Equinox’s Drones
Topics: Mapping, Advantages, Drone
Transcript Excerpt
From mining to construction, topographical surveying is essential for getting the chart right. The rise of drone technology is changing the way surveying is done, making it accessible to a wide range of industries. Drones offer enormous opportunities for surveyors and GIS professionals. With the help of drones, it is possible to carry out surveys and process and deliver surveying data in a timely accurate and safe way. Using drones for surveying and mapping has many advantages such as time-saving. Traditional surveys can take days if not weeks; with the power of drones, a survey can be completed in power and the collected data and imagery can be processed on the same day. This means that users spend less time gathering data and making the right decisions. Cost-effective, the acquisition, and operating cost of a drone survey are much lower than that of surveys through satellites and manned aircraft. Additionally, the technical requirements for the site and personnel are also low and the daily maintenance is simple. These factors eventually reduce the cost of data acquisition. Drones provide accessibility because they can easily survey those areas that are otherwise difficult or even impossible to access for cliffs, rugged terrain, and other areas where conventional mapping is challenging and time-consuming; however, drones offer great advantages such as accuracy and precision. Some of the most important parameters of serving are spatial resolution and low altitude multi-angle shooting. The spatial resolution can reach decimetres or even centimetres and can be used to construct accurate digital models and 3D landscape maps. Moreover, drones provide safety since land mapping can be a risky job, but drones eliminate the need for surveyors to explore unknown terrain and can be helpful in avoiding harvest places such as railway lines and rocky terrains. Overall, drones provide great lengths of advantages that are hard to imagine from making a quick inspection to minimizing the danger and health risks. On the other hand, according to Equinox, there are some disadvantages of drones, including privacy and software issues or multifunction. The UAVs can fall prey to trespass a group’s privacy which could lead to the violation of people’s privacy. Also, the UAVs can cause injuries or damages to humans or animals due to malfunctions.
