Volumetric Analysis using Drone Imagery

This article was originally posted on my firm's website:? https://www.mapmyops.com/volumetric-analysis-stockpile-from-drone-imagery and is updated there when an edit needs to be made. Hence, I'd recommend you to read this article from the hyperlink above.

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The imagery captured from a Drone or an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can be used for multiple purposes - from consumer applications to professional & industry specific applications (agriculture, solar etc.). You may read my previous post on 10 Commercial Applications of Drones here.

Drone based imagery have location coordinates embedded in it i.e. each pixel is geo-spatial in nature and one can plot it on a map. Survey grade drones use 'photogrammetry' principles to capture imagery in 3D i.e. apart from the 2 dimensional x and y values (length & breadth), these drones capture z values (height) as well for each pixel. As you would imagine, this makes the imagery richer in that there is more spatial data stored in each pixel.

Drones have enabled us to capture high resolution imagery, with multiple sensor options, at any point in time, over a geographic extent of our choice. These advantages notwithstanding, just capturing imagery is not enough - one still has to process and analyze it to derive meaning from the data stored within the imagery. In the case video below, you will see how we analyze drone imagery to estimate the storage capacity of a storm water retention basin using powerful geo-spatial analysis applications.

(The videos are best viewed in Youtube's HD setting either on PC or on Landscape mode in Mobile Phone. You can reduce / increase the play speed as per your viewing preferences.)

Case Video: Estimating area and volume of stormwater basin

Interesting, isn't it? The concept is very simple, yet, this calculation wouldn't have been possible if the data wasn't rich enough - survey grade drone imagery helps us capture high quality 3D data.

Can you think of some other uses arising from analyzing and interpreting drone imagery data? One unique application is 'stock-pile estimation'.

The principle behind it is actually the inverse of the one used in the case video - we had used depth differences from ground level there to ascertain basin volume. In stock-pile estimation we use height differences from ground level to ascertain volume and quantity of bulk materials, inventory etc. located in open spaces such as mines, ports, warehouses etc.

Would you like to explore drones or drone mapping applications for your organization? Mapmyops is authorized to sell the drones of India's leading manufacturer as well as the drone imagery software from the world's leading location analytics company.

Intelloc Mapping Services | Mapmyops.com sells products which capture geo-data (Drones, Sensors), process geo-data (Geographic Information System) as well as services (Map based Business Reports, Drone Mapping, Satellite Imagery). These help organizations to chart out their business operations for visualizing, monitoring and analysis purposes, thereby facilitating Location Intelligence. Write to us on [email protected]. Download our one-page profile here. Request a demo.

Regards, Arpit

Much Thanks to Learn ArcGIS for the training material. Study has been done on Esri's Drone2Map and ArcGIS Pro Location Analytics Platform.