One of the core advantages of drone LiDAR technology for surveying teams – time savings – might also have been its biggest drawback in the MP Design Group’s recent work at a golf course in Biloxi, Mississippi. Who wants to rush off the links? But, when it turns out the course is abandoned and bad weather is on its way, speed, without sacrificing accuracy, is essential. It also turns out that when you can do one large project so quickly, fitting in another survey – this one of a road in need of improvements – is no big challenge.
From Microdrones.
Located between two subdivisions, the abandoned golf course will be the site of a new development for which MP Design Group was providing detailed survey data. In addition to complicating weather headed toward the site, the team also needed to consider another factor in survey planning: proximity to the Class D airspace surrounding Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.
Greg Thompson, PS, the VP of Field Services at MP Design Group, put together the plan to scan the abandoned golf course with the construction inspector and drone pilot, Ryeley Jacobs. According to Thompson, “the mdLiDAR1000LR gives us the capabilities to penetrate tree canopies and wooded areas to collect more data for our ground topo and provide a better design surface for the engineers. We’re also able to provide the data in a much faster manner to our clients, allowing us to complete more jobs.
This wasn’t their first drone flight – MP Design Group has been using UAVs since 2016 when they started with photogrammetry drones – but they recently upgraded to LiDAR-capable fully integrated systems from Microdrones to tackle the level of detail needed in areas that are often covered with dense foliage.
“The big difference between the LiDAR technology and conventional surveying is the time and the manpower,” said MP Design Group Owner David Machado. “We’ve gone from using conventional survey crews and equipment, which may take two or three personnel, down to one person going out with the drone and flying acres and acres of property or many linear feet of roadway that we’re doing improvements on. It’s totally changed the timeframe, significantly reducing the turnaround times that we can give to our clients to provide them with the critical data they’re looking for, and also the critical data that our design teams are looking for.”
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