Mapping with drones is done using a technique called ‘Photogrammetry’, the science of making measurements from photographs. This is much more than just taking a photograph as through the software we produce a perfectly flat image that is capable of being used to capture accurate site and building measurements. Many of the maps we use today are created using photogrammetry and images taken from aircraft. Mapping with drones is very similar to this, the main difference being the lower altitude enabling maps with a much higher resolution of detail.
Our drone is equipped with a high resolution 1” Hasselblad sensor and capable of high resolution images. Multiple overlapping photos of the ground below are captured as the drone flies autonomously along a flight path that we specify beforehand. This ensures we don't miss anything and enough image overlap is achieved. Mapping sites of a standard size will result in capturing between 200 to 600 images, depending on whether this is for 2D or 3D mapping output.
This is technically the most complex part of the process, as it requires 200 plus high resolution images to be accurately stitched together and provided a true orthomosaic view. We used industry leading mapping software providers, to do this part of the process. The software enables us to put together a comprehensive survey of land, buildings and infrastructure and presents it in a variety of easy to manage formats. As mentioned above, the best feature is the ability to take accurate measurements of length, area and volume straight from the maps