DES PERES HALL · SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY

Facilities

The lab is equipped with dozens of remote sensing instruments, HPC computing, and mobile platforms — from UAV-mounted hyperspectral and LiDAR sensors to benchtop spectroradiometers and a fleet of DoD-compliant drones, backed by petabyte-scale storage and GPU compute.

15 DoD-Compliant UAVs

1PB Disk Storage

50 Dell Workstations

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INSTRUMENTS

Sensors & Equipment

All (17) Hyperspectral (7) LiDAR (4) Thermal (3) Multispectral (3)

Hyperspectral

HySpex Mjolnir VS-620

400–2500nm 490 bands

Read spec

Collects data across the full VNIR and SWIR range (400–2500 nm) with 490 bands at 3 nm (VNIR) and 5.1 nm (SWIR) spectral resolution. Integrated on an Inspired Flight 1200A airframe with a shared onboard data acquisition unit and APX-20 navigation system, with coaligned VNIR/SWIR optical axes for accurate coregistration.

Hyperspectral

Headwall Co-Aligned

400–2500nm 4cm/px @ 60m

Read spec

Mounted on an Alta-X drone platform, providing hyperspectral imagery from 400–2500 nm across 270 VNIR bands and 267 SWIR bands at 6 nm and 10 nm resolution respectively. Integrated with an APX-15 GPS/IMU in a compact, lightweight enclosure.

Hyperspectral

Headwall Nano VNIR

400–1000nm 270 bands

Read spec

A pushbroom VNIR sensor (400–1000 nm) collecting 270 bands at 6 nm resolution, integrated with APX-15 GPS/IMU. Mounted on a DJI M600 UAV, delivering 4 cm/pixel spatial resolution when flown at 60 m above ground.

Hyperspectral

Hyspex VNIR3000N + SWIR640

Benchtop 400–2500nm

Read spec

A world-class indoor benchtop and tripod scanning system covering VNIR (400–1000 nm, 300 bands, 1.2 nm resolution) and SWIR (960–2500 nm, 360 bands, 1.7 nm resolution). Ideal for detailed material characterization in agriculture, mineralogy, and environmental monitoring.

Hyperspectral

SPECIM IQ

400–1000nm Portable

Read spec

A compact, battery-operated hyperspectral camera for on-the-go fieldwork, capturing VNIR data from 400–1000 nm. Features a touchscreen interface and onboard processing, with enough battery and storage for a full working day in the field.

Hyperspectral

PSR+ & PSR+ 3500 Spectroradiometer

350–2500nm Handheld / tripod

Read spec

Two Spectral Evolution spectroradiometers, handheld, tripod-mounted, or backpack-carried for field use. The PSR+ and PSR+ 3500 both capture VNIR/SWIR data (350–2500 nm) at 2151 channels, with spatial resolution ranging from 2.8–8 nm depending on wavelength — used for vegetation analysis, mineral identification, and soil research.

Hyperspectral

Multi-Camera Aerial Robot

Custom gimbal Hyper + thermal + multispec

Read spec

A Bayspec OCI-F-1000 hyperspectral camera, ICI thermal camera, and Parrot Sequoia multispectral camera integrated onto a multirotor platform via a gimbal engineered and 3D-printed in-house by RSL students, ensuring stable, precise sensor alignment during flight.

LiDAR

Riegl Vux-120

100° FOV 2.4MHz pulse rate

Read spec

A lightweight, versatile airborne laser scanner with a 100° field of view and pulse repetition rate up to 2.4 MHz. Offers 2 TB of internal storage and integrates with external IMU/GNSS (APX-20) systems, alternating its measuring beam between nadir, +10°, and -10° for comprehensive data capture.

LiDAR

Riegl miniVux-3UAV

360° FOV 300kHz pulse rate

Read spec

A lightweight, compact airborne laser scanner for UAVs with a pulse repetition rate up to 300 kHz — up to 100,000 measurements per second across a 360° field of view. Multiple-target capability gives it excellent vegetation penetration. Integrated with an APX-15 IMU/GNSS system on an Inspired Flight drone.

LiDAR

Velodyne HDL-32E

±2cm accuracy 695,000 pts/sec

Read spec

Integrated on a Matrice 600 Pro with high-resolution IMU/GNSS. Weighs 2.4 kg and uses 32 LiDAR channels (+10.67° to -30.67°) with a rotating-head design for real-time 360° horizontal field of view, generating up to 695,000 points/second at up to 100 m range with ±2 cm typical accuracy.

LiDAR

Leica Pegasus Backpack

Wearable 2–3cm accuracy

Read spec

A wearable mobile 3D scanning and mapping system for indoor and outdoor use, with two Velodyne VLP-32/16 laser scanners and five digital video cameras. Uses Fused SLAM with an onboard GNSS/IMU inertial navigation system to geo-reference LiDAR point clouds and camera images at 2–3 cm relative accuracy.

Thermal

MicroTABI-640

3.7–4.8μm Drift-free

Read spec

A cooled thermal imaging camera delivering stable, drift-free thermal maps at high spatial resolution, capturing in the 3.7–4.8 μm range. An internal blackbody calibration source ensures continuous, accurate calibration of thermal data.

Thermal

ICI 8640P Thermal Camera

±1°C accuracy 8cm GSD @ 60m

Read spec

Provides thermal radiance and temperature measurements accurate to ±1°C, with remote electronic focus and zoom for hard-to-reach or hazardous locations. Achieves 8 cm spatial resolution when flown 60 m above ground.

Thermal

FLIR Vue Pro R

±5°C accuracy 17cm GSD @ 60m

Read spec

Built around a FLIR Boson thermal sensor with 640×512 resolution and a 30Hz frame rate, delivering true temperature data accurate to ±5°C. Integrated with an Altum-PT gimbal, achieving 17 cm spatial resolution from 60 m above ground.

Multispectral

Parrot Sequoia

16MP RGB + Red Edge + NIR

Read spec

A small, compact multispectral sensor capturing 16-megapixel images in both visible (RGB) and non-visible (Red Edge, Near Infrared) bands, enabling detailed analysis of plant health and vigor.

Multispectral

Custom Camera Array

5 cameras Nadir + 45°

Read spec

Two in-house multi-camera array systems, each integrating five imaging sensors — thermal, multispectral, NDVI, and two RGB cameras mounted at different angles (nadir and 45°) — providing true ortho images, topography, and height data.

Multispectral

MicaSense RedEdge-P

2cm/px @ 60m 5 bands

Read spec

The lab owns 6 RedEdge-P sensors, each with a high-resolution panchromatic band for pan-sharpened imagery at 2 cm spatial resolution from 60 m altitude, plus five narrow, scientific-grade multispectral bands for vegetation indices, stress detection, and biomass estimation.

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CALIBRATION & VALIDATION

Ground Validation

Every airborne and satellite dataset the lab collects is calibrated and validated on the ground — field spectroscopy, canopy measurements, and GPS-tagged ground-truthing tie remote sensing data back to physical reality before it's used in any model.

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HPC & SOFTWARE

Computing & Software

nVidia H100 GPUs 1 Petabyte Storage 50 Dell Workstations ArcGIS Trimble GPS Pix4D ENVI + IDL SARscape Photogrammetry Suite Atmospheric Correction