Drone Program Attracts Senator Warner
Print this Article | Send to Colleague
"We use drones for about every other blast to understand if we’re using the right amount of explosives," said Cedar Mountain Stone owner Ed Dalrymple. "We can tell that by looking down at it."
Also in attendance were Germanna Community College's Dr. David Sam and Ben Sherman who partner with Cedar Mountain Stone in a drone training program for commercial applications, an initiative the college hopes to grow.
Germanna has 42 students who have completed drone classes since they launched last fall and another half-dozen or so are enrolled right now.
"We’re looking to expand training in the kind of things they can do — surveying, construction inspections, agricultural," Sam said.
Carter Iseman, Director of Training and Development for Virginia Asphalt Association attended the demonstration in hopes of using the drone program to further the development of the Virginia Education Center for Asphalt Technology (VECAT) a partnership between Virginia Asphalt Association, Virginia Department of Transportation and Germanna Community College.
"We are using drones as part of the training curriculum for the VECAT program. The drones allow us to take aerial views of asphalt plants and equipment so our students can see the overall interworkings of the pieces and parts of these plants. We can then pair the aerial views provided by the drones with educational explanations of what we are seeing for a learning opportunity that is more robust for the student. This training can be used either in the classroom or online as part of our remote training program."
Ben Sherman oversees the drone program at Germanna in partnership with the Washington, D.C. office of senseFly, a Swiss company that develops and produces the unmanned aerial vehicles. Brandy Station-based Stilwell Technologies, a robotics company, is another Germanna contractor.
Drone use is quicker, easier and cheaper than manual methods, Sherman said, noting that senseFly
on Thursday mapped the entire 150-acre quarry in about an hour. A drone was also recently used to inspect the new bridge going in at U.S. 29 and Route 666, he said.
For more information on the Cedar Mountain Stone, Germanna Community College drone program contact Ben Sherman at bsherman@germanna.edu
For complete Culpeper Star Exponent Article click here.
