What?s So Unique About UAV LiDAR?

Posted by Thomas Shaw on January 13th, 2019

Drones, or UAVs, are currently revolutionising information and imagery capture across a variety of sectors, owing to their ability to remotely capture aerial footage without the need for high-priced helicopter or aeroplane flights. Hiring a helicopter can expense inside the region of £1000 per mile covered. Add inside the price of a laser scanner and also you need to possess a hefty spending budget before you even commence processing the data. Get far more details about UAV Lidar

Airborne LiDAR projects could be prohibitively high-priced as a result of these high mobilization expenses. UAV LiDAR offers the operator the potential to swiftly survey small-scale and larger places in a much more cost-effective way. Drones can be deployed promptly, within the quick vicinity permitting for surveys to become carried out devoid of possessing to discover a pilot, file flight plans and navigate towards the surveying web-site producing the technologies excellent for emergency or time-sensitive conditions.

It’s also safer to make use of a UAV LiDAR system. Within the past, surveying a highway or railway line has meant ground crews getting exposed to fast-moving traffic or trains. Terrestrial laser scanners also necessary multiple setups to cover large places meaning that crews had been either exposed to hazardous scenarios for longer, or roads and rail networks had to become suspended whilst surveys had been carried out. Mobile mapping systems all but remove this threat by permitting information to be captured remotely. UAV LiDAR systems take away the risk entirely. So long as the drone remains in visual line of sight, a pilot can scan an region with no getting to become physically present.

Conducting surveys of higher structures such as power lines and masts have lengthy been an expensive and daunting activity resulting from safety dangers along with the amount of detail necessary. These complicated structures is usually broken by environmental circumstances, put on and tear and even birds. Using a UAV LiDAR system implies that the surveyor stays on strong ground yet is still able to gather enough data to develop an correct 3D representation from the infrastructure network, irrespective of surrounding vegetation. You are able to also combine thermal imaging with a UAV LiDAR system to enable hotspots on powerlines to be identified rapidly before any serious consequences arise.

One with the greatest advantages of LiDAR may be the capability to scan by means of dense vegetation. Photogrammetry relies around the capability to find out the ground to calculate measurements accurately to create a digital terrain or elevation model. LiDAR would be the only technologies which makes it possible for DTMs & DEMs to become created even where there are trees or dense vegetation in the way.

UAV LiDAR is leading the way for agricultural and forestry businesses looking for a way to cost-effectively monitor carbon stocks and crops. UAV LiDAR enables forestry surveys to become conducted a lot more rapidly, giving landowners and operators access to data which would otherwise take months to collect. Although information is often enhanced by matching a ground and aerial scan, the location, count, height and volume of trees is often calculated in one single pass of a UAV.

UAVs also have great potential for vegetation mapping in urban places thanks to the capability to capture ultra-high-resolution imagery at a low altitude. When combined with LiDAR information, a clear and precise map may be created showing building elevations, infrastructure assets along with the shape and texture of vegetation, permitting for classification of land covers and situational analysis. This can help planners and maintenance crews to prioritise conservation efforts or removal of encroaching shrubs and bushes on highways, streets and railway lines.