Atomic Drone Mapping - Pulling Volumes on Large Quarries

A moment of gratitude

Last year, ToPa 3D grew significantly. We now have offices in Augusta, Georgia - Portland & Bend Oregon, and Mexico with more expansion on the horizon. Our tightly-knit team is a phenomenal, hard-working, and quite-fun-to-hang-out-with bunch... Many readers of my content and followers of my posts would most certainly agree that having a culture and a team you can actually get along with and dare I say, call friends, is a gift. May you all build your dream team and enjoy the process we collectively call "work".

The Atomic Project

In one of our more recent and challenging projects, ToPa 3D was contracted to perform a somewhat complex volume calc of a mining quarry in South Carolina. A special shout out to our team member, Dr. Anson Hancock who processed this project and who seems to have no fear of any project - regardless of size or complexity (given the resources and, perhaps a cup of caffeine).

Our mission was to produce a 3D model that could provide a rough order of magnitude of the quarry volume in specific areas. With a drone and 20mp camera, our team generated a 3D model using Pix4Dmapper software, tying the imagery captured into an orthomosiac (image below) and 3D model. We also generated a point cloud that would later be converted to Recap and imported into Autodesk's Civil3D 2020 software package.

Once the point cloud of the quarry was brought into Civil3D, the task was to calculate the volume of a 3:1 cut that would extend from 100' inside the property boundary (the top of the cliffs you see above in the 3D model) and downward like a wedge in profile toward the water below (green mineral-rich water shown in the model).

The goal for the Atomic Sand and Gravel quarry owner was to understand the approximate value of his property's resources via the volume of the amount of mineable sand that was available. The complexity of this project involved calculating the volumes of highly irregular geography as can be seen in the animation below (point cloud processed with Pix4D):

Moving into Civil3D, our team created a surface model from the plateau point cloud geometry of the quarry cliffs and performed a grading operation in Civil3D with a 3:1 slope ratio, based on the topology of the said surface model. In brief, this is accomplished by creating a cut and fill surface from the point cloud derived surface model (white contour lines), then creating the cut/fill surface (tan) using the specified slope from a 100 ft roadway regulatory buffer zone to an elevation of -21 ft (the approximate start of the lake). Example below:

Area 1 (Above): Volume Summary: 2D Area (Sq.Ft.) 354468.69 | Cut (Cu.Yd.) 440145.29 | Fill (Cu.Yd.) 2535.45 | Net (Cu.Yd.) volume calculated by subtracting Fill from Cut volume: 437609.84

For Area 2, (Below) Cut and fill surface (green) was created from the drone point cloud derived surface model (white contour lines). The cut/fill surface was created using a 3:1 ft slope from the 100 ft roadway buffer zone to an elevation of -14 ft (the approximate start of the lake at this site).

Area 2 (Above): Volume Summary: 2D Area (Sq.Ft.) 974012.93 | Cut (Cu.Yd.) 1768281.83 | Fill (Cu.Yd.) 2655.41 | Net (Cu.Yd.) volume calculated by subtracting Fill from Cut volume: 1765626.41

Thank you Matt...

A special kudos to Matthew Daniels, our Georgia representative, public adjuster, entrepreneur, and software solutions founder, for being so dad-gum (his words, not mine) charming, taking good care of our clients, and for providing the data for this project. I met Matthew through LinkedIn messenger a couple of years ago, somewhat randomly, and we've been talking ever since. Over this past year, we've done several projects together - some quite massive and somewhat legendary in nature, which will be showcased in a future post in May 2020 -

Where we are, what we've accomplished, and what that means to us

Over the past 2 years, our company drone fleet has grown to the point we needed a separate storage unit and truck trailer to haul it all around. Over the last 2 years, we have commercially mapped over 60,000 acres of property for construction and utility companies. That's a massive number based on a massive need for this service. While I'm at it, we've also 3D laser scanned several million square feet of interior building spaces with a variety of 3D scanner models and captured over 40,000 panoramic photo-bubbles for monitoring construction progress. I'm certain many have done more than this, and perhaps some less - but seeing all of that data come through our pipeline is impressive...to ME.

In this process, we've learned a lot about what works, what definitely doesn't work, and have had to figure out strategies for moving that data around, teaching others how to use it, and testing, testing, testing. As many reality capture firms can attest to, there are technical challenges that must be constantly overcome - or at least dealt with. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished thus far and I'm very grateful for so many I've met on LinkedIn and elsewhere that have helped us to solve problems and hone in our processes - which is a never-ending learning endeavor, requiring a beginners mind each new day. For us, it provides a sense of purpose in it all because the work we do has meaning;

• It serves people and makes their lives easier so they can focus on what they do best.
• It is difficult, complex, and fills our need for variety and curiosity.
• It is rewarding; we are paid a living wage and have room for play in our work/life balance.
• It is innovative and exploratory; there is a delight in the frequent discovery of something new and charms us with the aesthetic experience that this technology often evokes.

Perhaps the philosopher Alan Watts captured it best:

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”

Love and Happy Thoughts,

ToPa 3D~