Conducting Conventional manual topographical surveys for collecting Contours,
details of ground structures, study of natural drainage patterns etc. in the initial
stages of the project of project is very important task. The task involves mobilization
of a survey team with optical instruments such as Total station, Theodolite etc.
who then trace the entire area by physically traversing. The task therefore is quite
time consuming and challenging particularly when the area has access restrictions
due to dense vegetation or other reasons and always poses threat of venomous
reptiles.
The Proposed area also posed a similar challenge. The area was thickly covered
with dense vegetation and trees which provided no clear line of sight for carrying
out Conventional Topographical survey, making the same a very challenging task.
An added constraint was a low lying waste water ponds with danger of reptiles
putting safety of ground team at risk. Also, because of these challenges, there was
high probability of errors getting incorporated in surveyed data.
The challenge was than overcome with use of advanced technology of Aerial
Photogrammetric Survey through Drone. It was for first time in Cement Industry
that Engineering grade ground survey was being conducted by use of drone for
a new project. The survey requires a team of just 2 nos. surveyors who fly the
drone from a safe location all above the area at pre planned and configured flight
lines making it perfectly safe. Thousands of overlapping HD images are taken in
which all images are geotagged with universal coordinate system through GPS.
The images are then combined in special software to produce 2D and 3D models
of high quality which provide complete {x-y-z} coordinate details of all points of
the surveyed area. The task was thus achieved in almost 70% less time and 80%
lesser cost and with much higher quality data and much higher accuracy. The
survey was also extended to derive 3D models of existing Line 1 & 2 and Mines
area. Looking at the benefits derived from the survey, it was then also extended
for regular progress capturing of Project and Progress reporting in the form of
walkthrough videos.
The data collected from drone not just provides the survey contours but real views
of the area in the form of 2D and 3D models. These engineering grade interactive
models can be used for deriving following useful information’s:
- Coordinates of any point
- Length/Distance measurements
- Area measurements
- Volumetric Measurements
- Ground profile sections
The drone survey can be used for following important applications: - Topographical survey to generate ground profile and contours
- Generation of high quality 2D and 3 D models