Glencar Construction, was hired to
survey the quarry. This assignment is
well within the capabilities of Sky
Grid, who are used to surveying
buildings sites and other closely
monitored locations, such as large
earthworks projects.
I N D U S T R Y
Figure 1: Digital twin of the surveyed quarry landfill.
Construction and Drone Surveying
Project Details
3
Registering Sky Grid's flight was
especially important as the photos
were taken at a height of 120 meters
to capture the size of the site, which
is higher than may be expected of
drone flights. This adherence to
important rules also meant following
regulations about being within the
line of sight of the drone. Sky Grid's
team drove to a different point on
the site for the second part of the
mission to ensure they could always
see the drone as it completed the
flight plan.
The scale of the project was huge:
Sky Grid had to survey 327 acres as
accurately as possible. They achieved
this by using Pix4Dcloud Advanced
and Pix4Dsurvey. By using an
integrated SIM tied into the Leica
Smartnet network through the
controller on a DJI Phantom 4 RTK,
Sky Grid's operative did not need
GCPs to improve the accuracy of
their results due to this innovative
solution. This use of technology and
Sky Grid's expertise meant the
process of surveying the site was
extremely efficient. After only 90
minutes on site, Sky Grid had
collected all of the images and data
needed. Surprising the client with the
speed of their data collection, Sky
Grid's operative headed back to the
office to start processing the data
immediately.
Challenges in Aerial Surveying
Quarries
Boosting Efficiency with
Accurate Quarry Mapping
Naturally, there are often challenges
when working in the field. There were
several obstacles to overcome for Sky
Grid. The first was the sheer size of
the site: 320 acres to be covered by
one drone which needed to be within
sight of the pilot. It took two flights
for the DJI Phantom 4 RTK to
complete the flight plan. Not only that
but the location had a busy airspace,
which meant that as the pilot, Sky
Grid's operative had to register the
flight with nearby aviation authorities.
Respecting air space regulations is
vital for planning a drone flight, as
breaking those rules can result in a
large fine and cause disruption to
local airspace users and authorities.
Sky Grid, a specialized surveying
company partnered with warehouse
and logistics construction company
Project location
Area surveyed
Flight time
Hardware
Software
Total number of images
Outputs
UK
327 acres
32 minutes at 120m
Phantom 4 RTK
Pix4Dcloud Advanced
828 images
Orthomosaic, DSM, contour lines, quality report
& Pix4Dsurvey
Despite the range of challenges Sky
Grid faced with this project, they
*This project was completed in July, 2020.
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