Technology04 / 08

Drone & Geospatial

Aerial mapping, survey and geospatial data

4: capabilities
5: stages
4: deliverables

Overview

Drone work is a data business that happens to involve aircraft. The flying is the easy, visible part; the value is in what comes out of the processing pipeline afterwards and whether the numbers in it can be trusted.

That trust comes from ground control. A survey flown without surveyed control points produces imagery that looks right and measures wrong, sometimes by metres. Every mapping job here is flown against established control, and the deliverable arrives in the coordinate system your team already works in rather than one you have to transform out of.

The repeat work is where it earns its keep. Stockpile volumes measured monthly with the same flight plan and the same control are comparable month over month, which is what turns a survey into a management tool instead of a one-off document.

This is a service. Mapping as a service. The drones themselves are equipment, and live in Shop.

Buy a drone

What it does

Four things this division does

Mapping & orthomosaic

Georeferenced imagery at survey resolution, delivered in the coordinate system your team already works in.

Who it is for

Who commissions this

Construction firms tracking site progress and earthworks

Quarries and yards measuring stockpile volumes

Surveyors needing coverage faster than ground methods allow

Planners and developers assessing a site before purchase

How work moves

From brief to delivery,
in five stages

01
Flight plan
Where it starts
02
Capture
Stage 2
03
Process
Stage 3
04
Analyse
Stage 4
05
Deliver
Where it ends

What you receive

At the end of the job

Georeferenced orthomosaicA single measurable image of the site at survey resolution, tied to real coordinates.
Digital elevation modelTerrain and surface models for drainage, earthworks and cut-fill planning.
Volumetric reportStockpile and cut-fill quantities, with the method stated so the numbers can be audited.
Point cloud and 3D meshThe full captured dataset, delivered in an exchange format your software reads.

The practical detail

In numbers

3 to 7 working days: Typical turnaround
2 to 5 cm per pixel: Ground resolution
Up to 200 hectares: Coverage per day
GeoTIFF, LAS, DXF, OBJ: Output formats
Scheduled, same flight plan: Repeat surveys
Scoping call: Engagement start

Questions

Asked before commissioning

Answered here, so the first call can start further along.

Still have a question?Ask the team that runs the machines.

Ask us Book a call

With surveyed ground control, 2 to 3 cm horizontally and slightly worse vertically is a realistic expectation for typical site work. Without ground control, the imagery may look identical and be metres out. Anyone quoting survey accuracy without mentioning control is quoting the easy half of the job.

Yes. Airspace authorisation, notification and the operational paperwork are part of the engagement in both markets, and are settled before a scheduled flight rather than on the day.

Wind above the airframe limit, rain, and low cloud that would sit between the camera and the ground. Flights get rescheduled rather than flown badly, since a compromised capture costs more to work around than a lost morning.

If the cadence is high enough, that usually works out cheaper. Survey airframes and RTK modules are sold in Shop, and Education & Training runs the mapping course that covers flight planning, control and deliverable QA.

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