How Are Drone Operations Managed (United Kingdom)

by Anna Rose Blogger

UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or drones are now being commonly used throughout the surveying and construction industries. There are many advantages to the use of drones as an aid to surveying operations, not least the overall safety factor which is so important within any working environment. Until recently, land and building surveys were time and resource consuming. Its always been a very time consuming process that has been resource rich and administration heavy. But, with the advent of drones, it can be completed within a few hours and with one or two professionals on site working closely together to capture the data from each location and then interpret it for the final client report. There are certain things surveyors perform and consider before setting up a drone survey operation. This is to ensure accurate results and to provide a detailed report on the building’s status.

What Measures And Steps Are Followed In A Drone Survey?

Any professional London drone survey company will follow certain criteria and protocols to perform a drone survey. The regulations followed are according to the UK’s CAA which is a regulatory body for performing any air-based operation. Obviously, the location of the survey is key, where, when and how are all considerations.

Certainly for any London or city based mission the location is checked at first, this may well fall into a regulated airspace, as such permissions are and must be granted by whomever has jurisdiction in the area.

Air maps are commonly used, be it online using various available services or apps or even just reference maps supplied by the UK’s CAA.

Once the client and the drone operator has agreed the type of operation to be performed, this can been a wide variety of formats, from close roof inspections to wide angle marketing videos, to close up detail of a particular space on the building. All involved have a plan of action and the mission can then have a goal to achieve, the objective here is to be as quick and efficient as possible, thus reading airtime and most importantly for the client the cost, always a high priority!

It's All About The Location

If the location of the survey is to be performed within restricted airspace the drone operator must apply for permissions, usually this time varicose from 21 days approximately, however the drone operation cannot be performed until the permissions have been granted by the CAA though NATS (National Air Traffic Services) authority.

If the above criteria have been satisfied and all risk statement dn bodies informed the operation can take place. However it must be noted that still others must be informed, usually at least 24 hours before the work is due to commence, This can involve telling the local authority as well as Police and protection services, which is certainly the case for missions within central London. If flying next to a NFZ or No fly Zone, such as an airport its still possible to be granted permission however again notice on the same day must be made before and after the survey is completed to inform the interested parties that the drone mission has been completed and everything is safely back on the ground.

Is Everything In Place?

After setting up the drone, the surveyor starts to fly the drone according to the flight plan devised earlier. According to the survey criteria, the images and video will be captured accordingly. One important thing to consider is that ensuring every image is tagged geographically, an important consideration when mapping and connecting with existing benchmarks. The geo-tagged image will have X Y Z coordinates.

Finally, the images and videos are imported into a computer system and processed with photogrammetry software for processing and analysing. These are the overall steps performed and observed during a drone survey of land or buildings. Make sure the surveyor follows all the steps to avoid loss of quality and accuracy of data.

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Created on Nov 4th 2021 22:03. Viewed 148 times.

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