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Elevate Your Projects: An Introduction to Drone Services

Unlocking Potential: Drone Data Collection Transforms Surveys, Inspections, Site Assessments, and Beyond

In order to evaluate the suitability of a 200-acre site for a series of new structures, a construction company enlisted the services of DFW AirView for a survey to gather topographical data of the complex terrain. Traditionally, such a task would have required multiple teams and taken several weeks to collect data across such a vast area. Subsequently, additional time would have been needed to prepare the data for input into AutoCAD and the creation of a topographical map consisting of a few thousand points, gathered every 25 feet.

However, the results exceeded expectations.

The survey was completed in less than a day, and to their satisfaction, the company was able to generate a densely detailed map populated with nearly 30 million points.

This remarkable achievement was made possible through the utilization of drone services.

Inspections, surveys, and other forms of terrain-related data collection have long faced challenges such as insufficient automation, scalability, and repeatability. These limitations not only make such endeavors expensive and labor-intensive but also constrain the possibilities in data collection.

DFW AirView offers a solution to these challenges. They gather more data in less time, accomplishing in one hour what would take 25 hours manually, and at a reduced cost, sometimes as low as one-sixth of the cost. Moreover, they operate in situations that would be prohibitively difficult, dangerous, or impossible for manual data collection. Additionally, drones can achieve an accuracy rate that exceeds manual methods.

This illustrates the transformative potential of drone and aerial data collection today. It enables organizations across various sectors and markets to harness advanced technology to gather invaluable data in unprecedented ways.

Drones are not just problem-solvers; they are opportunity-enablers. Data collection using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including photogrammetry and advanced LiDAR technologies, not only replaces previous survey techniques but also drives innovative, previously unimaginable use-cases.

However, as drone technology is relatively new to most industrial applications, many organizations are unaware of the extent of their capabilities and efficiencies. Those who have attempted a do-it-yourself approach may not fully grasp their potential, facing skill and technology gaps. Numerous organizations have yet to tap into their potential at all.

Overall, drones are poised to elevate data collection efforts to unprecedented heights of possibility and performance. This is how.

What is drone data collection?

Drones, also known as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), are engineered to supplant certain terrestrial surveying equipment. Similar to manual data collection methods, organizations across various industries (as illustrated in the chart on the following page) can employ drones for monitoring project progress, conducting or preparing for site inspections, evaluating sites and identifying issues, capturing footage or information for marketing and reporting purposes, conducting research, and other forms of analysis and processing. Drone data collection entails more than merely deploying a drone equipped with a camera and capturing a few photos from above. It involves leveraging distinct technologies to generate exceptionally information-rich datasets.

Photogrammetry

Through photogrammetry, DfwAirview’s drones can capture high-resolution photographs spanning a wide area of almost any size. These images can then be stitched together to produce a detailed and data-rich representation of the surveyed or analyzed site or object.

Unlike focusing solely on a single point, photogrammetry utilizes overlapping images to create an intricate 3D map of the surroundings. Additionally, instead of merely presenting elevation data, photogrammetry also gathers texture, shape, and color information for every point on the map, resulting in a high-definition 3D reconstruction. A drone system incorporating photogrammetry proves highly valuable for capturing both 3D and 2D images, mapping large areas, and gathering data from multiple viewpoints. Furthermore, it can approach closely to capture detailed images, such as inspecting a cell phone tower without the need to send a worker up there.

In summary, with photogrammetry, operations can:

  • Capture RGB footage
  • Develop a 3D model of an area
  • Generate an orthomosaic resembling a high-resolution Google Earth image

LiDAR

LiDAR, short for Light Detection and Ranging, has a long history but has recently gained widespread usage with drones. It functions like a light-based version of echolocation, where LiDAR sensors use mirrors to emit laser pulses in various directions and calculate the precise time for the beams to return. Additionally, it employs algorithms to measure the light’s intensity. By analyzing both intensity and timing, LiDAR sensors can provide rapid and highly accurate terrain readings, generating a dense point cloud through repeated measurements.

In general, LiDAR can produce scans with higher resolution and accuracy compared to photogrammetry. It particularly excels in scenarios challenging for traditional photogrammetry or human operators:

  • Surveying heavily vegetated terrain
  • Detecting small or narrow objects, such as power lines
  • Operating in low-light conditions

With LiDAR, operations can:

  • Create detailed topographies, including one-foot contours, capable of penetrating vegetation to reveal the ground underneath, a capability not typically achievable through other methods
  • Prioritize vegetation and categorize areas based on their density, distinguishing between high, medium, or low-density areas

What is drone data collection?

The sheer mobility, flexibility, and variability of drones means they can produce valuable datasets in a huge variety of applications and use-cases across virtually every industry that conducts surveys, inspections, and more.

Agriculture

DfwAirview helps farmers, growers, and ranchers to reduce costs, increase yields, and better manage both crops and livestock through collecting data about crop and soil conditions, water levels, plant health, and more.

Towers

Inspecting cell phone towers is a necessary but time- and labor-intensive process that can also pose risks to human workers. Drones can collect data in a fraction of the time with no danger to human operators.

Energy & Solar

Drones can provide thermal data in addition to RGB data and aerial imagery to assess the functionality of solar panels, verify overall condition, evaluate environmental impact, and inspect for any right-of-way encroachments.

Construction

Drones offer a wide range of survey and monitoring data for various purposes including site planning, progress monitoring, safety inspections, and thermal imaging to detect issues such as electrical hotspots or heat loss.

Emergency Services

From aiding in search-and-rescue missions through aerial imaging and thermal imaging to providing surveillance for law enforcement and beyond, drones can expedite and streamline emergency response efforts.

Oil & Gas

Prevent plant shutdowns, minimize operational delays, identify structural weaknesses, evaluate performance, and expedite inspections, maintenance, and other tasks by utilizing drones to collect real-time imaging data.

Real Estate

Not only is ground-level photography time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it can also overlook features that aerial drones are capable of capturing. Therefore, drones facilitate property inspections, appraisals, management, and various other tasks more effectively.

Your Industry?

The most intriguing applications of drones are those that are currently being developed. The remarkable versatility of drone-based imaging and data collection facilitates use-case scenarios that were previously impractical or exceedingly challenging with manual, ground-based, or satellite-based data.

There are likely data gathering applications that you haven't even imagined because they were previously unfeasible or inaccessible... until drones.

What sets drones apart? It's all about the data they gather.

Drones are fundamentally focused on data collection, surpassing traditional and manual methods in nearly every aspect: speed, cost, manpower, data quantity, data accuracy, and beyond. However, the key enhancement lies in the richness of the dataset. The inherent mobility of drones coupled with automated data collection simplifies the process of gathering a diverse array of data points from nearly any location and perspective, including those that may be impractical for humans conducting surveys or inspections. Consequently, the outcome is a dataset that encompasses more information, thereby generating a more holistic and informative picture, map, or assessment.

More data

Drones generate significantly more information than what was previously achievable. Instead of measuring survey points in feet or meters, they can now be measured in centimeters or millimeters, resulting in datasets comprising millions of points. Additionally, a drone survey yields a comprehensive dataset that can be utilized repeatedly. For instance, a single dataset encompasses both trees and roads. If the initial need is to assess vegetation, the data is readily available. Later, if a review of roads becomes necessary, the required information is already included in the dataset, eliminating the need for sending out another team. This minimizes costly and time-consuming site revisits.

More accurate data

In a study published in the Journal of Big Data, drones were able to achieve an accuracy rate of 98.53% at an altitude of 40 m, with only minor accuracy drop off even at an altitude of 100 m. Survey points were as precise as within 0.68 cm (0.022 ft) – that’s how DfwAirview produces so many more points. In another study, drone data collection in ecology was found to be as much as 96% more accurate – roughly twice as accurate, in other words – than traditional ground-based collection methods. LiDAR in particular was able to provide point density between 50 and 200 points/m2 even from elevations as high as 2000 m (6600 ft).

More data possibilities

These improvements don’t just quantitatively improve the process; they qualitatively transform what operators can do. They can collect information that might have been inaccessible previously or undertake projects for which the sheer volume of data needed would have made them infeasible. Drones can monitor multiple locations simultaneously. They can completely replace missions previously flown by helicopter. They can create a historical record that, when used in combination with current data or existing site plans, allow organizations to conduct change analysis and possibly predict future needs.

LiDAR-based data collection in particular drives unprecedented possibilities.

LiDAR technology offers several notable strengths in data collection, including enhanced accuracy in measuring distances, the capability to penetrate ground cover, and effectiveness even in low light conditions. While photogrammetry provides a high-resolution view, LiDAR can offer even more detailed information, accurately determining the distance to an object and potentially revealing what lies beneath it. Consequently, the comprehensive data provided by LiDAR enables use-cases that are not achievable using photogrammetry alone.

Example: 300-Acre Forest

A property owner aimed to collect vegetation data and locate still-standing 300-year-old walls across 300 acres of forested land. Ordinarily, such a survey would have required several weeks to complete. However, by employing LiDAR-equipped unmanned aerial vehicles, the task was completed in only 3 days. This resulted in over 250 million total points, even in densely vegetated areas, and potentially saved the property owner between $40,000 to $50,000.

Manual Inspection

Drones

Workers Required

5-person crew

Only 1 operator required

Time to Complete

4 to 6 weeks total

2 days on site

Number of Visits

Multiple visits

One visit

Total Costs

Conservative Estimate $52,000

Actual Cost $8,000

Estimated $44,000 in total cost savings

Drones also drive unparalleled efficiencies in time, labor, and cost.

Beyond data, the primary purpose and strength of a drone is to enhance project efficiency and cost-effectiveness. These efficiencies are crucial for enabling new data collection opportunities. Drones’ versatility extends beyond technical capabilities; they also render projects logistically feasible that would otherwise be too time-consuming, labor-intensive, or costly to pursue.

Time savings

Drones gather data at a significantly faster rate by capturing more visuals per second than human operators typically can in a minute. They also have the capability to collect multiple types of data simultaneously and, in certain applications, gather data on different parcels of land simultaneously, especially from higher altitudes. For instance, drone video can reduce golf course treatment time by 96% by swiftly detecting issues such as fungal outbreaks and water leaks, which are challenging to identify at ground level. Similarly, while it might take a technician around 25 hours to inspect 1MW of solar on foot, a small 5MW solar farm could be inspected in just a few hours by drone, significantly reducing the required manhours.

Labor savings

The labor reduction in certain applications can be substantial. By eliminating the need to dispatch a worker (or a team of workers, or multiple teams) to manually collect data across extensive parcels of land (or ascend to great heights such as a cell phone tower), overall labor requirements can be reduced by 45% to 75%.

Photogrammetry and LiDAR, therefore, function as efficient methods for acquiring necessary data at an accelerated pace with reduced crews or as supplements to the internal workforce.

Cost savings

Both time and labor savings directly translate into cost efficiencies, and across the board, drone data collection proves to be more cost-effective than manual alternatives. According to Power Engineering, a series of trials revealed that drones were 30% less expensive than manual solar inspections. Similarly, The New York Power Authority, in collaboration with Ontario Power Generation, utilized drones to inspect an ice boom between the Niagara River and Lake Erie. In just 15 minutes, the drone detected a damaged cable. Their team estimates that drones saved up to 85% of the inspection costs.

Moreover, cost savings can stem from additional sources, such as identifying problems and maintenance issues before they escalate into expensive crises. One large solar farm was able to uncover defective modules that “likely would not have been discovered during on-foot inspections,” resulting in an estimated $250,000 in savings. LiDAR technology, in particular, offers potentially exceptional cost benefits. A study commissioned by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection evaluated LiDAR’s application in bare-earth ground elevation surveys, inland bathymetry, and nearshore bathymetry. They anticipate more than $20 million in annual net benefits, with a benefit-to-cost ratio as high as 4.5-to-1.

Drones are safer, too.

Many surveys, inspections, and other data collection tasks entail workers placing themselves in hazardous conditions. For instance, searching for a methane leak could expose the worker to dangerous chemicals, inspecting a cell phone tower might entail the risk of falling from a height, and conducting railway inspections could potentially put workers in harm's way as they traverse tracks. Drones eliminate the necessity of exposing people to potentially risky situations, and the drones themselves typically remain clear of moving equipment and vehicles.

Example: Drone Operational Efficiencies & Net Cost Savings, 4 Solar Farm Sites

A study conducted on four utility-scale solar farm sites revealed a remarkable increase in operational efficiencies of up to 98% (nearly double) compared to manual inspection methodologies. Specifically, researchers compared the time required to collect all relevant data using drone data collection against manual inspection methodologies such as clamp testing, hand-held IR scanning, curve tracing testing, and more. Drones emerged as the clear winner, significantly outperforming other methodologies and demonstrating their superiority in streamlining data collection processes.

Site 1

Site 2

Site 3

Site 4

Size

74MW

30MW

21MW

12.5MW

Manual Inspection Time

778 Hours

293 Hours

208 Hours

195 Hours

Drone Inspection Time

24 Hours

6 Hours

7 Hours

4 Hours

Hazardous Manhours Avoided

754 Hours

287 Hours

201 Hours

191 Hours

Increased Efficiency

96%

97%

98%

96%

Net Cost Savings

$68,298

$25,584

$19,678

$18,582

Drones Alone Are Not Enough

A word of warning, though: how the drone services are rendered make a big difference. In other words, you can’t necessarily buy a drone off the shelf and expect outcomes like those detailed above. In particular, many organizations think they can just buy a drone and enact a DIY drone survey program and immediately realize time- and cost-savings, but that’s not necessarily the case. That’s because drones don’t exist in isolation. The strategy and skillsets required for drone and aerial data collection matters too, and  a drone program that’s handled inefficiently or poorly will erase or constrain all of the potential gains from using drones in the first place.  

First, the technology Not all drones are made equal, and this is especially true of LiDAR- equipped drones and vehicles. Off-the-shelf models may simply not provide the acuity, accuracy, or functionality needed to achieve the kinds of results described in this paper. Make sure you know the exact technologies and technical specifications that will meet your needs.
Second, the relationship matters. Organizations may need help figuring what they need and how to use the data for maximal A relationship with a trusted vendor can prove invaluable here. Unfortunately, too many vendors default to automated approaches with little human interaction, leaving their clients unsure what to do with the data they’ve been handed.
Third, the business model matters. Being able to deliver on high volume quickly (especially on a recurring basis) doesn’t depend just on using drones, it depends on setting up a business model that maximizes the advantages of drone data In other words, beyond the technical capabilities of the drones, the vendor needs to have the logistical flexibility to deploy them whenever and wherever they’re needed.

Conclusion

The drone industry has been experiencing remarkable growth, with an astonishing annual Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 57.5% projected through 2028.

Similar to how spreadsheets replaced paper ledgers and smartphones replaced rolodexes, the exceptional capacity of drones to enhance traditional data collection methods virtually ensures that drones will dominate the future of site surveys, inspections, and more. With advanced technologies like LiDAR further expanding possibilities and applications, drones empower surveyors and inspectors to achieve more, operate with greater speed, and reduce costs.

However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that not all drones or drone services are created equal. The maximization of beneficial outcomes hinges on skilled and experienced drone operators, equipment equipped with appropriate technological capabilities, and business models capable of overcoming logistical challenges inherent in drone deployment.

Nevertheless, when equipped with the right drones, operated by proficient individuals, and implemented with a sound business strategy, drones undeniably unlock new possibilities in industrial and commercial data collection, revolutionizing the way tasks are accomplished and insights are gained.

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