Drones are powerful tools to help the cartography and topography industry. They can perform 3D mapping, topographic surveys, photogrammetry and topography work effectively flying above the ground. Whether you want to add another tool to your services or want to learn more about the world of drones, here's everything you need to know about drone topography. Drone land surveying is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to assess large plots of land.
When equipped with high-tech downward-facing sensors and cameras, a drone can quickly capture images and data in the terrain below it. Then, advanced mapping software processes the drone data and converts it into high-quality 3D maps and models that accurately represent the Earth's geography and topography. In a nutshell, a drone survey is an aerial survey conducted by a drone. Using sensors, such as RGB or multispectral cameras, or LiDAR loads, drones can capture a large amount of data quickly.
Aerial surveys combine sensors together with ground points and aerial targets suitable for topography to align the data with the ground precisely. Drone topography allows the surveyor to collect data more safely and quickly than traditional methods. Construction, waste management, aggregates and mining companies are constantly discovering new efficiencies in their operations thanks to advances in drone reconnaissance technology. When you want to complete a drone survey, you follow those basic principles, but you use a drone to gather the information.
While multi-rotor drones are easier to fly, those fixed-wing models will shine when you need them to survey a few hundred acres at a time. Depending on topography software and data sensors, a drone can achieve several types of results. Drone surveys help urban planners to quickly gather updated data from a complex urban area with fewer staff to study the existing social and environmental conditions of the sites. Drone topography generates high-resolution orthomosaic maps and 3D models of areas to create accurate cadastral maps.
The images obtained from drone topography can be used in 3D mapping software, from which volumetric measurements are obtained. Hot water lines, water supply pipes, steam supply pipes and condensation return lines can be precisely monitored with the help of a drone. When the drone is equipped with this software, data is collected to produce a high-density point cloud for the survey site. To perform highly accurate drone inspections, it is necessary to precisely locate the position of a drone in flight.
When the drone surveys the land, it will use the RGB camera to photograph the ground from different angles. Surveyors can perform highly accurate distance and surface measurements using high-resolution orthomosaic photographs of drone topography. In this beginner's guide, we'll discuss what drone topographic survey is, its advantages compared to traditional terrestrial studies, and the different types of cartographic and measurement data it can offer.
