Coronavirus disease (COVID -19 ) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS CoV 2 Virus! Most of them fall sick with this virus infected!
The Spreading of Corona Dieses
Corona Virus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS CoV- 2 Virus. The virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles. It happens when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe!
These particles range from larger respiratory droplets to smaller aerosols. One can be infected by breathing in the virus if be near an infected person. By touching a contaminated surface, then by touching one’s eyes, nose, or mouth. The virus will enter the body.
Overview:
The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly growing worldwide and there are a rising number of cases of COVID-19 globally! There is a great increase of medical terminologies that are used for the detection of COVID–19, which could be COVID-19. Such as covid test neat me, antigen test, rapid antibody test, and rest! There are other tests as well!
Mandatory day 2 Covid-19 test for all fully vaccinated travelers arriving in the UK or abroad any from non-red list countries
Take your test or drop sample at one of our 25+ spots!
The gold standard, highest accuracy PCR tests
Results in 24hrs after receipt at the laboratory
IDENTIFYING INFECTED PATIENTS:
The best way is to identify infected patients! There is such thing called as temperature screening to identify possibly infected patients! If a patient’s contact history indicates near the possible infection, the patient is counseled to follow the guidelines issued by the WHO on 2019-NCOV and inform the government authorities.
THE PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT:
The staff of any Hospital or any Clinical Laboratory manages their personnel to wear personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves, so that they are protected from getting infected during handling of patients, as a precautionary measure of virus not touching!
HOW TO GET THE BEST WAY OF COVID -19 TESTS:
The best way is through HEALTH CENTRES!
Health centers are an important component of the national response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Screening and testing are equally important!
The Major health centers provide COVID-19 Testing services to individuals who meet the criteria for COVID -19 testing!
Health Centers provide COVID-19 Testing services to people who meet criteria for COVID-19 test without managing reimbursement facility, funding, or compensation sources! Also out-of-pocket costs for any coverage!
The expansion to testing communities across all countries world over, especially USA & others!
Just, try and learn to find possible ways to counter the Pandemic! the variants ay trouble, but it is a given! One should not lose hope. As it is a man-made disaster…and there is a solution!
There could be no end to the scenario, better caution will yield the best results! The world is responding to the epitome of threats to mankind, but the results of patients responding and growing confidence among people in confronting the disease and challenging it has restored overbearing confidence among people the world over!
Fire inspection software is an essential aspect of a fire department’s contribution to its community. The work spent by fire specialists keeping buildings safer pays dividends in lives and property saved via the prevention, from new construction to routine inspections on existing structures.
Building materials and blueprints become more sophisticated and specialized and cities continue to develop at a faster pace, the old approach of paper-and-pen inspections can no longer keep up. Furthermore, using inspections to develop fire pre-plans has the valuable benefits of m&a to adding another time-consuming stage to the fire inspector’s laborious job.
As a result, many fire departments are switching to fire inspection software, making their duties easier and more thorough during inspections and after preparing incident plans. These software solutions, designed expressly for fire inspections, digitize the checklists and forms used in property inspections.
These digital data may then be utilized to develop a digital fire pre-plan, stored in the cloud for secure storage and maintenance, and shared with all responding staff as needed during an emergency.
These 3 Features you need in your Fire Inspections Software
Property Information from the Past
In a neighborhood, occupants and owners change regularly, making it difficult to keep track of all companies that have occupied a single property throughout time—knowing that knowledge, on the other hand, might be crucial for fire system inspection. If, for example, the former occupant of a building housed dangerous materials known to be carcinogenic to people.
The fire inspector would want to undertake an additional level of examination to guarantee the facility was safe for human occupation.
The Batching of Fire Inspections
In certain cases, you may need to do a variety of inspections on several properties year round depending on the sort of inspection you are conducting. While pen and paper and spreadsheets can aid in the organization of inspections, they lack the automation that software provides.
Look for fire inspection software that allows you to assign and arrange many inspections at the same time.
Attachments and Images
One drawback of spreadsheets and pen-and-paper approaches is that they don’t allow you to attach photographs of infractions, chemical storage, or other important information. Taking a snapshot can assist in better defining infractions and identifying areas that may require attention during a response.
An unusual custom arrangement or a specific building item that is difficult to express in words can be conveyed simply by attaching a photo. Documents and signatures may also be appended to the inspection record instantaneously, eliminating paperwork and simplifying organization and storage.
These photos and attachments are stored with the digital record and are accessible to anybody who views it now or in the future. By implementing digital technology, you can assist your fire inspectors in becoming more organised and decreasing the hours spent tracking paper documents.
Final Thoughts
Fire inspection software may significantly increase the efficiency with which your fire inspectors do their duties. The technologies and linkages allow them to focus on knowing local properties and identifying fire threats rather than paperwork and spreadsheets.
Like the other equipment at the fire station, a robust and simple-to-use fire inspection company lets your crew do their work more successfully for a safer community.
Meat is usually the expensive grocery item on your grocery shopping list. Most of the time, people need to make the extra budget to buy quality meat. Moreover, if you buy bison meat instead of beef, you can save some of your money.
Still, there are ways you can save money by buying bison meat in bulk. Buying in bulk allows you to enjoy the wholesale bison meat price. However, if you have never bought the meat in bulk, you may not know the proper process.
So, we are here to help you out with some money-saving tips that you can combine with buying wholesale bison meat and lowering your meat grocery budget.
Where can you buy Bison Meat in Bulk?
Not many people buy the meat in bulk. Therefore, it could be hard for you to find a store that provides bison meat in bulk.
The best thing is to start hunting the meat butcher with a specialty in bulk orders. You can find them easily by searching on Google. Moreover, these butchers will offer wholesale bison meat prices, which makes the meat much cheaper.
Besides, going to your supermarket, you can try these places to find the meat in bulk.
Local butchers near you
Local wholesale butchers near you
Online wholesale bison meat store
Farmer’s markets or farm gate
Tips to follow when buying meat in bulk
Check the price and your budget
The first thing is to do homework. You should be familiar with the price per kilo you get for the bison meat at your supermarket. Note the prices per kilo in your phone, and make sure to distinguish the prices based on cuts.
Moreover, see how many meals you make per kilo of meat. You can compare the prices and see if buying the meat in bulk is cheap for you or not.
Buy what you can use
Buying meat in bulk is like an investment. You pay money upfront, so you cannot lose it on buying scrap. Therefore, make sure you only buy those cuts that you cook and enjoy eating. Therefore, make a list of cuts that you can use. Your goal when buying wholesale bison meat is not to waste any meat portion.
Buy what you can store
If you do not run a hotel, inn, or restaurant, you might not have enough storage to sufficiently fit the meat you bought in bulk. Therefore, before buying, you need to check the storage space. You can purchase the extra freezer.
However, that would add to the cost. So, do your math and see if buying meat in bulk is good for you in the long term or not. Moreover, you can save storage space by carefully making meat purchases.
Consider the weather before buying
The weather may not have an impact on the quality of meat. However, it undoubtedly plays a part in making purchasing decisions.
Would you feel your freezer with meat during cyclone season? During a cyclone, you may face many power failures, ruining the meat and losing your investment. So, make sure to check the weather before buying the bison meat in bulk.
If you have started your business, you may have considered hire an SEO agency. But before you make an informed decision, you have to consider the benefits of hiring an SEO expert for your company.
There are many leading SEO agencyin the country, offering numerous facilities for your SEO needs. If budget is what you are concerned about, you should know that hiring an SEO is an investment that will go a long way in your business’ success. Here are the four most significant advantages of working with a professional SEO firm.
Benefit Of SEO Agency
SEO firms produce the greatest outcomes.
An SEO agency, having worked for clients dealing with different businesses, is well versed with the needs and demands of different businesses, which can help them fulfil your specific needs. They have all the technology and knowledge required to study your progress and develop a strategy accordingly. This ensures that you get the best possible search exposure with their services.
Enhance your site’s engagement through SEO
With rising competition among websites, search engine optimization has now become indispensable to your website’s success. Only those in high competition businesses might have needed SEO in the past to see their websites rise to the top of search engine results pages (or SERPs). However, because every industry faces competition, hire SEO has become essential for reaching out to potential clients or leads.
Focus on your business with SEO.
The most important benefit of hiring an SEO agency is the time you save for yourself. You can invest the time you save in other important things that might require your expert supervision. So, with an SEO expert, you can focus on running your business smoothly and completely stress-free. It also reduces stress as you are assured of being in good hands without worrying about your business’s performance on the internet.
SEO firms have prior experience.
Success is an important factor for any business, so you should not leave it upon guesswork. If you have any apprehension regarding SEO-related work, it is better to leave it upon professionals experienced in this field to handle the task.
Experts in SEO agency are well trained with adequate knowledge and experience in the field, which helps them make the right decisions for increasing your visibility on the internet. On the other hand, any amateur step taken by you could do more harm to your company’s success than any good.
Conclusion
These companies provide the expertise, experience, and professional team, thereby helping you to obtain genuine results on your site as a full-service Internet marketing business.
You can count on us to produce top search engine rankings and great visibility for your business as one of the nation’s best SEO agency. For us, the success of our client’s business matters the most. So, we make all efforts required to take your business to the top of SEO search results.
These days almost everyone likes doing shopping online. It’s simple, easy, and also saves a lot of time. Online stores have become. one of the best ways to showcase your goods and service to potential customers. However, when a business showcases its and services, it has to keep in mind choosing the right e-commerce platform for the development of its store.
One of the most famous among them is Shopify developerswho will manage your online store in a hassle-free manner. Let’s check out some benefits of Shopify developers:-
Compatible for mobile phone
Shopify developers make the e-commerce platform in such a way that it becomes compatible with mobile phones also. These days people always have a mobile phone in their hand and so it becomes very important to your e-commerce in such a way that it can be accessed with the mobile phone also. For the business owners also, it becomes easy to catch up their online store through their mobile phone.
Offers various payment gateways
When you set up an online store for your customers, you have to make sure that the online payment gateway system must be safe and secure. All the customer’s data and information must be kept confidential. At the same time, customers must have the option of various payment gateways so that they can make their payment according to their choice. Shopify developers allow you different types of payment gateways.
Provides an attractive and user-friendly interface
Just like your physical store, your online store must also look good and must be presentable so that it can attract customers. A dull or not so attractive online store may not help you to convert the customers into successful leads. With the help of Shopify developers, you can get the best e-commerce website which also provides a great customer experience.
Forget about technical issues
Once you have taken service from the Shopify developers, you need not worry about technical glitches and other issues. There is also no need of hiring different moniker development companies. When your online store is free of all kinds of technical issues, you can take your online business to a great height.
All-time customer support
Shopify is known for its great customer service. In case of any doubt or query, customers can contact the Shopify developers or their contact centers without looking at their watch. The contact centers are accessible round the clock and also provides instant solution to your problems and queries.
Conclusion
Online stores and online shopping is the new trend. With the passing of each day, every single thing is going digital be it groceries, payment of bills, or any kind of shopping, everything is now available online. If you are ever thinking of creating an online store, Shopify is your one-stop solution. It does not matter what your business is or what kind of service you want, Shopify developers can solve all your problems in just one go.
Web design is about much more than just making a website, and taking a step-by-step approach to projects demonstrates all of the effort and talent that creates a significant online presence. A website depicts the image of the brand and represents them.
The Calgary Website Designers use different indications, like text, interactions, and graphics to target visitors and help people in getting knowledge about the company, branding and product. Every element of the website is developed and designed to contribute for the success of a specific objective.
Step-by-Step Guide to Developing your website
Goals and Strategy
You can determine the project’s scope once we know the expectations and requirements of your client. Once you have a well-detailed idea of the website’s goal, i.e., what web pages and features the site will need to achieve the goal, as well as the schedule for implementing them, you can start with your research.
Sitemap and Content Creation
You can start looking into the sitemap now that the scope has been set, specifying how the content and features will interact. When you have an entire perspective of the site, your Calgary Website Designers will begin developing content for individual pages, bearing in mind search engine optimization (SEO) to keep pages focused on a particular topic.
Calgary Website Designers can also assist you in developing an active social media marketing presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This way will be able to meet all of your site design and digital marketing requirements in one spot.
Website Designing
The art of robust web design Calgary is to maintain a balance between function and form. Shape your design using the information you obtained.
Content should be accommodated by design. Instead, content is frequently accommodated by design, and content receives very little attention. Accordingly, the most crucial thing you want your audience to notice in your website is the written content.
Visual Elements
You can start working on the visual brand, after defining the site structure. This may already be established depending on the customer, but you may also create a new visual style from scratch. This can be aided by tools like mood boards, element collages, and style tiles.
Launch and Promotion
It’s time to prepare and execute your site launch after everything is in order. This should include both scheduling and communication strategies for the launch.
You should also simultaneously plan for its promotion on your company website and social media. You can also promote the website with an email campaign. Further, if your business has a blog, share updates throughout the website development process to keep people engaged and enthused.
Conclusion
Having a website for your product or business is an essential aspect of online marketing. The audience who is surfing or visiting your page will be aware of the services you offer. Web design is critical, as it affects the perception of the customers regarding your services, products, and brand.
Legal translation services in Dubai is an industry that is growing at a fast pace, particularly in regions like UAE, where people from all across the globe can meet and interact for various professional and business motives. Legal translations, therefore, a service with a high demand currently and various service providers are entering into the market to capture the niche looking for services in the said area.
Since legal translation is a task of crucial nature and does not give a margin of errors and mistakes, this is one thing you need to be extremely careful about and choose the right service providers for it.
Make sure you do intensive research before choosing the service providers, read the reviews and try getting a relatively less important and less crucial document first to have an experience of the kind of expertise and professionalism that your chosen service provider has to offer.
But before you dive into this research, you must first understand what this service is all about, when you may need it, what do the service providers in the industry usually have to offer and only then will you be able to make the right choice.
What Is Included In Legal Translation Services In Dubai?
The legal translation may involve the translation of your legal documents while you are planning to move to a different country or the translation of your academic certificates while going abroad on scholarship or for higher education. This may include:
documents of national identity,
your passport,
your academic credentials,
birth certificate,
marriage certificates,
driving license
other kinds of employment or no-objection certificates that are obtained at various points during your academic or professional experiences.
A huge portion of the industry related to legal translation services in Dubai works for the businesses and corporate sector, involving their legal contracts, websites, annual reports, legal notices, marketing collaterals, newsletters and introductory documents of the sort.
Interpretation Services
Legal translation not just involves the translation of documents but interpretation services as well. Most of the service providers offer their interpretation services as well for the translated and non-translated documents, for your physical and online meetings of both professional and personal nature and of anything or anything where you may need interpretation for not being a native speaker.
UAE being the business hub and a great tourist attraction, houses a number of professional and academic conferences, meetings, and seminars and that is where the interpretation services are most needed. In the world fighting the pandemic today, the interpretation services are available for online meetings and webinars as well, so that people participating remotely from across the globe can be imparted the information unanimously.
Two types of interpretation are generally available in Dubai, called simultaneous interpretation and consecutive interpretation. In consecutive interpretation, the translator is allowed to share the stage with the speaker, but he has to wait for the speaker to pause between his speeches and translate and interpret only when the speaker signals.
This is different from simultaneous as the speaker is allowed to continue speaking in stretches of more than five minutes for as long as he wants to continue before taking an appropriate break during his message that would not distort the flow and crux of what is being communicated. The language that is chosen for translation and interpretation is according to the preference of the target audience.
The interpreter in this scenario does not have to memorize the entire message word by word but can present a general meaning of the original message without disturbing the basic essence of it. In consecutive interpretation, if the speaker wants to continue in long stretches, an interpreter can take shorthand notes for his/her convenience during the interpretation.
Simultaneous interpretation, on the other hand, is the real-time translation when the speaker is making the speech so that those who cannot understand the language spoken by the speaker can get the message simultaneously translated for them at the time of exposure.
Legal Translation Services In Dubai Enabling Foreign Teaching
Since the translation service involves expertise across different languages, a few service providers in legal translation Dubai also offer foreign language teaching courses. You can get short and long language courses for any desired language depending on the need and the degree to which you need to learn it.
Chinese, French, Arabic, English, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian are some of the most preferred languages learned through various diplomas and short courses offered by these service providers.
Translation Software, Tools And Equipment
Translation services also include the provision of various software tools and equipment needed for translation. There are multiple software, applications and tools that are used for real-time translation and you can get buy the original versions of these software tools for the authentic retailers in the service.
Editing And Proofreading Services
For the extra value-added and to be extra cautious about your critical translation tasks, it is better to get your translated documents or content cross-checked by getting proofreading and editing services from a different service provider.
While doing the work in haste, it is natural to make some mistakes and what one set of the eye may overlook may be caught by someone else reviewing the work altogether. So it is never a bad idea to get your already done translation proofread in order to avoid any possible errors.
Translation On A Freelance Basis
Legal translation services in Dubai are also available on a freelance basis. If you think that your work is not long-term but that you may need it repeatedly, going for a freelancer might be a suitable choice for you. This gives a pocket-friendly approach and is mostly adopted for easier translation tasks like video subtitles, web content, blogs and articles.
So now that you have a better idea of what legal translation services in Dubai are actually all about, you are now in a better position to make the right decision whenever you need to hire professional legal translation services in Dubai.
Do you want to expand your business and leverage available opportunities in the order side of the world? Cross-border mergers and acquisitions might be a perfect answer for you. In this blog, we would be introducing you to the global trends and help you increase the deal volume. We will also help you in weighing the benefits and risks.
Cross-border M&A
A cross-border acquisition is when one country acquires another company that is not based in your country. If you acquire a company in a different country, it is called a cross-border acquisition. It helps you expand your operations and also increases your business. Initially, you might experience a few hiccups, but a cross border M&A advisory would help you with a perfect plan to establish yourself in the global market scenario.
What drives the cross-border M&A
Growth is an ultimate goal of businesses; in a survey of middle-market business owners, it was identified that the most compelling business thing about mergers and acquisitions is to acquire a global position in the market. Factors such as market saturation or slowdown in the market and the need for diversification drives most of the cross-border M&A. Regulatory uncertainties are another factor. In the home market, you might not be able to reach your full potential. But when you reach an overseas market, the earnings elevate, and the technology and productivity help you achieve your short-term and long-term business goals.
Strategies for M&A
Risks
Just like any other factor, mergers and acquisitions are equally found in the cross-border M&A. There a number of factors that can impact the opportunities and risks in the cross-border M&A transactions.
Some of the common risk factors are accuracy, management, financial information, meeting targets, target compliance with US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-bribery and anti-money regulations. There are many other factors that you must focus on that can act as a potential risk to the merger and acquisitions.
33% of the executives said that pre and post-deal planning are highly important. 35% of the executives said that the aggressive negotiations pay off much better. 31% of executives want to be voted that research of the target market potential and company culture is very important.
Opportunities
As we talked about in the earlier section, the global integration activities are complex and may result in delays. Not always what you think would play out perfectly well. Delays are an integral part of a business; you cannot always be 100% sure of the deals you make cross-border.
The global integration strategy and country-specific integration sequencing could lead to integration sequences and lead to business synergies, disruption, operations, legal challenges, and abandonment of the integrations. You have to turn the risk factors into opportunities.
Areas of focus for executives considering cross border M&A
Here are a few areas of focus that you can use in the post-deal period that can help you with the regulations, planning, and executions. It allows you to efficiently develop and implement their cross-border m&a integrations and sequencing plans.
Know the laws
The country you want to invest in would require you to collect all the company data and regulate the requirements. It makes sure that you don’t face any hiccups during the process and makes sure the sequencing decisions are well informed.
Planning
Develop an efficient plan to integrate all the necessary processes such as finances, sales, and employees that can be realized quickly. The faster you start the integration process, the better it would ensure the deal goes smoothly.
Execution
A cohesive central governance structure can help you engage the in-country team that helps in the execution of the plan smoothly. It also ensures the mitigation of the risk and allows you to overcome the hurdles at the right time without encountering all the problems altogether.
Six Sigma has become very popular since its inception, but it seems that the Lean Six Sigma methodologies are becoming the most widely preferred by most industry types. The concept relies on reducing waste, and reduced waste most often means reduced cost.
Lean Six Sigma methodologies allow companies to employ the most cost-effective business processes and quality control, which keeps them thriving in the competitive business world. With Lean processes, companies can work to reduce their operational costs and eliminate wasteful parts of their processes.
A reduction in waste along with more effective business processes most often equates to decreased costs and increased profits. Any company can benefit from increased profits! Another benefit that comes from implementing lean processes includes increased quality along with more efficient ways of producing that quality.
Lean Six Sigma might also be known as Lean Service, Lean Enterprise or Lean Manufacturing as these are all different forms or names of the Lean methods and it will depend on the method type being used. These methods are also designed to work well with the other six sigma concepts being used in any company. These methods are very useful and effective for manufacture and service companies.
The companies that decide to implement these methodologies will find that they are able to speed up the business processes of their company without affecting the quality of their products. When a company is able to optimize their business processes to the fullest extent, they will be able to reduce their operational costs and survive in the turbulent economy. Any operational costs that are due to maintenance of any additional inventory will be greatly decreased.
Not to mention, the processes that are needed to clear customer orders in the specified time will be reduced and there will be fewer overall customer complaints. Like other Six Sigma online certification, Lean Six Sigma focuses on training employees to the point that they are familiar with the tools and techniques that will be applied.
There are many benefits to using Lean Six Sigma. One of the main benefits is that this process will involve the use of more advanced tools and techniques to help companies reduce production cycle times, reduce operational costs, expand their capacity and improve on the overall productivity. When it is applied along with the standard 6 Sigma concepts, it will give further help in identifying and resolving any sort of quality issues that are vital in retaining customers and building interest with new customers.
This process also requires company employees to work together in teams for success. This results in more well-rounded employees who are on the whole happier than employees who work alone.
We have previously identified drone technology as one of the top applications of GIS in 2019 and beyond. Amazon’s Prime Air drone project, which is expected to officially launch sometime in the next few months, is a perfect example of how several GIS technologies, artificial intelligence and drones have come together to create the future of unmanned aerial systems (UASs). We’d like to take a step back and examine how Amazon approached using geographic information science (GIS) to address some of the common challenges associated with using autonomous aerial systems for mapping and dynamic environment navigation.
For those interested in getting involved in cutting-edge technologies that make autonomous aerial systems possible, USC offers a Graduate Certificate in Remote Sensing and Earth Observation. Students will not only gain exposure to the latest remote sensing technologies and applications, they will be able to develop their core skills in spatial analysis, learning to collect spatial information and arrive at actionable insight.
What is Amazon’s Project?
Although it remains unclear when exactly the project will take off, Amazon has been creating drones to ensure fast and safe aerial delivery for its Prime service. In the latest prototypes, the drones have the ability to automatically maneuver in the air, respond to obstacles and fly across multiple axes. Amazon is bringing together a few key technologies that play a critical role in modern geographic information science and technology:
Artificial Intelligence
Remote Sensing and Imaging
Photogrammetry
Robotics
Although the use of algorithms in remote sensing and drone technology is not a new trend, Amazon faces a few unique challenges. The company is trying to build entirely autonomous drones to minimize manual interaction and to reduce the cost of its shipping service. Historically, drone technology has included a mixture of remote-controlled and autonomous functionality with limited capability to react to dynamic environments and obstacles. As a result, drones have most often been used in cases where there is little risk of collisions or where the environment is known.
By contrast, Amazon’s drones must be able to respond to changes in terrain and in the environment, such as when encountering other moving objects in the air. They must also be able to operate in places that may not be fully mapped and react in environments they’ve never been in before. While this might have seemed impossible to the first people who used drones for GIS mapping, advancements in image recognition and machine learning, along with faster and lighter on-board processors, have made it more feasible for autonomous drones to navigate chaotic environments.
USC’s Spatial Science School launched its Online GIS Master Degree Program, get certification and be part of GIS mapping with Amazon’s drones.
Drones and GISMapping: An Overview
Drone technology has been crucial in developing modern GIS applications and for maintaining up-to-date GIS data. Remote-controlled drones have played an important role in lowering the cost of collecting geospatial data and making it easier to collect spatial data in dangerous environments. Since the integration of GPS technology with these devices, it has also become possible to fly drones over much larger distances and BVLOS or beyond visible line of sight.
Additional technology advancements — in areas such as artificial intelligence, imaging and image recognition, edge computing and remote sensing — have contributed to enabling drones to be used for more efficient and comprehensive GIS analysis.
For example, in addition to spatial information related to geological structures, modern multispectral sensing technology can also be used to acquire data related to the chemical composition of agriculture in an area. Meanwhile, advances in drone artificial intelligence have made it possible to more accurately track wildlife and other dynamic elements of an environment. Here are a few other examples of GIS analysis that can be enhanced with drones:
Matching consumer demographic data with spatial information about the places they live
Validation of existing GIS data sets
Weather monitoring and prediction
Habitat surveying
Landscape modeling
Assessing damage following a disaster
While these are just a few examples, the potential uses for drones are expanding rapidly, and in conjunction with the evolution of onboard image processing, so is the potential use for AI and GIS mapping software. Furthermore, the weight and size of sensors continues to decline, making it possible for drones to carry far more advanced hardware.
However, there are a few common challenges to using autonomous drones that remain. Here are a few of the big issues and how Amazon is approaching them:
Challenges with Autonomous Drone Technology
1. Network Latency
A major challenge associated with making autonomous drones safe to use in highly populated areas is the potential for network disruption. With many artificial intelligence-powered drones, the actual AI is stored via the cloud. Onboard sensors would send image data to a server or another computer to be analyzed, and the AI would send its analysis back to the vehicle.
This means that there is significant potential for delays in the drones’ decision-making and ability to make rapid flight adjustments. Historically, the solution to this problem has been to design drones specifically for low latency. In Amazon’s case, however, the company’s goal is to make its drones “independently safe.” To achieve this, much of the analysis happens on the aircraft itself. As Amazon Prime Air VP Gur Kimchi told TechCrunch, this allows the drone to adapt to its environment even when it loses connection to the network.
2. Software Failures
It’s already pretty terrible when you get the blue screen of death on your computer, but it would be even more horrifying if the equivalent happened to a drone flying toward your house. Amazon is addressing this problem by including multiple layers of redundancy in its drones. This includes multiple operating systems to protect against critical failures as well as multiple types of sensors, so that if one sensor misses an object in the surrounding environment, others will detect it.
The onboard software is also capable of multiple approaches to GIS analysis, including photogrammetry models, Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM), segmentation and classification. According to Kimchi, all the different models and sensors must be aligned, or the drone will either delay delivery or abort its mission until it can safely move into an area.
3. Hardware Failures
In addition to software failures, companies making autonomous drones have to address possible hardware and equipment failures. For example, what happens if a rotor or engine breaks?
The Amazon drones are built with a large degree of hardware redundancy so they can continue operating when one component fails. Another precaution built into the design is that they can glide, meaning that it is possible for them to make an emergency landing if multiple components fail at once. In these scenarios, the drones are programmed to land away from people or objects to avoid injuries or property damage.
Amazon and the Future of Drone GIS Mapping
This project presents an impressive milestone for the use of drones across many disciplines. Although Amazon has pulled together these technologies for its business, there is considerable potential for the technology in countless academic disciplines, other business sectors and in government and military operations. As drones powered by artificial intelligence become more cost effective, we will be able to capture GIS data far more efficiently while also gaining the ability to gather a greater depth of information than ever before.
