Process flow of

conducting land
survey with drones

PROCESS

PRE-SITE VISIT
ACTIVITY

FLIGHT PLANNING

IMAGE PROCESSING

POST PROCESSING
 Process flow of
conducting land
survey with drones

TOPICS
Background
Land surveying is a technique of determining
BACKGROUND
the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of
points and the distances and angles between
them.
OBJECTIVE
To measure these, high order GPS, Robotic
Total Stations and terrestrial scanners have
AERIAL SURVEY OF been traditionally used to map an area and
REAL ESTATE PROPERTY make further computations.

Further, surveyors then use software, such as

PROCESS FOLLOWED
CAD and GIS software to draft plans and map
the onsite measurements. Surveyors work on a
diverse variety of projects from land
subdivision and mining exploration, to tunnel
building and major construction projects. The
outputs provide information to guide the work
of engineers, architects and developers.

Over the past few years, drones have started to

emerge as a prominent tool used in surveying.
We have observed that using a drone can vastly
reduce the time spent collecting accurate data.
By acquiring raster data from the sky – in the
form of geo-referenced digital aerial images,
with resolutions as sharp as 1.5 cm (0.6 in) per
pixel – you can gather millions of data points in
one short flight.
Large jobs that once took weeks
can now be completed in just a few Aerial Survey of a
days, and  a week’s worth of
traditional data collection is now
Real Estate Property
achieved in just one day.
A real estate developer (name concealed to
protect identity) required a survey to be done
on a property to get the following outputs:
We once conducted a survey of a
• Boundary drawing
1000 acres estate in 5 days - 2 days
• Contours
on the field and 3 days of image
• Feature marking
processing and post processing to
generate all the outputs. This
All the above outputs needed to have a
typically takes 3-4 weeks to get
maximum root mean square error of 5
done by the traditional surveying
centimeter both in terms of relative accuracy
[Link] surveying is a
and global accuracy.
technique of determining the
terrestrial or three-dimensional
The property owner was also keen on being
position of points and the
able to visualize the property features to be
distances and angles between
able to make decisions on designing the
them.
project. Their first go to tool was Google
Earth. However, the satellite image was not of
sufficient resolution for them to visualize the
features accurately. Also, the satellite image
Objective was over 6 months old and seemed to indicate
some differences in features as compared to
the present status.
In this paper, we have detailed out
the steps involved in using drones
This is when they contacted Huviair
as a tool for surveying, with an
Technologies to explore the possibility of
example of a project that we
using drones to take a video of the site. After
executed in December, 2016.
understanding the requirement, we suggested
to that while an aerial video was one possible
output from a drone, we can use drones with
ground control points as a tool for survey,
which can deliver all the survey outputs they
needed, plus provide them visualization that
they had not thought possible before - high 2D
orthomosaic with the boundaries marked, 3D
textured model of the site and a digital
surface model. 
The real estate developer was happy to try
this technology out.
 Process followed
Before going to site
1. The customer sent us GPS coordinates
of boundary vertices in an excel sheet.

2. We converted this into a boundary

polygon kml file.
3. And then into a flight plan with
boundary extents further extended to
ensure no part of the boundaries get
missed out.

4. We then worked out the positioning

strategy of the ground control points.
At Site

1. The boundary vertices were marked

with visible markers. This is done to
be able to use them as reference to
mark the boundary points on the final
outputs.

2. Ground control points were also

marked and the geo coordinates of
each point was measured accurately
using a Trimble R8 base-rover GPS
system in Post Process Kinematics
mode.
3. The flight plan was executed and
over 400 nadir images were captured.

Desk Work

1. The ground control point coordinates

were obtained using Trimble Business
Centre Software.

2. The images were processed on Pix4D

Desktop  where the GCP/MTP manager
was used to incorporate the processing
of the ground control points.

3. The Orthomosaic (top view single

image with very high resolution), the
Digital Surface Model and the 3D Model
were generated as outputs.
4. Post processing

High resolution image with boundaries,

north symbol and scale was created using
GIMP 

1 meter interval labeled contours and

boundary drawing were processed in
AutoCAD
The DSM was visualized in QGIS

Contours were created and overlayed on

orthomosaic in QGIS
3D Model was visualized in Sketchfab
Conclusion About us
The customer was satisfied with the HUVIAiR Technologies is an Unmanned
accuracy (10 cm) and the utility of the Aerial Vehicles training, consulting and
results. The following aspects were most services company based in Bangalore,
valuable to them: India.
• The contours overlayed on the high
Training - We have designed an online
resolution orthomosaic (5cm/px)
course series that enables anyone to
simplified the process of identifying how
become a drone survey professional.
the contours run over the different parts
Click here for more details. We also
of the property.
conduct training sessions for corporates
• Feature identification and marking
and educational institutions.
became extremely accurate as the
customer used the orthomosaic as the Consulting - As part of our consulting
base layer to design the project. services, we work with drone pilots and
• The 3D model gave the customer a clear land surveyors to integrate drone survey
idea of the undulations of the terrain, services into their existing businesses.
which helped them arrive at design We provide support with the use of
decisions quicker. software for Flight planning, Data
• Since the boundary was created using capture, Image processing, Post
the visible markers, the exact area of the processing, Report generation and go to
property was verified accurately. Market strategies.
• And most importantly, the outputs were
signed off by a Government certified Services - As part of our services, we

surveyor as legal survey documents. This have expertise in conducting Geo-

was due to the high accuracy of the referenced aerial surveys and capturing

outputs both in relative and absolute intelligent data to produce quality

terms. outputs as required by our clients. Our

services are used by clients from various
sectors such as Renewable energy
developers, Governments, Commercial
builders, Corporates, Mining/quarrying
industries, Oil and gas sector, NGOs,
Farmers, Planters, Public sector units
etc. Here are a few of our case studies
here.
Our Courses

We have created a course series "The Surveying basics, flight planning and
Ultimate Guide for Land Surveying with execution, image processing, post
Drones". processing and how to start a drone
survey business..we've covered it all!
This course series encapsulates the
above workflow in complete detail. Our students have added land surveying
with drones as part of their overall set of
Over 1200 drone pilots across services and have found a great new
75 countries have joined our courses in source of income!
the past 6 months and have rated them
very highly!
To enroll at a discounted price of just
$20 per course, please click here
here, and here.