Moving earth will always be a messy business but satellite guided excavators can dig to an accuracy of a few centimetres and survey drones can fly over the site daily to make sure they've got it right. Komatsu have incorporated drone technology into their business. This video from the BBC shows how drone technology is playing a big role in earthworks projects as they can capture data safely, quickly, accurately and in a cost effective way. We are working on a number of construction and infrastructure projects carrying out drone surveys, bringing these benefits to those embracing the technology and looking for new innovative ways of working.

This insight paper by RICS discusses the opportunities, rapidly developing applications and compliance challenges of using drones in a surveying environment, particularly in light of recent high-profile cases of misuse. The insight paper also highlights the fast-moving national and international regulatory issues impacting the technology's integration into widespread use in the land, property and construction sectors. The rapid development of drones has led to a significant increase in their use for surveying applications, including mapping, building surveying and land and agriculture management. Businesses are increasingly assessing the potential impact drone technology can have on their pr

Here’s a brief video that takes the survey grade accurate reality capture or digital data from a drone survey and compares it against the design model (CAD). Similar earthwork volumetric calculations (cut and fill) and visuals can be produced between datasets captured over different time period. This system can be used to store, manage, compare and analyse drone survey and CAD datasets.

We created a digital twin of a large construction project to help surveyors, designers, project managers and senior management understand construction progress related to the design models and month to month. We flew the entire project in 1 day while also including approx. 50 GCPs and 1 day of processing to provide the client with a 3D point cloud that consisted over 100 million points while also providing it in a 5m grid, a digital terrain model (DTM) with the elimination of non-earthworks features and an orthomosaic. The accuracies we achieved were <50mm at GCPs and <50mm at the checkpoints. The survey grade accurate 2D/3D reality capture outputs were tied into the OS grid and can be integ

ProDroneWorx were engaged by a building surveying company to carry out a detailed asset inspection or survey using drone technology on a number of buildings totalling nearly 800,000 sq. ft. The high quality digital data was required for a schedule of conditions but it could also be used for pre acquisition surveys, due diligence surveys, planned maintenance programs or dilapidation surveys. We captured over 1,500 HD images of the assets that were stored, managed, analysed and shared on a cloud based asset inspection system. This system allowed multiple users within the company to analyse the data so a schedule of condition could be produced. The cloud based system produced a PDF and excel r

It was great speaking at the BIM 4 Housing event in London yesterday about how the digital or reality capture information from drone technology can be used within BIM in the housing sector. I was really impressed by the 5% cost saving made by the WM Housing Group on their Meadows regeneration scheme in Nottingham compared to a similar scheme where BIM wasn’t used. This was the first use of BIM in the housing sector and there was only one variation made to the design on the entire project. We believe that the 2D/3D digital or reality capture outputs created from drone technology using photogrammetry or LiDAR will save time, reduce costs and improve safety on BIM for housing projects through t