UAV Centre

cutting-edge UAV and drone solutions, research and education

The ITC Faculty at the University of Twente has a long tradition in using UAVs, drones, mapping and photogrammetry. We use drones and unmanned aerial vehicles for geoscience applications, research and capacity-building projects. Over the last decade, ITC has given educational courses on drones and the use of UAVs worldwide.

Through our UAV Centre at ITC, our team delivers cutting-edge UAV solutions and new education. We offer innovative solutions and promote the larger adoption of UAV technology, drones and photogrammetry in various contexts. We customize our education on UAV technology, mapping and Unmanned Aerial Systems. At ITC, we use modern teaching styles on drones and UAVs to fit the expectations of our students.

Fields of expertise

3D mapping and modelling

We can offer education and consultancies on:

• UAV flight planning and efficient data acquisition with different typologies of sensors
• Accurate photogrammetric data processing
• Point cloud processing and digital model generation for different applications
• Orthophoto and map generation
• Active and passive sensors data processing for different uses

Biodiversity mapping and ecological monitoring

• Mapping of plant species and communities
• Long-term ecological monitoring
• Estimation of forest structure and biomass
• Habitat mapping, monitoring and reporting of conservation status
• Animal detection and density estimation.

Drone customization

The ITC UAV centre has a wide experience in the customization of hardware and software components to enable UAVs to perform complex missions in specific contexts. 

Classification and object detection

The ITC UAV centre is at the forefront of the development and deployment of real-time solutions for novel and exciting applications specifically tailored for UAV images.

Disaster management and hazards monitoring

The UAV centres' expertise in disaster risk management is extensive. Ranging from hazard assessment and monitoring to early warning, event monitoring and response, up to post-event recovery.

Land administration

We address land administration challenges with UAVs. They are able to bridge the gap between field surveys and space/airborne surveys and promise flexible, cheap, real-time and fast data acquisition.

Water resources

We use UAV technology for flood risk analysis and study the irrigation-stress-production of crops and assess the environmental vulnerability.

UAV and drone research 

The UAV centres' research focuses on the development of innovative solutions to solve real-world problems with the use of UAV technology. Research is conducted in a team consisting of ITC staff, Postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates.

Courses using UAV technology

The ITC Faculty has been offering education on the use of UAV technology and drones for geoscience for more than ten years. With our UAV centre, we use our knowledge and expertise to offer both traditional face-to-face and online courses tailored to address your needs. The online material is organized in modular educational elements, covering the different expertise of the UAV centre. These modules have different levels of detail and can be structured in different typologies of courses to address the needs of our students. The educational material on UAVs, remote sensing, photogrammetry and drones is continuously updated and improved following the development of ITC research. Reach out to our team to learn more. 

The below courses using UAV technology are part of our Master's Geo-information Science and Earth Observation.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Autonomous Robots (Master's Robotics course)
• Cadastral Data Acquisition Techniques and Dissemination Methods
• Earth Observation with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
• Earth Observation (Minor)
• Introduction to Hazards and Risk
• Scene Understanding with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Contact us if you are interested in following one of these courses: uav-centre-itc@utwente.nl.

Capacity building with UAV and drone technology

ITC ran several capacity-building projects dealing with unmanned aerial vehicles and drones all over the world. Building on these previous experiences and being fed by ITC’s research and innovation, the UAV centre offers consultancies and tailored-made solutions to answer your specific needs. The UAV centre leverages the cross-disciplinary expertise of the ITC Faculty to conceive innovative solutions and face societal and environmental challenges. Our solutions range from hardware or software implementation to the analysis and interpretation of data for decision making support. Go to our 'Expertise' page to learn more about drones and UAV projects at ITC, related to topics like 3D modelling, disaster management and biodiversity mapping.

The UAV Centre experts

The UAV centre leverages an interdisciplinary pool of researchers and experts. Together they can implement customized and innovative solutions and deliver multi-disciplinary education.