What are the benefits of drones in engineering?
Reduce costs – Avoid downtime or interruptions with drone data capture. Accurate and up-to-date data aids planning and design, allowing timely decision-making and helping avoid costly rework.
Accuracy – Capture data efficiently and cost-effectively at engineering accuracies for planning, cost estimations, and pre- and as-built surveys.
Safety – Map and measure inaccessible or dangerous infrastructure and sites without putting surveyors and engineers at risk.
Timely delivery – Understand projects in their real-world context and plan accordingly. Map large areas at a time without downtime or interruption. Efficient data capture saves time and helps deliver projects on time.
Automation – High-resolution drone data can be used in automated workflows which speed up projects and reduce labor costs.
Compatibility – Produce data that can be used with most engineering software solutions and complement all stages of a project. Complement drone data with other sensor data such as laser scanners.
What are the applications of drones in engineering?
Feasibility assessment – Fixed-wing drones can be used to capture accurate project and site conditions to determine a project’s feasibility, assist in cost estimations, and to plan and visualize work and logistics before a project start.
Survey and mapping – Reduce time and costs to regularly map and survey infrastructure to a high spatial accuracy without downtime or interruption to other site work.
As-builts and digital twins – Capture and visualize infrastructure as it occurs in the real world. Work with up-to-date data for virtual design and planning, and avoid costly errors and reworks caused by out-of-date designs and information.
Monitoring progress – Stay on top of projects with accurate and up-to-date data to assess project schedules, track work progress, and adjust schedules as needed.
Reporting – Generate volume and cut-and-fill reports, calculate costs based on area, and report progress quickly.
Infrastructure inspections – Map and inspect road surfaces, power lines, water bodies, and more. Use this to inform and plan maintenance, and for compliance reporting.
Environmental compliance – Capture accurate conditions prior to project commencement, monitor and mitigate environmental harm, restore damaged environments to their original state. Monitor and proof compliance throughout engineering works.
Coordination and presentation – Visualize projects for clients, investors, and other stakeholders, and enhance collaboration and coordination once a project starts.
What types of drone data outputs can you expect?
Orthomosaic map – A geospatially accurate and detailed 2D representation of a site. Accurate orthomosaic maps help agronomists monitor fields and extract other insights.
Digital Surface Model (DSM) – DSMs accurately depict elevation and are useful in water management and soil monitoring applications. In bare-Earth projects the DSM can also be used as a digital elevation model (DEM).
3D mesh map – A three-dimensional texture (mesh) map with X, Y, Z data can be used for cluster analyses or to characterize crop sizes.
Point clouds – Point cloud maps comprise millions of individual points featuring X, Y, Z geospatial coordinates, and can be used in volume and cut-and-fill measurements, or distance and area calculations, which can be used in costing and other planning.
Contour lines – Topographic maps take X and Y coordinates from the aerial drone data to generate precise contour intervals.
What software do you need?
- eMotion software is a leading drone software solution for flight planning, geotagging and photo stitching. From here the imagery can be exported for further processing in Pix4D and other software.
- Measure Ground Control software can be used to plan flights, manage drone fleets, and for mapping and data analyses.
- PIX4Dmapper and Pix4Dmatic photogrammetry software is a popular solution for accurate infrastructure mapping and analyses at scale.
