Aerial Surveys by Drones

The survey system consists of a professional mapping drone (UAV), model Ebee of SenseFly, capable of automated management of the flight and execution of Aerial photography survey through a preprogrammed flight plan. The drone, carrying a camera RGB or optionally, an infrared camera, is optimized to allow a significant production of surveys (about 60 acres per single flight lasting 30-40 min). The tracks and the flight attitude are associated with the Aerial photography filming and are continuously recorded through a GPS and an inertial platform. Prior to the starting of the flight some targets are placed on the ground and the targets are provided with a plano-altimetric high precision target in order to obtain a series of images with a centimeter accuracy.
In the post-processing phase, through the Aerial photography method, it is possible to obtain:

• Orthorectified images of the interested area (resolution 2-5 cm per pixel);
• Color point cloud (RGB) or NIR with centimeter resolution ;
• Contour lines at various steps of equidistance;
• 3D modelling of the measured surface..

The opportunity to integrate multiple point clouds in the same model, can also make possible the joint use of terrestrial laser scanner with the data acquired from the drones. This aspect makes it possible to optimize the subvertical surfaces surveys (cliffs, very steep slopes) to be made with terrestrial laser scanner and surveys of surfaces predominantly sub-horizontal, to be run through a mapping drone.