Starting a new construction project

[Rick_x]

I am the General Superintendent. My next project i will start in November is a 500,00 Sq Ft distribution center. The site is ~ 34 acres. A ton of site work and it will be fast tracked.

I-am proficient in Civil Cad Rev-it etc. It was actually a trade show is where i 1st saw drones used in construction. It has peeked my interest . I have been researching all this the past 4 months....it is a lot to learn. Getting ready to drop some cash in the next few days on the 4pro

Me flying this drone will have nothing to do w/ my job, other than I control the site and I have given my self permission to document the construction activities. I am 100% doing this for a hobby & to learn a new skill set. I will only fly off hours. although i have started studying for my 107 exam. I think it is important to be proficient in the law.

I have been reading about all the different drones, mapping software. ground control points for surveying etc.

A question about; ground control points. Is it possible to have my survey team just set some hubs for me. If so how many would be needed for a site this size? Or is there some sort of communication that has to happen between the ground control point and the drone?these things are ridiculously expensive. Not to mention, the license fees are paid monthly for the software are not cheap.


I am looking for any ideas as to what others do besides mapping and surveying? What are the different ways you use your drone on a construction site? I am not interested in inspections This old man can still can climb a ladder!

I was thinking time lapse. How frequent should a I fly mission? I work out town so my schedule is screwy. Basically every 2 weeks i fly home I am off site 4 days. Consistency will be an issue. How important will this be?

I want to do more than just survey and make Ortho’s. I will shoot the video in 4K. Is this an issue when I upload it to say DronDeploy”? It it possible to reduce the quality of videos? what video editing software do you all use? Will i need to fly the same mission Twice


Thank You in advance,
Rick

 

[Meta4]

I was thinking time lapse. How frequent should a I fly mission? I work out town so my schedule is screwy. Basically every 2 weeks i fly home I am off site 4 days. Consistency will be an issue. How important will this be?

The last big project I worked on had a tall scaffolding tower up at one end of the site.
I couldn't work out what it was for as it was away from the work areas.
It turned out to be just to position a GoPro camera that was bolted to the top where it had a good view of the whole site.
It was set to take a photo every hour which was used to make a timelapse video of the whole project coming together over a whole year.
The end product was very impressive.

I want to do more than just survey and make Ortho’s. I will shoot the video in 4K. Is this an issue when I upload it to say DroneDeploy”? It it possible to reduce the quality of videos? what video editing software do you all use? Will i need to fly the same mission Twice

DroneDeploy works from overlapping still images rather than video.
Here are some images showing the process. (The first one is from a different project):

Screenshot from the tablet while DD is flying a precise grid & orbit and shooting 370 overlapping images covering a 50 acre site.

I process the images myself but it's similar to what DD does if you use their service to create the orthophoto.

Here are the photo locations laid out in space

The software aligns the images and matches points to use in the stitching

This shows the aligned images over a low res image of the site

This is a much reduced version of the orthophoto created from the images.
The original is huge (30000 x 27000 pixels)

Part of the finished image.

Greater detail of a part of the site

 

[Meta4]

A question about; ground control points. Is it possible to have my survey team just set some hubs for me. If so how many would be needed for a site this size? Or is there some sort of communication that has to happen between the ground control point and the drone?these things are ridiculously expensive. Not to mention, the license fees are paid monthly for the software are not cheap.

You can get fairly good accuracy without any GCPs but if you want to get survey accurate orthophotos, having conspicuous surveyed targets on the ground is all you need.

 

[Rick_x]

You can get fairly good accuracy without any GCPs but if you want to get survey accurate orthophotos, having conspicuous surveyed targets on the ground is all you need.

Ok that’s exactly my question, it needs to be a fixed hub that shows up on the film. And somehow the mapping program calibrates to this. I will just have to tell the program the coordinates for all the hubs.

I thought perhaps it was a pice of hardware that had to talk to the DD. I can swing a few hubs from my survey crew. I was not dropping thousands on this hardware. I am at the very beginning of a steep learning curve. I am sure I have just scratched the surface as to what I can do.

Thank you for clearing this up,
Rick

 

[Rick_x]

The last big project I worked on had a tall scaffolding tower up at one end of the site.
I couldn't work out what it was for as it was away from the work areas.
It turned out to be just to position a GoPro camera that was bolted to the top where it had a good view of the whole site.
It was set to take a photo every hour which was used to make a timelapse video of the whole project coming together over a whole year.
The end product was very impressive.

DroneDeploy works from overlapping still images rather than video.
Here are some images showing the process. (The first one is from a different project):

Screenshot from the tablet while DD is flying a precise grid & orbit and shooting 370 overlapping images covering a 50 acre site.

I process the images myself but it's similar to what DD does if you use their service to create the orthophoto.

Here are the photo locations laid out in space

The software aligns the images and matches points to use in the stitching

This shows the aligned images over a low res image of the site

This is a much reduced version of the orthophoto created from the images.
The original is huge (30000 x 27000 pixels)

Part of the finished image.

Greater detail of a part of the site

Thank you very much for taking the time to share all this information.

I have done the GoPro on a ton of projects. I agree the time laps is impressive, I just think this is some next level [EXPLETIVE REMOVED]. Besides the GoPro pics cant link to civil cad ....at least I don’t think so.

Rick

 

[Meta4]

Ok that’s exactly my question, it needs to be a fixed hub that shows up on the film. And somehow the mapping program calibrates to this. I will just have to tell the program the coordinates for all the hubs.

I thought perhaps it was a pice of hardware that had to talk to the DD. I can swing a few hubs from my survey crew. I was not dropping thousands on this hardware. I am at the very beginning of a steep learning curve. I am sure I have just scratched the surface as to what I can do.

Here's a piece about using GCPs that should help: What Are Ground Control Points (GCPs) and How Do I Use Them?
Recently one company has released new high-tech GCPs that do communicate.
I don't know anything about them but here's their website: AeroPoints: Ground Control Points for Drone Surveys ⋆ Propeller

 

[Rick_x]

Meta 4 can you please expound on how you process the ortho yourself? Please know I just start learning all this very recently. I am fairly tech savvy. Are they any active boards like this one Gerard to my interests?

 

[Meta4]

Meta 4 can you please expound on how you process the ortho yourself? Please know I just start learning all this very recently. I am fairly tech savvy. Are they any active boards like this one Gerard to my interests?

I use Agisoft Photoscan and it does all the hard work.

 

[heightsaerialmedia]

The last big project I worked on had a tall scaffolding tower up at one end of the site.
I couldn't work out what it was for as it was away from the work areas.
It turned out to be just to position a GoPro camera that was bolted to the top where it had a good view of the whole site.
It was set to take a photo every hour which was used to make a timelapse video of the whole project coming together over a whole year.
The end product was very impressive.

DroneDeploy works from overlapping still images rather than video.
Here are some images showing the process. (The first one is from a different project):

Screenshot from the tablet while DD is flying a precise grid & orbit and shooting 370 overlapping images covering a 50 acre site.

I process the images myself but it's similar to what DD does if you use their service to create the orthophoto.

Here are the photo locations laid out in space

The software aligns the images and matches points to use in the stitching

This shows the aligned images over a low res image of the site

This is a much reduced version of the orthophoto created from the images.
The original is huge (30000 x 27000 pixels)

Part of the finished image.

Greater detail of a part of the site

What drone did you attach the go pro to?

 

[Meta4]

What drone did you attach the go pro to?

No drone. The gopro was bolted down on the scaffolding tower.

 

[RocketBrew]

Trimble just released their GNSS Smart Target Base Station. https://www.applanix.com/downloads/products/specs/Smart_GNSS_Antenna_Target_final.pdf

Recently one company has released new high-tech GCPs that do communicate.
I don't know anything about them but here's their website: AeroPoints: Ground Control Points for Drone Surveys ⋆ Propeller

 

[JWH]

Interesting thread.... They are rebuilding the dam and spillway on the lake down the street from me. I have been trying to get pictures once a week to eventually do a time laps video of the project. It is just for fun, so I can't justify spending money on it. I have been using Litchi to get to the same point, altitude, camera angle, etc. Hopefully it will be accurate enough.