We sat down with AgEagle’s global sales manager, Chris Thomson and the team at data visualization specialists Sensat, to hear how our eBee X fixed-wing drone helped to save £20m in costs and more than 100,000 project hours.
Operating next to a busy airport is a challenging environment for a drone. But traditional ground-based mapping methods weren’t feasible, as much of Heathrow’s surrounding area is privately-owned farmland. It would also be time-consuming to map such a large area on the ground – not to mention expensive. Keeping disruption to a minimum was key; the controversial nature of the project meant mapping needed to be safe and unobtrusive, without affecting normal airport operations.
Data processing would also be a potential challenge due to the scale of the site. More detailed, engineering-grade data was required compared to previous projects at Heathrow, and with various stakeholders involved, a better way of sharing the information was needed.
In the first project of this scale, Sensat chose to map the area using fixed-wing drones. The team picked fixed-wing systems over quadcopters, to achieve better coverage on a single flight using only Extended Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) permissions. The chosen drone also needed to be reliable and easy to operate. Plus, being able to capture the required data in a shorter timeframe would also help minimize interference with other air traffic.
The Sensat team already knew our eBee system well and selected the eBee X fixed-wing drone after it proved to be reliable on similar high-risk missions. And with the eBee X’s superior endurance and eBee series S.O.D.A., a sensor optimized for drone applications and photogrammetry, they could benefit from longer flight times and improved accuracy, with sharper resolution images.
Mission parameters for eBee X were assigned in eMotion, our flight planning software, which allowed operators to easily set a circular working area as a barrier – preventing entry into restricted zones.
By working closely with National Air Traffic Services (NATS), Heathrow Control Tower, Airfield Operations, airport security and the local police forces, the eBee X could fly unrestricted to capture the necessary data without safety incidents or interruption to normal airport operations.
Using a fixed-wing drone was a valuable resource-saver. Only two operators were needed for low-risk areas, while a minimum of three people were required where it was a higher risk, including a spotter for the runway. Although there were limitations to when flights could take place, the data was captured in just 16 site days – without any need for land access approval.
The results helped the team to create a high-density point cloud, digital surface model (DSM), orthomosaic and 3D mesh – totaling 19 billion data points. This information was then shared on Sensat’s cloud-based platform, to be used as a digital native workspace for multiple shareholders at Heathrow and the design team to collaborate. Integrating the data with CAD and BIM also helped to provide more detail, speeding up the design process and reducing the risk for errors.
Using fixed-wing drones was a game-changer for the Heathrow expansion project, enabling a large area to be surveyed faster and more cost-effectively than typical on-the-ground methods. What’s more, the team could survey the site without gaining land access permissions, which would be lengthy and more dangerous.
The eBee X proved to be the ideal solution for mapping such a complex, high-risk site. When the expansion plans restart following legal approvals, Sensat plans to use the eBee X again to gather more insights. Could fixed-wing drones pave the way for future infrastructure to be designed and developed in a similar way? We think so!
Stockpile volume calculations remain one of the most important, yet challenging tasks in mining and quarry. The site size, area of coverage, material type and safety factors all could potentially result in operations collecting subpar data. To effectively complete the task, operations need a combination of the right tools that enable them to measure stockpiles accurately, efficiently and fast.
For Chattanooga Tennessee-based Wingfield Scale and Measure these values are at the core of their business and promise to their clients. Over the past 85 years, they have grown to become a nationally recognized scale and data acquisition company, and today, they offer their customers innovative mapping and measuring services for surface/quarry work, underground mapping, structural scanning, real-time inventory products and drone services.
As the first scale company in the U.S. to complete accreditation to both ISO 9000 and ISO 17025, Wingfield holds a strong focus on its response time, reporting accuracies and on-site safety practices. Their mapping work reflects the true nature of how materials are stockpiled on the ground, as well as the base topography beneath the material – creating a true digital representation of the area being surveyed. This approach lends itself to accurate, repeatable, and prompt delivery of volumetric information to clients.
“90% of the work that we do requires multiple measurement platforms. Whether that’s a terrestrial scanner, total station, photogrammetry UAV, or LiDAR UAV, there are different tools that when used together, give you a better, more complete result.” Hayes Wilkinson, UAS Certified Mapping Scientist, and Senior Aerial Mapping Specialist at Wingfield Scale & Measure
“90% of the work that we do requires multiple measurement platforms. Whether that’s a terrestrial scanner, total station, photogrammetry UAV, or LiDAR UAV, there are different tools that when used together, give you a better, more complete result.”
They attribute this success to a combination of surveying technologies, workflow and attention to data management factors that enhance both quality and accuracy.
There’s no silver bullet when it comes to obtaining a complete data collection. Wingfield Scale and Measure is a data acquisition group and always recommends using the right combination of tools for the job.
For example, if your operation has half its piles under structures, it’ll be nearly impossible to survey without some sort of LiDAR technology.
“90% of the work that we do requires multiple measurement platforms,” says Hayes Wilkinson, UAS Certified Mapping Scientist, and Senior Aerial Mapping Specialist at Wingfield Scale & Measure. “Whether that’s a terrestrial scanner, total station, photogrammetry UAV, or LiDAR UAV, there are different tools that when used together, give you a better, more complete result.”
Wingfield Scale & Measure has used a variety of UAVs over the years, and recently added an eBee X fixed-wing drone and S.O.D.A. camera to its survey toolbox. The eBee X has long been used in mines worldwide for their ability to cover mid-to large-scale sites quickly and deliver highly precise photogrammetry.
Wilkinson adds that the eBee X has the ease-of-use and user-friendliness to hit high accuracy requirements with photogrammetry, while directly complementing and validating their LiDAR measurements to ensure accuracy in reporting.
On a recent survey for a cement plant, Wingfield conducted a stockpile survey using terrestrial equipment and the eBee X on a wide variety of stockpile sizes and materials, and was pleased with the results.
As seen in the comparisons below, the laser scan data and eBee X / S.O.D.A 3D data complement each other very well as the eBee data was able to fill in the areas which were not visible or inaccessible in the terrestrial laser scan data, due to the geometry of the stockpile.
In the opposite effect, the laser scan data complements the eBee data in visually obstructed areas as shown below, where this stockpile was covered by a shed roof.
In this example, both types of data were easily merged producing a rich and accurate data set combination which gives inventory managers greater control over the volumes and resulting KPI calculations.
Laying the groundwork for efficient collection is first understanding the accuracy that’s required for the type of material being measured. This accuracy is important to site supervisors conducting weekly reporting and monitoring of monthly KPIs.
“If you’re dealing with a high-value material like gold ore, a 5% or 10% swing in volume accuracy can have huge downstream effects on a company’s books and operational decisions. Even with lower value materials like gypsum or clay, the same holds true – accuracy affects the bottom line,” says Wilkinson.
As a result, there are very different realms that you’re working in as far as how different and how tight the data requirements need to be – and are required to be.
The reflective properties of the project material surface are very important when it comes to noise versus accuracy. The surface color of a stockpile changes dramatically across its form, while the surface texture remains the same.
When processing in photogrammetry, it is important the camera can adjust to this differentiation of light reflectance and give a good overall white balance correction, so as not to overexpose the images and produce noise in the data.
“This noise can equate to false detection of extra volume if not carefully filtered or removed,” says Michael Blake, Product Manager, AgEagle. “Depending on the type of material, these false volumes can fluctuate the weekly reports and monthly KPI’s which can determine a company’s strategic, financial, and operational achievements.”
This volume difference can be exponentially more evident on high-value materials like gold, silver, and copper.
Thanks to the ease of use of the eBee X platform and intuitive eMotion flight planning software, the Wingfield team also realized an enhanced workflow from flight planning to post processing.
It’s a natural step from eMotion to Pix4D to produce final rasters and vectorized data and this workflow results in less work. With other platforms, it’s common to need additional third-party software at this stage to produce georeferenced data and project files.
Taking their data processing a step further, Wingfield typically brings their drone and LiDAR data together in third-party software and filters it, removing any noise before performing cut and fill calculations.
This additional step enhances the richness of the data the drone provides while giving a better overall accuracy to end calculations for monthly KPIs. Michael Blake, Product Manager, AgEagle
This additional step enhances the richness of the data the drone provides while giving a better overall accuracy to end calculations for monthly KPIs.
Much of the filtering done in the third-party software can be automated. Wingfield has custom-tailored workflows to streamline certain aspects of point cloud filtering and preserve consistency from one dataset to another. Additionally, all newly acquired data is compared back to previous surveys to make informed decisions about where to delineate stockpiles, and how to reuse historical bases and data. A critical and experienced eye is applied to every stockpile inventory and topographic survey, something that is not provided by many cloud-based Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry solutions.
“This additional step enhances the richness of the data the drone provides while giving a better overall accuracy to end calculations for monthly KPIs,” says Blake.
Wingfield Scale & Measure compared their new eBee X to their DJI Phantom 4 with an aftermarket PPK kit to see if there were any observable differences in data quality. There were four areas where the team immediately noticed differences between the technologies.
The quality of various point clouds can be assessed by observing point density and noise. Generally, point density is very high in the case of terrestrial laser scanning point clouds, however, the earlier comparisons show that the UAV’s less dense point clouds achieve similar results. While UAV point clouds provide less detail than a terrestrial laser scanner point cloud, there is still enough detail provided for most typical survey applications.
When Wingfield compared outputs from their UAVs, the team noticed the images from the DJI Phantom 4 PPK stock 20 MP sensor (same camera as the P4P-RTK) had more noise and poor color balance in comparison to the eBee X with S.O.D.A 3D. This can equate to a lot of blur in the images and give poor orthomosaic quality and more point cloud noise which has to be filtered.
While the eBee X with active RTK delivers high-precision accuracy down to 1.5 cm without requiring GCPs for georeferencing, their use is still recommended to verify data quality. As a result, significantly fewer checkpoints need to be laid and for the size of Wingfield’s project, the team would only need three to five GCPs for data verification, which of course increases safety and saves time.
Fixed-wing drones are estimated to be 80% quicker than traditional terrestrial methods—saving valuable time by collecting the data needed quickly and efficiently from a single point.
From data acquisition to battery changes and transition times, fixed-wing drones also require fewer flights than multirotor platforms. In this comparison of a 194-acre aggregate site, the eBee X covered the entire area in a single flight with enough battery life in reserve to map a similar-sized site 5 more times under ideal flight conditions. It took two flights with the DJI Phantom 4 PPK to cover this one site.
The overall Root Mean Square (RMS) was a lot larger with the DJI in comparison to the eBee. GCP points were needed to correctly georeference the Phantom 4 RTK data with the LiDAR data, whereas the eBee X data aligned perfectly with the LiDAR data – with no GCP points need.
Since November, Wingfield has geotagged ~20,000+ images taken by the eBee X with CM level accuracy with a > 99% success rate. Hayes adds that in comparison, the third-party PPK GPS unit for their multirotor is good and simple to use, but less consistent in field and post processing workflows.
The process of collecting point data in the field with the RTK-enabled eBee X, means operators are more efficient by spending less time in the field, and safer by not having to traverse potentially hazardous terrain to lay numerous GCPs. Thanks to good photogrammetry, only a couple of checkpoints are required around the site as a best practice to ensure the RTK/PPK workflow is working correctly.
Data processing with photogrammetry software can be time-consuming, depending on the quantity of data captured and computer hardware being used. However, by using the IMU and “direct-in-flight geotagging” data from S.O.D.A. 3D in conjunction with PIX4Dmappers’s accurate geolocation and orientation calibration method, you can accelerate the initial calibration stage, resulting in a time savings of up to 35-40%.
“What’s more, we found no compromise to accuracy,” adds Blake. “Vegetation and water bodies also reconstruct and recompute much better, giving more detail and contextual information to the dataset.”
See our previous blog post on achieving faster initial processing for more information.
As an added data security measure, Wingfield completes all their processing on a local PC and no images are uploaded to a remote/cloud-based server, which is a common data management consideration for clients with sensitive job sites.
For large mines and quarries, fixed-wing drones represent a valuable method which surveying teams can reduce their data collection workloads. Therefore, this allows organizations to reduce their staffing costs, offer more competitive pricing and/or complete more projects within a set time.
Additionally, drone acquired data such as orthomosaics can lend additional benefits to open pit operations, mine design, site planning and many other areas.
While tracking stockpile inventories remain one of the most important tasks in mining and quarrying, fixed-wing drones, and the efficiencies they deliver, are minimizing what used to be a challenge. Their ability to rapidly provide photogrammetry and high-resolution point clouds that enhance LiDAR enables quality management of stockpile surveys with greater speed, efficiency and accuracy.
For a closer look at comparative LiDAR and photogrammetry data, watch for our Wingfield Scale & Measure case study – coming soon!
Another key factor to take into consideration during data collection is the proper setup for ground control and changing lighting conditions. This step can easily get overlooked by busy personnel and results in gathering and processing subpar data right out of the gate.
Mines are highly active environments and a lot can change over a month. Hayes recommends doing a quick check before each flight to ensure ground control points are cleared, checked and ready to go with their placement throughout the site.
The lighting at the time of your aerial survey can also affect your data collection and it’s worth noting that results can vary depending on your drone platform.
“One thing I’ve noticed from personal experience with both platforms is with the eBee, it’s much easier to control for changing lighting conditions than with the Phantom,” says Hayes. “If you lock your exposure, and it’s too bright or too dark to account for changing light conditions, you can get some wonky results.”
The eBee’s exposure settings float between a constrained range by default that’s been precisely refined to allow the shutter speed to be fast, yet still, let enough light in.
“With the Phantom, sometimes if you let it float on an automatic mode, the shutter speed can be way too slow and you’ll get a blur to the images which isn’t ideal,” adds Hayes.
The eBee X drone, S.O.D.A. 3D camera and eMotion flight planning software allowed the team to efficiently generate a high-resolution 3D model. Read the case study here.
Today’s eBee X performance is the direct result of our 12 years of industry experience and direct customer feedback. Our fixed-wing is built to boost your data collection’s quality, efficiency, and safety like no other.
The eBee X features the latest evolution of technology beyond previous models.
Suitable for the following industries: Surveying, mapping, agriculture, engineering, construction, environmental monitoring, research, education, utilities, crisis management, humanitarian, mining, quarries, and many more.
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Not far from Rome, in the province of Orbetello, is Doganella (VII-III cent BCE), home to one of the most affluent and important Etruscan colonies of Etruria. Here, Duke University’s Professor Dr. Maurizio Forte leads a team of archaeologists who are implementing a new fully digital workflow to preserve entire excavation sites and their findings for greater accessibility worldwide.
The story behind how Doganella transformed lies in the buried structures and artifacts that await the team just below the surface. Using a combination of geospatial data recording, remote sensing and drone photogrammetry, Dr. Forte and Antonio Lo Piano, a doctorate student in classical studies, leads a research team in creating a 3D replication of the entire site – and there’s a lot of ground to cover.
Doganella, combined with its sister site Vulci, near the town of Montalto di Castro, is roughly 700 hectares / 1,730 acres and features terrain which resembles a modern-day farm field. Both archaeological sites have not yet been mapped or fully investigated and it’s estimated that 95% of the archaeological remains are still buried and only accessible through remote sensing.
Dr. Forte, a longtime advocate for using digital methods for archeological fieldwork, knew that a drone would help the team to collect data and identify areas of interest while guiding efforts for protecting the site and future excavations.
The team’s main objective from June through December 2021 was the creation of classified maps of the landscape with accurate identification of soil marks and crop marks. Soil marks and crop marks usually identify the outline of archaeological buildings, graves, roads, or other infrastructures.
Aerial drones and especially long-range fixed-wing models like the eBee X can rapidly cover the entire surface area of a large-scale archaeological site. By comparison, the amount of coverage required on the Doganella project alone would take weeks or months of traditional field walking surveys.
“The use of multispectral drones in Etruscan archaeology is really rare and these results are outstanding. In a relatively short time, we generated thousands of images and data with very high accuracy and with several outputs: digital terrain models, point clouds, orthomosaics, spectral mapping, 3D models. In short, the creation of a multilayered archaeological landscape never seen before.” Dr. Maurizio Forte, Duke University
“The use of multispectral drones in Etruscan archaeology is really rare and these results are outstanding. In a relatively short time, we generated thousands of images and data with very high accuracy and with several outputs: digital terrain models, point clouds, orthomosaics, spectral mapping, 3D models. In short, the creation of a multilayered archaeological landscape never seen before.”
Another challenge is that the archaeological landscape in the summer is overwhelmed by vegetation and crops making it difficult for the team to recognize sites and archaeological features in RGB imagery alone.
The use of a 5-band multispectral sensor can classify the landscape by infrared and NDVI and identify archaeological features related to the percentage of humidity, vegetation and crop growth.
Dr. Forte has flown drones for years and to meet the demands of this expedition he partnered with AgEagle to use an eBee X paired with a multispectral sensor.
Over a few weeks, the team flew the eBee X 20 times, collecting 15,000 images with 60-70% overlap at an accuracy of 4.8 in/pixel – 12 cm/pixel. The images were then processed in Pix4D and Metashape to create a variety of outputs.
“The use of multispectral drones in Etruscan archaeology is really rare and these results are outstanding,” says Dr. Forte. “In a relatively short time, we generated thousands of images and data with very high accuracy and with several outputs: digital terrain models, point clouds, orthomosaics, spectral mapping, 3D models. In short, the creation of a multilayered archaeological landscape never seen before.”
Common in early settlements, defensive walls visible in the terrain morphology (N and E side of the imagery), served to protect the colony against outsiders. These perimeters cannot be seen in RGB imagery, however, are easier to identify thanks to the combination of multispectral imagery and digital elevation models.
“The multispectral sensor is cutting edge and the inclusion of 5 bands provided outstanding results,” says Dr. Forte. “Our team was able to identify numerous individual tombs, structures, and large sections of the ancient street network still buried in the fields of these sites thanks to the capabilities of the camera.”
This small region of the settlement shows a grid of buildings all in the same orientation or possibly a larger complex. In time, future excavation will reveal their purpose.
Dr. Forte discovered that a combination of sensors has proven particularly successful in several sites of interest. The imagery collected by the eBee X will serve as a precise guide for a secondary team using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Multi-modal remote sensing will extend the team’s perspective of the site by obtaining a secondary reflectance map.
However, to make a GPR map of a whole 300 to 400 ha / 740 to 988 ac area might take months; with the eBee X, the team collected a site-wide map in one day.
“The eBee-X is the best choice for large-scale projects and the multispectral sensor due to its battery life, software and hardware integration, and portability of the system,” adds Dr. Forte. “Because of the fixed wings and the multispectral camera, it is ideal for mapping and classifying large archaeological sites.”
“The integration of the hardware with the eMotion software greatly simplified flight planning,” says Dr. Forte. “The 3D maps and integrated weather and wind data enabled us to make more informed decisions both before and during the flights. It is easily the best flight planning software we have worked with.”
The use of a drone before bringing in other equipment has both time and cost-saving advantages. GPR equipment is costly to transport and operate and having a general multispectral map of the entire site from drone enables the team to bring in the GPR on a very small scale and image specific areas of interest with great precision.
Another interesting feature discovered within the multispectral imagery is that the orientation of the Etruscan buildings is very different from the orientation of the agricultural fields, which means the organization of the territory was different from the medieval, late-Roman period. It’s very likely the Romans started these changes, and the topography evolved into the Tuscany landscape we see today.
Thanks to the results, Dr. Forte’s team can plan future archaeological campaigns for excavations in specific areas identified by the eBee X drone. This work continues to completely redefine these sites and in the case of Doganella, its long urban transformation.
This project is made under the permit and in collaboration with the Soprintendenza ABAP Siena Grosseto e Arezzo.
Drones Pacifique Services mapped a 320 ha / 790 ac former open-pit mine in New Caledonia for soil restoration. The main challenges were maintaining a homogeneous GSD with different bench heights and site inaccessibility. The eBee X drone, S.O.D.A. 3D camera and eMotion flight planning software allowed the team to efficiently generate a high-resolution 3D model.
One of Fonds Nickel’s goals is revitalizing areas degraded by former mining activity to prevent them from causing major environmental damage, such as water pollution or landslides.
The public administrative establishment of this French territory located in Oceania commissioned Drones Pacifique Services to perform several topographic surveys in mines around the country – a total of 1,878 ha – before proceeding with a vegetation plan.
As with every large and degraded site, this mission in the Thio mining center encountered a few challenges.
The first was the pit’s different bench heights, which demanded flight planning software and a drone that could map accordingly. The Drones Pacifique Services team flew the eBee X three times and used both eMotion’s elevation data option, which automatically adjusts the flight plan altitude to precisely track terrain with large elevation changes, and optimized flight lines orientation to maintain a homogeneous GSD in all the mapped areas – in this case of 5.75 cm / 2.26 in. This allowed the team to get sharper and more accurate results.
The S.O.D.A. 3D drone camera, which changes orientation during flight to capture two oblique images and one nadir, was selected for this mission.
“The S.O.D.A. 3D provides better coverage and reconstruction of the bench height and lateral facades. It allowed us to obtain a very high-density point cloud”, states Frédéric Valade, director of Drones Pacifique Services.
The next issue was site security. As M. Valade recalls, “the access on the sites in fallow for several years is not obvious. Having agreements with the civil aviation in New Caledonia, we could intervene at around 2 km / 1.2 mi from the area mapped. This is thanks to the reliability of the eBee drones”.
In short, environmental monitoring with a drone helped improve job site safety. M. Valade underlines that “it requires good preparation of the flights and good organization on the ground. A spotter in the field maintains visual contact with the drone to ensure that everything goes as planned and checks for the presence of birds”.
The third concern was the large surface of the open-mining site (3,2 km2 / 320 ha). They needed a UAS that could efficiently cover the maximum distance in just one flight. “The choice was made to use a fixed-wing because of the advantages of this type of equipment,” says M. Valade. The maximum flight time of the eBee X, for example, is 90 minutes with an endurance battery.
During the four flights, a total of 1,531 georeferenced images were collected. The team placed five ground control points and opted for PPK. M. Valade adds that this technology is used in all missions “in case of loss of radio link between the base and the drone”.
In particular, the outputs generated and processed with PIX4Dmapper allowed Fonds Nickel to:
This story was sourced from an entry in the 2021 senseFly & Pix4D Photogrammetry Awards, in the Environmental Monitoring category.
