Surveying and inspecting safely from the air

无人机 - 无人机 - 现在在许多测量领域都使用。这不仅限于土地调查，还包括开放式矿山，垃圾填埋场和道路或建筑物。此外，这些多功能的小飞机为更有效地管理主要建筑工地提供了全新的可能性。在建造工作甚至开始之前，他们可以提供快速，低成本的空中概述，并生成准确而有意义的数据，以进行计算和报价。一旦开始建造工作，无人机拍摄的航空照片提供了临时步骤的常规纪录片记录。除了使监视施工进度变得更加容易外，它还促进了内部流程的控制。一旦建设工作完成，无人机对建筑物进行检查并提供证据表明该工作已按照商定和加快最终认可进行的证据。

The Swiss power company Axpo is using the UAV Aibot X6 to survey and document the major construction project “Linthal 2015” in the Glarus Alps region. In an initial step, the entire Linthal valley was surveyed from the air and a point cloud with an accuracy of up to one centimetre (0.4 inch) was generated. This data will now form the basis for planning subsequent steps of the construction process.

The Swiss power company Axpo is building a new, underground pumped storage plant – the largest in the country – in the Canton of Glarus. In future, the plant will guarantee the future electricity supply to northeastern and central Switzerland. The plan is for the plant to pump water from Lake Limmernsee back up to Lake Muttsee – an altitude difference of 630 metres (2,070 feet) – where it can be used again to generate electricity when required. This large-scale project, which involves investment costs of around 1.85 billion USD (1.7 billion EUR) and is expected to take the best part of five years to complete, will employ up to 500 people at various construction sites. The plant should start to deliver electricity at the beginning of 2016.

Fast, flexible data collection
数十万立方米的土壤和rock will have to be removed to build the tunnels and caverns for the pumped storage plant. Most of this spoil will be transported to the Muttenalp mountain by cable car and used to build the dam, which will be more than a kilometre long and rise to a maximum height of 36 metres (118 feet). The rest of the material will be deposited in front of the existing Limmern dam. In October 2014, Axpo used the Aibot X6 for the first time to survey this area, which is known as the Limmerntobel Inert Matter Disposal Site. Because the surrounding mountains blocked satellite signal reception, the aircraft was flown manually without GPS navigation. Photographs of the terrain were taken at a vertical angle during the flight to create high-resolution images of the disposal site with a 60 % to 90 % overlap. Before the flight, 14 ground control points were plotted evenly in a distance of approximately 50 to 80 meters (160 to 260 feet) in seven corners of the surveyed area for subsequent geo-referencing of the images. “This was the first time the Aibot X6 had been deployed at an altitude of 2,000 metres (6,562 feet), but the rarefied atmosphere had no adverse effects on its flight characteristics," explains pilot Robert Lautenschlager.

50,000平方米（12​​.5英亩）的土地进行了两次持续10分钟的航班调查。Agisoft摄影测量软件用于处理收集的数据，并生成具有最高一厘米（0.4英寸）精度的精确点云。处理的整个评估持续了约120分钟。然后将点云集成在施工现场的局部坐标系中，使Axpo的测量师能够计算沉积材料的体积。

Periodic photographic records of the disposal site had previously been created using an external filming system suspended from a helicopter. Not only can high-precision geographical data be recorded within a short space of time using the Aibot X6, but it is also possible to create complete and seamless documentation of the current status of construction work. At any given moment, the UAV can give contractors an immediate overview of how building work is progressing, thus helping them to plan and control processes better.

Combination of surveying and inspection
无人机的使用意味着现在可以越来越频繁地将测量和检查任务组合在一起。AXPO示例是一个完美的例证：将来，该公司打算使用AIBOT X6不仅用于创建地形数字模型来规划和建造电厂，还用于重要的检查任务。可以飞越现有的大坝并拍摄照片，以允许大坝的空气和水边上的混凝土表面的状况进行详细评估。在这种情况下，六角器将再次配备数码相机，并飞向将在所有关键区域拍摄高分辨率图片的位置，从而使甚至可以检测到最小的裂缝和其他异常。

The Aibot X6 can also be used to inspect electricity pylons. The hexacopter offers a number of advantages here, such as flexibility of deployment and availability at short notice in the event of a malfunction or defect. As the inspection is performed by a remote-control, unmanned aircraft, it is also safer and much cheaper than an inspection by helicopter or steeplejack, since it is not even necessary to switch off the current beforehand. In future, Axpo will also rely on unmanned airborne help in the environmental sector, where UAVs will be used to take pictures of mountain streams as part of residual water experiments.

由Friederike Nielsen和Robert Lautenschlager撰写