How are Y-Flight Drones Transforming Asset Digitization?

 

 

Land Surveying

Drone solutions rapidly gather precise, geo-tagged data, and photogrammetry software processes this information to produce standardized outputs.

 

Urban Planning

Drone data facilitates the creation of precise 2D and 3D models that seamlessly integrate with local geographic information systems, enabling teams to visualize results effectively.

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC)

Site surveys powered by drones generate precise data, providing valuable insights for construction projects from the design phase through to delivery.

 

Natural Resource Management

Drones facilitate extensive and detailed surveys of natural resources, delivering accurate maps, models, and telemetry data.

 

Mining

Mining operations present a challenging environment. The size, isolation, and diverse activities at mine sites necessitate meticulous risk management. Equipment utilized in mining applications must exhibit robustness, reliability, and well-documented performance parameters. Employing manned aerial surveys in mining scenarios is often impractical and cost-prohibitive. Moreover, such surveys have inherent limitations that unmanned missions can overcome.

Y-flight data capture solutions enhance data accuracy, minimize downtime, and decrease labor costs, contributing to more efficient operations while upholding stringent safety standards. This approach offers a practical and economical alternative, addressing the unique challenges posed by mining environments.

Mining applications that a Y-flight can support are:

• Monitoring and Inspection
• Noise and Dust Pollution Assessments
• Mine Exploration
• Automatic Surveying and Mapping
• Stockpile Management
• Haulage Road Optimization and Tailings Dam Management
• Perimeter Security
• Emergency Response
• Blast Radius Monitoring

Applications of Y-Flight Drone LiDAR Technology in Marine Management, Emergency Safety Monitoring, and Shoal Mapping

    In recent years, with the continuous increase in coastal development efforts and the growing demand for maritime use in coastal areas, the requirements in three domains—marine management, emergency safety monitoring, and shoal mapping—have also escalated. Traditional management methods and technical approaches are gradually falling short in terms of effectiveness, accuracy, and regional coverage, failing to meet societal demands. To enhance efficiency and ensure precision, there is a need to explore a rapid measurement technique for complex environments. Utilizing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology as the carrier, supplemented by satellite imagery, and primarily relying on LiDAR data, this approach aims to achieve comprehensive applications in marine management, emergency safety monitoring, and shoal mapping.

Advantages of Using Drones:

- Strong Practicality
- High Cost-Effectiveness
- Low Operational Risks
- Strong Evidence Collection Capability
- Low Operation and Maintenance Requirements
- Reduction of Blind Spots in Maritime Regulation
- Enhanced Emergency Response Efficiency in Port Areas
- Effectively Lowering Maritime Regulatory Costs with High Efficiency
- Effectively Addressing Challenges in Maritime Law Enforcement, Investigation, and Evidence Collection, including the difficulty of obtaining evidence and meeting stringent time requirements.

Marine Management:
Utilizing low-altitude remote sensing drones for marine supervision, coupled with satellite remote sensing technology, aerospace remote sensing technology, low-altitude UAV remote sensing technology, and ground monitoring data, establishes a three-dimensional supervision platform for marine drones. This achieves comprehensive three-dimensional monitoring of the marine environment from high altitude to the ground. Using the marine supervision drone system as a platform, frequent monitoring of sensitive key water areas, shorelines, islands, and marine disasters is conducted, breaking free from constraints imposed by conventional remote sensing and ground monitoring methods.

Y-Flight's independently developed BAX-428 quadcopter drone is selected for its long endurance, large payload, and user-friendly features. With a flight duration of approximately 40-80 minutes and a maximum payload of 10 kilograms, it can withstand instantaneous wind forces of less than level 7. The drone is easy to operate, allowing for autonomous takeoff and landing without the need for specialized technical personnel. It boasts a compact structure and high stability.

Visible light zoom monitoring systems provide intuitive image data, high speed, large coverage, high sampling density, and direct acquisition of geographic coordinates. These systems offer the most direct true-color information about on-site terrain and features. As visible light zoom cameras mature in research and application globally, they are widely used in forest surveys, resource exploration, urban planning, agricultural development, environmental monitoring, earthquake preparedness, mapping, military, and other fields.

Using a fixed, low-power transmitter on the aircraft eliminates the need for network transmission. The transmitter is small and lightweight, can be fixed in any part of the aircraft, and does not require moving parts. On the ground, a 23dB large flat antenna is used to receive signals from the air. The effective transmission distance can reach up to 15 kilometers, and the 5.8G frequency band is utilized to receive high-definition feedback signals, ensuring the quality of aerial image feedback.

Safety Emergency Monitoring:
China has vast sea areas, numerous islands, and abundant resources. With the continuous increase in marine development efforts and the growing demand for maritime use, conflicts over marine use have become more pronounced, leading to frequent disputes over territorial waters and maritime infringements. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore all-weather, high-precision, intelligent means of maritime surveillance and monitoring to strengthen comprehensive maritime supervision and management capabilities. This is essential for maintaining ecological balance and the rational development and utilization of marine resources, as well as safeguarding national sovereignty and maritime rights.

Taking the example of safety emergency monitoring in Shanghai, which is a continuously developing and increasingly influential city, it serves as China's largest commercial and financial center and a vital international port city in the Western Pacific region. With widespread internal and external connections and well-developed transportation and communication, Shanghai is attracting increasing attention.

Image: Satellite map of Da Jinshan Island

 The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used has the following specifications:

- Model Name: M600
- Endurance: 25 minutes
- Maximum Speed: 30 kilometers per hour
- Wheelbase: 1200 mm
- Payload Capacity: 4 kg
- Operating Temperature: -15°C to +50°C
- Wind Resistance: Takeoff and landing ≤ 3 levels, in the air ≤ 4 levels

UAV equipped with LiDAR Device

The brief operational process is as follows:

1. Collect natural geographical information and relevant data, such as existing survey results, according to the project requirements.
2. Plan the flight route and operation based on existing survey data and experimental requirements. This includes developing a specific operational plan considering factors like the area to be surveyed, airspace for flight, mapping scale, and accuracy requirements. The plan involves on-site inspection, determining flight altitude, selecting takeoff and landing sites, defining flight line density and direction, identifying emergency landing sites, and establishing the operational timeframe.

Note: Pay special attention to the flight altitude and overlap of flight lines. After data collection, promptly process the data, assess the quality of the flight on that day, and ensure the coverage of the target area.

Image: Workflow of UAV equipped with LiDAR device for data collection

The specific design flight route for Jinshan Island in Shanghai is as follows:

Image: Flight Route Design Diagram

 

The final obtained point cloud data and the subsequent deliverables are illustrated in the following image:

Image: Grayscale Display of Point Cloud Data 

 The final results are as follows:

Image: DEM (Digital Elevation Model) Result

Image: DEM Result

Image: Contour Result

 

The application in tidal flat mapping:

Shanghai is located near the sea at the expansive Yangtze River Delta, where seawater and freshwater converge. Due to the interaction of tidal currents and runoff, sediments carried downstream by the Yangtze River in the upstream catchment deposit at the mouth of the Yangtze River and the north bank of Hangzhou Bay, forming unique tidal flat resources.

The operational process of this scheme can be divided into three phases: field data collection, indoor data preprocessing, and product creation, as shown in the following flowchart.

The final results submitted include:

The point cloud data is displayed in elevation, ranging from blue to red. The blue area corresponds to tidal channels, while the orange area represents the range of reeds.

The data result shown above is a DEM result that retains accurate elevation information of tidal flats after removing reeds. It confirms the penetrability, accuracy, and convenience of LiDAR technology.

The application of airborne LiDAR technology in coastal topography measurement of tidal flats is of practical significance. Using airborne LiDAR systems for high-precision mapping of coastal tidal flats helps address challenges in traditional aerial surveys, such as the difficulty of deploying control points in survey areas that are hard to reach for personnel. This fills the gap in high-precision mapping and measurement techniques for tidal flats in China.

Foshan Yufei Technology Co., Ltd. participated in the research project "Application of Drones in Shanghai's Maritime Management, Emergency Monitoring, and Tidal Flat Mapping" conducted by the Shanghai Ocean Bureau. The company was responsible for the research and technical support of the required drone platform, image acquisition equipment, data transmission system, LiDAR mapping system, and related data processing software (including equipment leasing, project personnel coordination, etc.).

The BAX-428 quadcopter drone, independently developed by Y-Flight, was selected as the drone flight platform. The BAX-428 was equipped with an industrial image transmission system and a variable-focus shooting device for an application experiment on hydrological emergency assessment and monitoring based on rotary-wing drones in Dajinshan Island. The LiDAR system, using an inertial navigation system and HDL-32E LiDAR ranging system as core components, was developed for emergency mapping. The BAX-428 quadcopter drone, carrying the LiDAR system, was used for emergency mapping of coastal tidal flats. The accuracy met the requirements, and a digital surface model and contour results of Dajinshan Island were generated during on-site testing, successfully completing the project tasks.

Other Solutions for Downloading:

Multi-rotor UAV Surveying and Mapping Application Solutions, Click Here.

UAV Tilt Photogrammetry System, Click Here.