Here at Stratum Consultants Ltd we are always looking for ways to use the latest in technological advances to improve the deliverables to our clients and contractors.
The latest surveying tool we are using is drone technology. The drone is an accurate and fast way to obtain data. In some cases, this can be faster and provide more detail than traditional survey methods.
Drone Set-Up
The drone provides us with:
High resolution, up to date aerial photography
High resolution oblique images
High resolution video flyover
Digital terrain model (DTM)
Colourised point clouds
Surface contours
The main parts of our business that we use the drone for are:
Topographic surveys (down to centimetre accuracy, as required)
Volumes and/or earthworks
Site progression
Site photography
The drone is accurate, and can provide:
Centimetre accuracy
1 point for every 3 centimetres
10 million points in around 30 minutes
Overall, it can cover 100 hectares in around 30 minutes
We have also found there are many other positive features for undertaking a drone survey.
This includes being:
Great for hard to access locations (e.g. buildings, roofs, swamp, water, cliffs/slips).
Safer in dangerous areas (e.g. machinery working, hazardous sites - electricity, chemicals).
Good for orthomosaic photos (e.g. relative, accurate, and measurable full site photos).
Great for capturing all required data in one survey.
3DPoint Cloud with Raw Photos Positions Over-layed
We have been using the drone on many of our larger projects recently and will continue to use it more often moving forward. The drone provides a more efficient use, and in many cases a safer working environment, for our staff, while also providing cost and time efficiencies for our valued clients.
For more detail on the use of drone survey technology for your project, then please contact one of our experienced Surveyors.
A brief Colourised Point Cloud video captured by our drone can be viewed below: