survey work. 

A typical application for thermographic survey work can be found in the solar power industry, where the UAV is used to detect faulty panels, check boundaries and carry out general site inspection work. 

Sensefly

Perkins Cinders Company Profile

This is a podcast...

Meanwhile, here's yet another demo...

Ballymacombs by dronelab on Sketchfab