What makes an ideal surveying & mapping drone?

SVAMITVA scheme is the best example of what drones can do in surveying and mapping applications across industries. With this scheme, the government intends to map land parcels of 6.6 lakh villages across the country, to build accurate digital records of rural property. Out of the total number of villages to be mapped, over 2 lakh have already been surveyed using drone technology under SVAMITVA scheme.

Conducting surveys using a drone offers enormous potential. Topographical surveys can be done to collect highly accurate measurements in a fraction of the time of traditional methods. This results in minimizing the workload of professionals in the field and reducing the cost of surveying a site. While using drones has several advantages, not choosing the right drone for the job could lead to unwanted issues. The focus while choosing a surveying and mapping drone should be on both flying as well as payload capabilities.

• Payloads: Payloads are cameras or sensors that a drone is designed to carry. Whether drones carry conventional cameras or modern ones, it is important to evaluate their technical capabilities, in addition to NDVI, infrared, and others. To understand this better, let us take the example of Asteria’s A200 - India’s first DGCA-certified micro-category drone, equipped with a 24 MP imaging camera with APS-C sensor to capture high-resolution and sharp images. It is mounted nadir-facing to ensure that there is no impact of vibrations on the quality of image.

• Flying capabilities: There are drones that are good at capturing high-resolution imagery. Some surveying and mapping drones are specifically designed to cover large areas or fly in confined spaces. Asteria’s A200 can do everything. It has a flight time of more than 35 minutes and is equipped with an L1/L2 multi-band GNSS receiver with full PPK (post processed kinematic) capability. Also, the easy maneuverability and high efficiency of the drone perfectly matches its intended use of surveying and mapping. Additionally, for typical topographical or mapping projects, the drone offers improved flight accuracy through Asteria’s proprietary Mission Control Software (MCS).

• Practicality: The size of the drone has a very important role to play in determining the logistics associated with moving the drone around. Handling larger drones can be very cumbersome. A200 is a compact, lightweight drone, and can be operated by a single person. It comes with a rugged IP67 certified (dust and waterproof) hard case that can be used to securely pack and carry drone hardware and accessories required for a day of flight operations.?

If you want to know more about Asteria’s A200 drone or understand how it can be used in your specific surveying and mapping application, drop us an email on [email protected] or call on +91 7353036888.

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