India: A professor with the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, has developed a new method for carrying out an aerial survey without using LiDAR, according to Hindustan Times. The method is more cost-effective and accurate than the presently available aerial surveying methods that use LiDAR.
Professor Kamal Jain, who developed the system, explains that the system uses a drone that captures videos with an interactive web map to demonstrate the technology that records data, including the place and time on a computer screen.
A costly and cumbersome technology, LiDAR requires a camera-mounted aircraft mapping images from the air, for which an aircraft is needed to fly at a specific height and requires permission from civil aviation authorities, Jain said.
“Taking the aspects into consideration I have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle mounted video geotagging system,” he said.
“We use a drone over a particular area to take video images which are tagged with a web map that enables the user to know the accurate geospatial information like latitude or longitude of each point.”
He further said that with the help of Google map, the system is quite useful for infrastructure and defence sectors.
Elaborating on the use of the system for Uttarakhand, where landslides, flood and armed forces troop movement takes place, Jain said he has conducted successful tests.
“As one takes a video it’s displayed simultaneously on the satellite map taken from a vertical distance of 100m which is permissible under aviation parameters and the resolution images of the video are sharper and more effective,” he said.
Citing the high cost of aerial monitoring of infrastructure projects through the LiDAR-based technology, Jain said one km of aerial video monitoring costs more than Rs 30,000, while the newly developed system will cost less than Rs5,000.
Apart from being cost-effective, the technology is also more accurate, he said.
Jain has also carried out a survey and mapping of a railway infrastructure with the new system.
