c/showcase•Posted byu/MarkDavison•10 days ago

Quarry survey - 6 million cubic yards in one flight

Completed what might be our largest single stockpile survey. Active aggregate quarry, 200 acres, 47 individual stockpiles ranging from 5,000 CY to 800,000 CY.

Total computed volume: 6.2 million cubic yards.

Flew the entire site with the M3E at 300ft AGL, 75/70 overlap. 2,800 images processed in Pix4D in about 6 hours. Used 22 GCPs established with RTK.

Checkpoint accuracy: 1.8cm horizontal, 2.3cm vertical. Client compared our volumes to their last ground survey and we were within 1.5% on the major piles.

What would have taken a ground crew a week to survey, we completed in one morning.

Comments

Vince DeLuca•10 days ago

1.5% on piles that large is excellent. The base plane definition must have been challenging with 47 piles. Did you define each base plane individually or use a global reference surface?

Also, how did you handle the active areas? Trucks moving, loaders working, etc.

Gary Bowman•10 days ago

This is a textbook case study for drone ROI. One morning vs one week, with better accuracy. What did you charge for this job if you don't mind sharing?