Drone Surveying Services Ireland
We offer the highest-quality drone surveying services in Ireland. Our extensive experience delivering the most challenging projects sets us apart from our competitors.
High Accuracy Topographic drone surveys
Our field teams use the latest drone technology to map terrain with incredible detail, giving you accurate elevation data that makes a real difference in construction and development projects. We don’t just collect pretty pictures – we capture precise measurements of everything that matters: ground contours, existing structures, utility locations, tree coverage, and water flow patterns.
You’ll get practical, usable outputs including 3D ground models, CAD drawings you can work with, and contour maps showing what you’re dealing with on site. When you plug these into your design software, you can make smart calls about dirt movement, drainage solutions, and how to organize your site. From planning permission applications to active construction or managing existing assets, our surveys deliver the complex data that keeps projects on track and budgets in check.
Stockpile and Earthwork Volume Measurement
The drone revolution has transformed how we tackle stockpile measurements. Our teams fly specialized UAVs over your site to gather raw data, then convert it into detailed 3D point clouds that calculate exact volumes of stockpiles, earthworks, quarry extractions, and building materials with remarkable accuracy.
These surveys give you the hard numbers to verify quantities, track job progress, and manage materials effectively throughout your construction projects. We don’t just hand over basic measurements – you’ll receive comprehensive cut/fill analysis, detailed stockpile reports, 3D surface models, and comparison data showing volume changes over time.
Whether monitoring extraction rates at a quarry, double-checking a contractor’s claimed quantities, or keeping tabs on your material inventory, our volumetric surveys deliver rock-solid measurements that help you make smarter decisions and keep a tight grip on negotiated rates. The days of guesswork and disputes over material quantities are over.
3D Model Surveys
Our high-precision aerial mapping dramatically cuts your site documentation time. Our field teams fly specialized drones that capture thousands of overlapping images, which we stitch together using advanced photogrammetry to build comprehensive 3D models of your buildings, structures, and terrain.
These aren’t just fancy visuals – they’re accurate digital twins that let you walk through your site virtually, take precise measurements without returning to the field, and document every asset in remarkable detail. We deliver everything from richly textured 3D meshes and dense point clouds to BIM-ready models and web-based interactive visualizations you can share with stakeholders.
Our 3D drone surveys give you the tools to make smarter decisions for heritage documentation, construction progress monitoring, or architectural planning. Project managers swear by them for resolving disputes, architects use them to inform designs, and asset managers rely on them for tracking site conditions over time – all without the headaches of traditional surveying methods.
Drone Thermal Imaging Surveys
Our field crews mount specialized infrared sensors on professional-grade drones to capture detailed temperature readings across buildings and infrastructure. These thermal cameras pick up temperature differences as subtle as half a degree Celsius, producing vivid heat maps that reveal hidden problems like water leaks, missing insulation, overheating electrical components, and compromised building envelopes.
You won’t just get basic thermal snapshots – we deliver radiometric images that contain actual temperature data, detailed gradient analysis showing how heat flows through structures, comprehensive inspection reports, and precisely mapped thermal overlays you can reference against your site plans.
Facility managers rely on our thermal surveys for thorough energy audits, building condition assessments, and preventive maintenance planning before small problems become expensive failures. The data we provide helps you make smart decisions about asset management and identify specific opportunities to cut energy costs, all without the disruption and limitations of traditional inspection methods.
Get Survey-Grade deliverables from Ireland’s Leading Drone Services Company.
Solutions to Drone Surveying at a Reasonable Price
Why choose Drone Services Ireland?
Drone Services Ireland is the country’s most experienced and trusted drone survey company. We have a proven record of conducting some of the most challenging surveys completed in Ireland, from extreme elevation differences of over 800m to drone surveys that manned aviation could not complete. Succeeding in these missions requires precise planning. We have the expertise, know-how, and state-of-the-art equipment to conduct surveys that others cannot.
We have carried out and completed photogrammetric and LiDAR surveys for nearly a decade. Our operations have multiple IAA and EASA accreditations, and we are certified drone operators in the Open and Specific Categories.
We have performed thousands of operations and are very much involved in industry associations and bodies promoting drone commercial use in Ireland. Previously, a committee member and Co-Chair of the UAAI, former Chair of the IPDPA, and now the Secretary of Ireland’s newest professional-only drone organisation, Drone Professionals Ireland. We have been involved in all aspects of the drone industry for a decade.
What is Drone Surveying?
Drone surveying combines high-quality RTK-enabled aerial images with accurate GNSS ground control points and checkpoints throughout the site. We capture accurate survey-grade data through photogrammetry or LiDAR Surveying and process it to project deliverables.
At its core, professional drone surveying is built on an incredibly detailed point cloud with millions or even billions of data points, depending on the size of the project.
We use an advanced drone surveying process that converts the point cloud to necessary outputs such as digital elevation models (DEM), digital terrain models (DTM), and orthomosaics. We use RTK-enabled drone surveying equipment, GNSS-surveyed ground points, and advanced processing workflows to provide survey-grade accuracy.
Our drone surveying data integrates with industry-standard CAD and GIS platforms such as AutoCAD, Civil 3D, and Global Mapper for detailed topographical analysis. We build TIN surfaces in these applications to create accurate contours within a defined interval (2m, 1m, or 0.5m).
This is what professional drone surveying data provides:
- Accurate earthworks volumetric calculations
- Slope analysis and Gradient tallies
- Generation of detailed topographical contours
- Creating a customised point grid
- Advanced Topographical Surface Modelling
- Terrain comparison
- Monitoring and analyzing terrain changes in depth
Why choose Drone Surveying Solutions?
Drone surveying provides unparalleled efficiency and accuracy for your project requirements. Our UAV-based technology can collect comprehensive site data in a tenth of the time of conventional methods, vastly reducing costs and eliminating safety risks.
Helps in Accurate Topographical Mapping: The accurate topographical mapping of land has always been a crucial process in the construction industry. Drone surveying is the future of site documentation and analysis.
Choose drone surveying for faster, safer, and more cost-effective project delivery.
Benefits of Drone Surveying by Industry
While drone surveying has a vast and varied use case, these are some primary sectors where drones are revolutionising the survey industry.
The advantages of having access to more efficient, safer, and cheaper surveying over huge land areas are apparent.
Construction and Development
- Planning and site monitoring
- Earthwork volume calculations
- Audit trail of milestones
- Verification of building footprint
- Cut and fill optimisation
- Site logistics planning
Mining and Quarrying
- Stockpile volume measurements
- Pit progression monitoring
- Extraction planning
- Environmental compliance inspections
- Blast planning and analysis
- Slope stability assessment
Infrastructure and Utilities
- Mapping the corridors of land that road and rail take
- Pipeline route planning
- Power line corridor surveys
- Inspection of bridges and structures
- Drainage analysis
- Asset management mapping
Agriculture and Forestry
- Crop health monitoring
- Irrigation planning
- Forest inventory surveys
- Land use mapping
- Soil erosion monitoring
- Planning for precision agriculture
City Planning and Architecture
- Urban growth monitoring
- Assessments of development impact
- Green space mapping
- Traffic flow analysis
- Flood risk assessment
- Heritage site documentation
Environmental Management
- Coastal erosion monitoring
- Watershed mapping
- Habitat assessment
- Environmental impact studies
- Conservation planning
- Pollution monitoring
Property and Real Estate
- Property boundary surveys
- Feasibility studies for the mentioned development
- Marketing materials creation
- Insurance documentation
- Asset valuation surveys
- Planning application support
In summary, the benefits of drone technology are clear. Speed, accuracy, cost savings, and data visualisation across many sectors significantly benefit many projects. The visual aspect of drone data makes it more easily relatable. Viewing a complete three-dimensional picture compared to dots and lines on a page that can only be interpreted by trained engineers.
Case Study: CAD Linework Extraction of 110kV and 220kV powerlines surveyed with combined LiDAR and Photogrammetry datasets
The Challenge: As part of a planning application for a solar farm, we were required to capture almost 15km of 220kV and 110kV powerlines. For much of the survey area, there was no access to the land. As can be seen in the video, dense vegetation covered much of the area, which would have hindered access and caused safety concerns.
The Solution: Without physical access to the land, traditional surveying was impossible. However, through drone technology, we combined a LiDAR and Photogrammetry survey, merging and classifying the point clouds, allowing for the extraction of the poles, lines and connectors, which enabled the engineers to see the clearance below the powerlines. By classifying the point cloud, we can eliminate those classes from the view, allowing you to hide High, Medium and Low vegetation to aid in the CAD linework extraction.
We needed LiDAR because the cable diameter is often too small to reconstruct through photogrammetry alone. The software usually has trouble reconstructing the 220kV transmission tower and the powerlines. LiDAR, however, does not have this problem, which is one of its many benefits over photogrammetry in this scenario.
The Benefit: Without needing access to the site, we were able to combine the point clouds of the LiDAR and Photogrammetry surveys to capture the position, height, drop, and span of the Overhead Power Lines. This could not have been achieved through traditional methods, as access was not possible. We achieved cm-level results without putting anyone in danger and completed the survey in a fraction of the time.
This same survey technique is very beneficial for vegetation encroachment and can be used for maintenance of not just powerlines but fibre and telecoms networks too.
Whats involved in the Drone Survey Process?
While the initial stages of drone surveying are done in the field, much of the work is done at the desk.
Mission planning is as critical to the project as on-site data collection. This may include risk assessments and establishing the optimal time of day, weather conditions, etc., at which the flight can be conducted. Low sun and shadows can be very detrimental to the quality of the data. At this step, the GCP/Check Point coverage is defined to enable coverage and capture checks.
The ground control points (GCPs) must be tagged/placed on the ground before taking the flight to identify them in the images captured for the processing phase, when the GCPs are in the field.
The flight mission for the survey is performed, where front and side overlap and flight speed parameters can be updated based on variations in the site from those used in planning.
Once the flight is finished, a data quality check must be performed onsite. This overcomes the issue of missing images and provides high-quality images for any data operation.
The work starts in the office, backing up and replicating the dataset. We never work on the original dataset; this is the master copy, and we never touch it. We take a backup and process it with multiple software packages. The project deliverables and the captured data then determine this. Every software package we work with has strengths, and we select the best package for the project.
We import them into a GIS to validate the data once huge volumes are processed. This process can take hours, days, or weeks, depending on the scale of the project. We use working files exported from the software, which is important as it ensures correct data.
Issue Deliverables to Client: After this phase, we digitally issue the deliverables to the client. That means no mucking about with USB transfers or shipping delays.
There’s no client data processing in the cloud; everything happens on an insulated, secure network.
Comprehensive Visual Inspections
Completing a successful aerial drone surveying mission requires as much planning before turning up to the site as it takes time on-site to complete. We take the requirements from the client as a boundary KML or a screenshot of the area from Google Earth.
Selecting Our Industry-Leading Technology
We import the boundary into our flight planning software, UGCS or Pilot 2, and select the appropriate surveying and mapping drone for the mission while planning. We set up the job parameters, which vary based on requirements and include front and side overlap, ground sampling distance calculations, flight height limitations, etc., to accurately depict the flight and avoid costly mistakes.
GDPR Compliant Processed Data
Once the data has been collected, we’ll process it. Our processing is fully GDPR compliant, so you can be assured that your data is safe and secure.
Thorough Pre-Flight Checks
We conduct a risk assessment following our Specific Category Authorisation and check the weather conditions to ascertain when we can complete the mission. When on-site, we lay out ground control points in pre-determined locations and survey them. We launch the drone when all our pre-flight checks are completed, and it captures data based on our flight plan.
Drone Surveying FAQs
Learn more about our Drone Surveying services
How much does drone surveying cost in Ireland?
The simple answer is that pricing varies based on several factors.
The location, size of the project, time of year, weather, airspace and surrounding areas such as roads and building structures can all affect pricing. We consider all these and provide a custom price per job based on these variables.
Drone Services Ireland is recognised as one of Ireland’s leading drone survey companies, providing the highest quality digital aerial surveys. We provide data-only collection services for many companies that process their own data, or we can do that for you as part of the deliverables.
We have spent thousands of hours perfecting our workflows and heavily invested in the latest hardware and software to give you the best drone surveying solutions in the country.
Adding high-precision GPS or an RTK/PPK solution increases overall accuracy. Survey ground control points (GCPs) can be input to orthorectify the image and verify its accuracy when used as checkpoints.
We use a combination of RTK and PPK workflows, depending on conditions such as mobile data coverage on the project and use the most suitable workflow. We cater to all sites, from a few acres to hundreds of hectares. We price accordingly; the more significant the drone survey, the more time and processing will be involved.
This highly detailed output is accurate regarding global position and elevation, and it can be output in local coordinate systems such as the Irish Transverse Mercator (IRENET95) and Malin Head vertical datum.
What is the accuracy of drone surveys?
We have conducted many aerial photogrammetric surveys and have spent hundreds of hours in the field, at the computer, and working with experts to deliver survey-grade results with our workflows. We have worked with surveyors and have in-house surveyors who verify the work we complete. We achieve <5cm accuracy in X, Y, and Z coordinates.
What are the benefits of drone surveying?
The significant advantage of drone surveying over traditional surveying is the speed at which data can be delivered. Drone surveys can cover much larger areas more quickly than conventional surveying methods.
Drone surveying is also safer; people do not have to walk in dangerous places. Where ground control is required, this can be planned and placed safely without the risk of twisted ankles or breaks.
The level of detail derived from drone surveys is exceptional. A recent quarry survey delivered 1.3 billion data points, each allowing us to gather vital data, allowing for accurate stockpile calculations, cut and fill measurements, slope analysis and general measurements on-site.
Why are our drone surveys more expensive than those of other operators?
Recent regulation changes have significantly impacted some operators, and regulators are clamping down more on illegal drone operations that put people at risk. Many factors and planning are involved in drone surveys, and we continuously operate safely and only take on jobs we know we can complete.
We use the latest aerial survey equipment to provide the highest-quality data deliverables. Keep an eye on our blog for updates to our services and equipment.
Another reason we may seem more expensive is because we process the data ourselves. Many drone operators throw the data at a cloud processing service and send the client the outputs. We manually process and verify the data through our established workflows to ensure we deliver quality, accurate data.
We do not use cloud-based data processing; your data is securely stored and processed locally.
We are always fair in pricing and are happy to discuss if you receive cheaper quotes. We offer discounts on ongoing work or for repeat customers. We are professional drone operators and operate in the EASA Specific Category, which allows us to complete more complex projects that others may not be able to do legally.
What are the limitations of drone surveying?
In Ireland, drone surveying has two main limitations: airspace restrictions and weather. In nearly all cases, we can apply for permission to fly in restricted areas; mother nature is something we cannot control.
Wind and rain are the two main issues, but a low-cloud base can also be challenging. While our cutting-edge equipment can fly in 15m/s winds, the data quality may be affected, and we won’t take the chance on that. Also, while nadir data capture is standard for drone surveying, if raindrops get on the lens, again, the data quality is compromised.
We plan our jobs when we can safely capture the best quality data.
Can you provide a UAV drone survey?
Yes, we can provide a UAV drone survey. Our drone services are available for projects of all sizes, including topographical mapping, 3D modelling, elevation/contour data, and orthomosaic imagery. We use the latest aerial survey equipment to ensure our data is of the highest quality and accuracy.