Written by Benjamin Federmann
© IngenieurTeam GEO GmbH
LAND
AIR WATER
Knowing the volume of material in a gravel quarry is critical for business success. That’s why the firm
can be the difference between profit and loss. For relies on the engineering expertise of IngenieurTeam
Knobel-Bau GmbH, a company in the aggregates GEO GmbH (formerly known as Ingenieurteam Trenkle
sector that manages gravel quarries, concrete GmbH) in Karlsruhe, Germany, to accurately calculate
factories and tar mixing plants, this information and model its quarries.
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© IngenieurTeam GEO GmbH
Focusing on surveying engineering technologies, “The accuracy of the collected data is important to us,
IngenieurTeam GEO was contracted to determine but also the reliability, functionality and quality of all
the remaining volume in Knobel-Bau’s quarries. By surveying equipment,” said Schwall. “We decided to
creating georeferenced orthophotos and digital terrain use the Aibotix Aibot X6 UAV for its trusted reputation
models using the Aibotix Aibot X6 unmanned aerial in the industry. We then trained one of our employees
vehicle (UAV), the firm was able to present the current to become a professional pilot, and we’ve been
situation in detail and provide an effective inventory able to expand our business. Since his training and
reduction plan. certification, we not only offer surveying services on
land and water but also from the air.”
“With this detailed historical overview, our customer
can coordinate the extraction processes more The aerial survey of the extraction site, including its
precisely,” said Martin Schwall, owner and managing artificial lakes, and the simultaneous hydrographic
director of IngenieurTeam GEO. “This enables the survey of the water using the special survey boat
customer to securely plan what to do with the posed a specific challenge. Essential to this particular
remaining material, based on the most current and project, both tasks had to be precisely coordinated to
accurate information available.” provide Kobel-Bau with accurate information.
COMBINING TO OVERCOME UNIQUE CHALLENGES FLYING HIGH, MEASURING LOW
The gravel quarries of Knobel-Bau also include artificial To create the common dataset for the most efficient
lakes. An expertise of the company, IngenieurTeam GEO deliverable, the various survey methods had to be
uses specially equipped boats for hydrography surveys. linked, which required technical solutions and the
What was missing, though, was an aerial view of the pilot’s expertise to generate reliable data. To obtain
entire quarry. this, the firm devised an exact flight plan using
Aibotix’s AiProFlight software. Using an overview map,
A longtime user of Leica Geosystems levelling and a waypoint flight plan facilitated precise planning of
GNSS instruments, IngenieurTeam GEO first became the autonomously conducted aerial survey.
interested in UAV technology when Aibotix became
part of the portfolio in 2014. Streamlining surveying “The open interfaces of the Aibotix workflow deriving
components into a fast and efficient process for from Aibotix AiProFlight and Agisoft PhotoScan
projects was a key factor in pursuing UAVs for spatial Professional provide us with top quality data with
data collection. virtually no loss,” said Schwall. “We could then easily
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© IngenieurTeam GEO GmbH
combine the aerial and hydrography data seamlessly for one
valuable deliverable.”
The aerial survey was conducted after determining highly visible and
suitable ground points for the georeferencing of the data. With the
ability to immediately review the generated data (pictures taken with
a high-resolution compact camera) after each flight, the survey quality
was quickly validated. The camera, fixed to the free-floating gimbal
of the Aibot X6 multi-sensor platform, enables the pilot and others
to review the photographic material as soon as the UAV is on the
ground. The images are added automatically during the waypoint flight
and tagged with GPS coordinates that are generated by the Aibotix
AiGeoBox mounted on the camera.
Calculations showed the project would need five flights each lasting
six minutes to cover the 55 hectare area. The flight altitude for this
kind of topography was established at 90 metres. Due to the wind
conditions of the area on the day of the survey, the pilot decided
to carry out a total of seven individual flights. As a responsible UAV
owner, IngenieurTeam GEO flies the Aibot X6 in conditions of a
maximum wind speed of 6 m/s to ensure safety.
Combined with the results from the hydrography survey, IngenieurTeam
GEO was able to provide a complete overview of the site and the
current situation that Knobel-Bau used to further its business.
"The combination of survey data from the air, from the ground and
from the surveying boat has led to an excellent result. The orthophoto,
the exact volume calculation and the 3D model of the gravel pit permit
prospective planning and accurate assessment of the actual situation,"
said Bertram Knobel, managing director of Knobel-Bau. “The economic
implementation of large-scale projects and the associated results
of IngenieurTeam GEO is a decisive advantage in comparison to all
conventional and traditional methods.”
A GROWING POTENTIAL
Apart from this project, IngenieurTeam GEO uses the Aibot X6
with various sensors mainly for terrain surveys, surface evidence
documentation and visualisation tasks, such as animations, simulations
and 3D displays. With direct access to point clouds, the firm is
accepting more and more complex projects, something it was unable
to do in the past. After more than 45 aerial projects and about 350
individual flights, IngenieurTeam GEO continues to be impressed by the
data accuracy of its Aibotix Aibot X6 while seeing nothing but positive
ROI on its investment.
"Using the Aibot X6 for aerial data generation has allowed us already
to reduce our outdoor process times from entire days to hours or even
minutes," said Schwall. "We consider the interlinking of different Leica
Geosystems technologies and the interaction between software and
survey instruments to be the crucial difference to classical surveying
methods and commercially available photo drones. This combo make
it easy for us to generate data and to provide our customers with
essential information.”
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