Hovermap Case Study Article: Hovermap provides drone autonomy and collision avoidance, easing the burden on operators and allowing them to fly closer to critical infrastructure and into confined spaces. A versatile SLAM-based mapper, Hovermap makes data collection quick, easy, and secure. In addition to drone use, its adaptable design enables
The PwC’s membership network report, Skies without Limits, recently revealed that drone technology is expected to uplift the UK’s construction industry by £8.6 bn by 2030. This growth was largely attributed to innovation and improved productivity. As drone technology becomes more sophisticated, it can offer a range of benefits for
Hardware and software combination gives organisations one-stop drone solution Esri UK today announced a new partnership with drone specialists Heliguy to complete its end-to-end drone solution designed for the AEC industry. The final piece in Esri UK’s strategy to offer all parts of the drone workflow, the partnership will provide
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
Hovermap Case Study Article: Hovermap provides drone autonomy and collision avoidance, easing the burden on operators and allowing them to fly closer to critical infrastructure and into confined spaces. A versatile SLAM-based mapper, Hovermap makes data collection quick, easy, and secure. In addition to drone use, its adaptable design enables it to be used for walking, vehicle, and backpack-mounted surveys. This adaptability has been a significant factor in Hovermap’s widespread acceptance. Combining precision engineering, SLAM algorithms, and robust drone autonomy operators can gather accurate LiDAR data for as-builts, surveys, and inspections above or below ground, indoors or outdoors. This case study was conducted by COPTRZ, the UK’s leading supplier of commercial drone technology, with the assistance of an independent surveyor in order to validate the accuracy of Emesent’s Hovermap SLAM-based LiDAR and Ground Control Point (GCP) Software. Solutions for a LiDAR scanner in construction, such as the Emesent Hovermap mobile mapping technology, can reduce, and in many cases eliminate, the interruptions that add time and expense to a construction project. Too frequently, companies have neither explored nor are aware of these alternatives. Instead, they continue doing things the same way they always have, so they endure: • Time and resource intensive manual processes, such as traditional surveying and measuring instruments. • Employing professional surveyors, which is an added cost that frequently requires additional time and lacks the flexibility to capture the entire site, difficult-to-access areas, and confined spaces. • Fewer collaboration skills, which impede innovation and communication with other members of your project management team. • Less specific or exhaustive information for estimating materials and budgeting • Predetermined scanning intervals for monitoring construction There is a reason why construction professionals look to LiDAR innovation for construction and data collection: it can speed up and reduce the cost of entire processes. Overall, this case study sought to determine the extent to which a SLAM-based LiDAR system can be utilised to acquire accurate point cloud data for engineering and mass data applications. The captured data would be compared to Total Station-surveyed points. The precision of ground control points (GCPs) and surveyed points was used to validate claims of accuracy. In addition to these parameters, the time required to capture data and the processing time were also evaluated. This experiment was conducted at a new 73-meter-long housing estate entrance, allowing the testers to scan a continuous stretch of road to test the precision of Hovermap. For evaluation purposes, the environment featured a variety of characteristics, including a rising gradient, street furniture, and utilities. All features, including the top and bottom of the curb, spot levels, GCPs, and utilities, were surveyed by an independent surveyor. A COPTRZ employee performed the Hovermap data set and the positioning of GCPs. Five reflective 500mm targets were used as GCPs. These were placed in a “Zig-Zag” pattern up the road to position the scan in an absolute coordinate system. This eliminated slips and SLAM (inertial measurement unit) drift. The Hovermap data was collected via a walked scan and processed with Emesent software in accordance with the company’s best practises. When the scan begins, the algorithm creates multiple ‘local’ maps and then attempts to align them with greater precision on the global map. The entire survey was conducted at a walking pace, and a closed loop was achieved. SLAM recognises unique characteristics from the outset. When merging ‘local’ and ‘global’ maps, greater alignment is achieved by closing the loop on the scan. Overall, the Emesent Hovermap ST proved to be easy to set up and user-friendly in operation. After configuring Hovermap on a mobile device and waiting 30 seconds for initialization, the data was gathered. The collection of data required 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The processing time, which included the importation of GCPs’ positions, was 13 minutes and 50 seconds. The .las extension was exported and data was imported the point cloud into Leica 3DR. After analysing the data, the standard deviation of 3DCQ shows 95% of all points checked are better than 20mm.
The PwC’s membership network report, Skies without Limits, recently revealed that drone technology is expected to uplift the UK’s construction industry by £8.6 bn by 2030. This growth was largely attributed to innovation and improved productivity. As drone technology becomes more sophisticated, it can offer a range of benefits for civil contractors. Here Ian Barnes, Director at SITECH UK & Ireland, the leading distributor of Trimble® technology, shares his thoughts on the benefits of drones. In the last few years, improvements in drone and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) technology has changed how we use them — they are no longer viewed as just high-tech toys. The use of drones has particularly increased in the construction industry to help businesses improve accuracy and productivity. Additionally, as purchase and set up costs gradually decrease to make the technology more affordable, more construction and civil engineering businesses can benefit from the technology. There are several benefits of using drones on site, such as improving survey accuracy of large areas without difficulty, collecting and sharing data, and improving health and safety. Improving these areas can help companies keep their infrastructure projects on track and avoid costly delays. Let’s take a closer look at some of their benefits. Progress tracking According to a study from Engineers Daily, design errors account for 38 percent of construction disputes. Inaccurate and incomplete designs can push projects behind schedule and over budget as confusion mounts. Progress tracking in drones can limit these issues by capturing highly accurate site data. Contractors simply fly the drone to collect data when it’s required, meaning that there’s no need to halt construction work to complete surveys. Collected data can then be uploaded to a cloud-based platform where contractors can access the data anywhere, anytime and easily interpret the information. “Civil contractors and surveyors can use the technology to produce weekly progress reports to share across the company and to stakeholders,” explained Jan Wouter Kruyt, Director of European Operations at Propeller, who teamed up with SITECH to develop the Trimble Stratus® drone package. “More accurate progress tracking can boost overall efficiency while minimising disputes that can often derail projects. For instance, contractors can highlight the parts of a site that they are excavating and provide an estimate on how long this will take and plan the next stages of construction accordingly.” Mapping sites As well as surveying, innovations in drone software now allows contractors to produce detailed 3D maps and models using the data and site footage that they gather from flights. This highly accurate site data can cut costs because the detailed visualisations help teams align on their activities and reduce the risk of design errors that require rework later down the line. For example, Trimble® Stratus, powered by Propeller, uses a data analytics and visualisation platform to capture geo-referenced high-resolution aerial images. All they need to do is lay out their ground control points and fly the drones, enabling them to access highly accurate topographic surveys without causing bottlenecks. As with progress tracking, when 3D mapping is combined with a suitable analytics platform, you can communicate this data across your team and with third parties. Contractors can store and share a single source of truth across the cloud instead of running around with a pencil and a piece of paper. Improved digital mapping also means that every member of the team is aware of the site’s landscape, is working from the same information and immediately receives any updates. Instead of taking hours, or even days to cover the site on foot, all you need to do is fly the drone — providing a real field-to-finish solution for mapping sites. Health and safety According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) annual report in 2019, slips, trips and falls were the second highest cause of injuries and fatalities in the UK construction industry. Construction companies and shareholders are understandably concerned with any injuries on site and are looking for ways to minimise risk. Drones can quickly complete surveys in dangerous areas and take contractors out of the high-risk areas where these injuries could occur. Drones are piloted remotely, and this is essential when surveying sites where it is too risky to send people. In quarries, for example, surveying requires people to move around rocky and uneven surfaces that can put people in danger. Some sites also have dangerous structures or hazardous and flammable materials on-site that workers should not be in close proximity to. Instead of sending out engineers with pegs, operators can stay at a safe distance and easily fly the drone over the area to collect data, saving the surveyor time and minimising risk in the process. As drone technology becomes more sophisticated and accessible to contractors, it could deliver real productivity benefits while minimising risk to workers. It’s hardly surprising that the construction industry will receive a £8.6 bn lift over the next ten years because of these innovations. Drone flights and data processing provided in an easy to use package that covers workflow, data clarity and the practical is just one of the services developed by SITECH to support the digital worksite. For more information on how you can successfully set up your drone flights, visit https://www.sitechukandireland.com/sitech-drone-services/.
Hardware and software combination gives organisations one-stop drone solution Esri UK today announced a new partnership with drone specialists Heliguy to complete its end-to-end drone solution designed for the AEC industry. The final piece in Esri UK’s strategy to offer all parts of the drone workflow, the partnership will provide customers with drone hardware, pilot training and flying services from Heliguy, adding to Esri’s existing drone flight planning, data capture, data processing and GIS software. Containing these processes in one solution provides users with a more cost-effective workflow and saves time. The new partnership aims to streamline current processes, from drone management and data capture, through to data analysis and better sharing of outputs across a business, including integration with BIM and CAD workflows. Current Esri drone software customers include Skanska Norway, Arcadis and PCL Construction in North America, while UAV specialist Heliguy manages some of Europe’s largest drone programmes, working with Balfour Beatty, Atkins and Network Rail. “Esri has invested heavily in creating its drone technology and this new relationship completes the picture in the UK. By providing a single source of hardware and software, the partnership will help customers maximise their investment in drones and GIS,” said Craig Evenden, Head of AEC & BIM at Esri UK. “As drone usage grows, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the AEC community is demanding more integrated programmes that can easily grow across their business. Heliguy’s vast experience and training capabilities, coupled with Esri’s cloud-based drone and GIS software are a perfect match for the AEC industry’s new enterprise requirements.” Through the new partnership, Esri UK and Heliguy will work on joint projects, aiming to introduce new and more efficient workflows by bringing together customers’ GIS and Survey teams who have traditionally worked separately on drone-related projects. “The AEC drone industry is still in its infancy which sees many piecemeal projects with no proper joined-up internal approach, which leads to failure,” commented Ruairi Hardman, Heliguy’s Business Development Manager. “Internal drone programmes that can scale across a business are a fairly new phenomenon and these are what we look forward to delivering alongside Esri UK. Robust, standardised drone workflows, designed for the long-term, can lead to 1-2% efficiency gains which translates into millions of pounds on large-scale construction projects.” AEC organisations use Esri’s GIS software to help plan, design, build and maintain smarter buildings and infrastructure. Esri UK customers include Arcadis, Mott MacDonald, Costain, Crossrail, the Skanska, Costain and STRABAG Joint Venture and Highways England. Esri UK and Heliguy are holding a joint webinar on 19 November 2020 at 3.00-4.00pm, to discuss how the new partnership helps meet AEC challenges and improve workflows. For more information and registration please visit: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/502669636526713612?source=pr
