September 15, 2017

Doing Your First Drone Mapping Project: The Essentials

You do not have to be a professional to undertake a drone project. With the right tools, right expertise and direction, anyone can be a drone mapping expert. All it takes is the willingness to learn. Let’s get straight into the steps. Select a Drone The first step is to select the right drone. There are many options out there. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars on high-tech specialized drones such as an unmanned LiDAR system. You can get an excellent user friendly drone off Amazon for less than $500. Just because they are low-priced does not mean they are not capable. As a matter of fact, in the right hands these drones can create survey-grade maps. My favorites are the DJI Phantom 3, DJI 4 and the DJI Mavic Pro. These come with good high-resolution cameras. They are also great to use with your smartphones. Choose the Mapping Solution You need a mapping solution for your drone mapping job. You will need an application for planning. With this app, you can input the data, and the application will pilot your drone at the right orientation, and so on. It will decide when to take the pictures, […]
September 14, 2017

Aerial Inspection

Aerial inspections are important as they offer a bird’s eye view, which helps in identifying potential problems and faults that are not visible from the ground. Therefore, it forms an integral part of your inspection program by ensuring your property remains in great shape as possible. Building and aerial land inspection is increasingly becoming one of the most effective ways to examine faults on complex or large sites. Aerial inspection offers a safer, quicker, as well as cost effective and a comprehensive way to inspects you network as compared to climbing checks and foot patrols. This is because of the use of drones or helicopters, which provide a more flexible approach. Besides, aerial inspection applies a consistent method that is standardised to achieve the target condition assessment. The inspection produces a permanent imagery record for regulatory, auditing and legal purposes and offers a written summary report. This report allows maintenance prioritisation and provides tailored information that helps in enhancing your decision-making on investment and strategic planning. Using aerial inspection services helps in overcoming the shortcomings of traditional foot patrols. This is because it combines the ability of the machine used in taking photographs with the skills of the photographer to […]
September 14, 2017

Discover The Truth Behind The Fast Rising Aerial Drone Survey Trend

For 3D high-resolution aerial maps, thermal or visual asset inspections, stock pile volume analysis or any kind of process that needs aerial sensing, drone survey comes in handy to offer the desired result in a reliable, accurate, and cost effective manner without compromising on quality. Different industries such as natural resource management, agriculture, and forestry all bank on UAV technology for the best inspection and aerial mapping services. Land surveyors are embracing drones in their activities, greatly reducing costs and minimizing data collection time. Data obtained from drones is in the geo-referenced aerial digital image formats, with a 1.5cm resolution per pixel. Data points ranging in millions can be gathered within a single short flight. eBee RTK survey drones save a lot of time. GNSS/RTK receiver systems are flying rovers with the ability to receive data corrections streaming through a VRS or a base station to achieve absolute X, Y, Z accuracy down to 3cm eliminating the need for ground control points. Large amounts of data collection means more data processing time. This is however overshadowed by drones which make huge time cuts. Data collection that once took weeks to capture now takes just a day to achieve.  This also […]