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Drone Surveying Services

We offer the highest-quality drone surveying services in Ireland. Our extensive experience delivering the most challenging projects sets us apart from our competitors. 

Topographic drone surveys offer high-resolution mapping of the terrain’s texture and the surface’s elevation, which is crucial for construction, development, and specific infrastructure projects. Using state-of-the-art drone surveying technology, we can capture high-accuracy data about natural and built features, including ground contours, structures, utilities, extensive tree stands, and drainage patterns. We provide 3D ground surface models, CAD drawings, contour maps, and everything needed in site documentation. This is when survey-grade outputs synthesized in design software allow for well-informed decisions about earthworks, drainage design, and site layout. From planning applications to construction projects to asset management, our topographic surveys provide the accurate information you require.

Drones have advanced a lot in surveying material quantities with volumetric surveys. You will have a UAV of your own to fly, produce a detailed 3D point cloud data set, and subsequently calculate the exact volume of stockpiles, earthworks, quarries, and construction materials. These surveys provide critical data for quantity verification, progress monitoring, and material management. This is supported by detailed cut and fill analysis, stockpile volume reports, 3D surfaces, and time series comparisons of volumes. From extraction rate monitoring to contractor quantity verification to material inventory management, we deliver volumetric surveys that provide accurate measurements to make better-informed decisions and control negotiated rates.

High-precision aerial mapping allows 3D model surveys to reduce site documentation time. Using advanced photogrammetry techniques, your drone surveys capture thousands of overlapping images to generate robust 3D digital composite models of buildings, structures, and terrain. These digital twins are accurate, allowing site walkthroughs in a virtual setting, precise measurements, and detailed documentation for all assets. Output assets range from textured 3D meshes, point clouds, and BIM-ready models to interactive visualisations viewed through web browsers. Our drone 3D model surveys are vital for heritage documentation, construction monitoring, and architectural planning applications, providing valuable insights for design, planning, and asset management.

Advanced infrared sensors are used in drone thermal imaging surveys to obtain accurate temperature data for buildings and infrastructure. Our UAV-mounted thermal cameras recognise temperature discrepancies as low as 0.5°C and generate impactful thermographic maps that expose moisture intrusion, insulation defects, electrical hotspots, and other building envelope problems. The deliverables comprise radiometric thermal images, temperature gradient analysis, detailed inspections, and georeferenced thermal mapping. Our thermal imaging surveys are vital for energy audits, condition assessments, and predictive maintenance programmes, allowing data-driven decisions regarding asset management and energy optimisation.

Get Survey-Grade Orthorectified Mosaics and Digital Elevation Models

Solutions to Drone Surveying at a Reasonable Price

Drone Surveying point cloud client deliverable
Thermal Roof Inspection Solar Panel Fault

Why Drone Services Ireland?

Drone Services Ireland is the country’s most experienced & trusted survey company. We have a proven record of conducting some of the island’s most challenging surveys, from extreme elevation differences of over 800m to drone surveys that manned aviation could not complete. Succeeding these missions requires 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. We have had multiple IAA and EASA accreditations for our operations and 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 then on to Ireland’s newest professional-only drone organisation, Drone Professionals Ireland.

Drone Services Ireland Equipment Ad
Drone Survey Stockpile Volume Measurement
Construction Site Volumetric Drone Survey

What is Drone Surveying?

Drone surveying combines high-quality aerial images with pinpoint accuracy thanks to ground control points and checkpoints throughout the site, allowing you to focus on mapping the entire area.

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 can be integrated 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 applications provide:

  • Accurate earthworks VR volumetric calculations
  • Slope analysis and Gradient tallies in detail
  • Generation of the detailed topography contour
  • Creating a customised point grid
  • Advanced Topographical Surface Modelling
  • Terrain comparison analytics
  • Monitoring and analyzing terrain changes in depth
  • Professional drone surveying applications deliver

Why choose Drone Surveying?

Drone surveying provides unparalleled efficiency and accuracy for your project requirements. Our UAV-based technology is capable of collecting 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.

Drone 3D Model of Castle Ruin Co. Meath

Drone Surveying benefits 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 the site and monitoring the progress
  • Earthwork volume calculations
  • Documentation sequence of the construction
  • 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
Topographic Spot Height Levels
Construction Development pre-commencement drone survey

Drone Surveying Case Study: CAD Linework of 110kV powerlines surveyed with LiDAR and Photogrammetry

As highlighted in the video below, we were contracted to survey a site for a solar farm planning application. One of the significant challenges of the project was the 110kV and 220kV powerlines running, both through and adjacent to the site. Without having physical access to the land, traditional surveying was not possible. 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. 

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 drone surveying is done the field, much of the work is not in the field; the job is done at the desk.

Data collection is as critical to the project as planning the mission to turn it up on-site. 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 registered GCPs need to 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. That can sometimes take longer than the drone flew. The 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.

The data quality check must be performed onsite once the flight is finished. Overcomes the issue of missing images and provides high enough quality images for any data operation.

The work starts in the office, backing up and replicating the data set. 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 processing huge volumes is complete, a process that can take hours, days, or weeks depending on the scale of the project, and use working files exported from the software. This 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Drone Survey DTM bare earth contours
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.