Surveying & Mapping

Wide range of applications for the Aibot X6 hexacopter:

• Survey of challenging sites such as quarries, sand pits, landfills, coal stockpiles, etc.
• Point cloud generation
• Volume calculation
• GM creation
• Creation of location and inventory plans
• Creation of topographic images
• Creation of planning fundamentals
• Documentation of construction progress
• Inner-city survey
• Aerial photographs
• Inspection tasks

Your advantages of using the Aibot X6 UAV:

• You can go places that conventional equipment cannot reach.
• You increase safety for your surveying staff.
• You save time and costs using a surveying UAV.
• You get high quality, accurate results.
• You benefit from the high level of expertise, the synergies, and the innovation potential of Hexagon businesses.
• You will receive a premium product made in Germany.

The UAV surveying workflow is demonstrated below in six steps:

Step 1: Preparation

During the UAV surveying preparation phase, requirements are defined. A ground resolution of 1 mm to 4 mm per pixel is achieved. Parametres, such as atitude, airspeed, overlap and distance between the trigger position, can quickly be achieved by using the Aibotix planning software, AiProFlight.

Step 2: Planning the survey flight

During step two, the survey flight plan is being created to capture the UAV's surveying data. Flight planning is done by using the Aibotix AiProFlight software. Flight direction, resolution, amount, route and stereo overlap are entered and displayed on the screen. The flight plan is then created and saved. Work orders such as camera position or dwell time can be changed at any time.

Step 3: Control points

When surveying with an UAV, we recommend setting up a checkpoint per hectare to achieve high accuracy geo-referencing. The reference points are set manually before the flight. This is only necessary if the survey requires a Cartesian coordinate system.

Step 4: Flight operations

Once the surveying schedule has been uploaded onto the Aibot X6 UAV, data acquisition is completely automatic. Normal surface flight recordings are done at a 90 degree angle, with images taken oriented straight down to the surface, creating nadir. Unique to the Aibot X6 survey UAV is the panning camera mount, which ensures flight within the mine, at an angle of up to 45 degrees. This oblique angle generates an otherwise unattainable detailed resolution of the side walls.

Step 5: Geo-referencing images

The Geobox syncs the camera and the Aibot's GPS system, storing the trigger point. The current GP coordinates are directly put into the photo's EXIF ​​data, allowing processing of geo-referenced data in various GIS systems.

Step 6: Orthophotos and 3D modelling

Create an image-based 3D model with softwares such as Agisoft Enso or by using the geo-referenced images to build the texture for the orthophoto or 3D model. Expensive camera calibrations are not required. The Agisoft Enso software performs a supplementary calibration by using the investigating camera parameters to the workflow.