Drones are one of the most useful innovations of our time. They have found extensive use in the defense industry, where they have had quite a significant impact. However, since they were adopted and commercialized for other industries, they have had a wide range of applications, fuelling innovation and disrupting industries.
In photography, drones have enabled the capture of shots that previously needed complicated setups like scaffolding to accomplish. Aerial shots can now be taken with relative ease.
But this goes on further. Drone photography has been extended into areas such as mapping, survey, and inspection. Drones are being used in this way to inspect construction sites, survey agricultural land, and map land in development projects, among other applications that cut across industries.
This article will look at how drone photography impacts aerial imaging including advantages and new applications made possible.
Advantages of Drone Photography in Aerial Imaging
The reason why drone use has become so popular in survey and inspection applications across industries is because it comes with a host of benefits. These range from cost-effectiveness to the ability to access areas that would previously have been difficult to access.
We will look at each of these advantages in some detail below.
Cost-Effectiveness
Compared to other aerial vehicles such as helicopters and manned planes, drones are inexpensive. Additionally, with the exception of some long-range drones, most drones are powered by electricity stored in batteries. This is cheaper than alternatives that are powered by liquid fuel.
The cost of hiring a drone is relatively cheap. However, if you are using the drone multiple times, you can choose to buy one yourself. Once you have done that and trained one of your personnel as a drone pilot, then the costs for future missions drop drastically.
One of the best features of advanced drones for inspection is the payload capacity. The best inspection drones have the capability to carry payloads with multiple sensors. However, the quality of payloads used also matters. Some payloads are easy to integrate into the drone, such as the ones made by phase one aerial systems.
Safety
Drones are unmanned, which is one of their biggest advantages. Even if the drone comes to harm, no human personnel will be harmed. This is important especially when undertaking inspection missions in dangerous environments.
Hazardous inspection environments include oil rigs and power lines. Drones have made the inspection of these safer.
Moreover, industrial drone camera solutions that are made for use in particular environments come with enhanced safety features. For example, industrial drone camera solutions for use in oil rig inspections come with inbuilt batteries and brushless motors.
The inbuilt batteries cannot fall and the brushless motors are less likely to cause a spark that will light up the oil rig.
Improved Access
Drones enable access to places that would otherwise have been difficult and hazardous to access. For example, a drone can hover over a power line and use high-resolution sensors to relay accurate data to inspectors who are out of harm’s way.
In construction and maintenance, drones are used to inspect roofs and sides of buildings that would otherwise have been very difficult to inspect.
A drone can be used to inspect the underside of a bridge, which would have been unsafe and difficult to access in any other way.
Distinguishing Features of Modern Drone-Based Inspection
A number of features have made modern drone based inspection successful.
High-Resolution Sensors
Without high-resolution sensors, drone imaging would be more difficult than it is. Fortunately, there is a wide range of high-resolution sensors available, such as the ones made by phase one aerial systems.
These make it possible to inspect assets through video footage. But more than that, they make it possible to automate the process of inspection. With high-quality imagery, AI-powered software can be used to handle the entire process of inspection. Instead of having the footage inspected manually, the software does the job, identifies areas that need attention, and gives alerts.
Ease of Control
Flight planning software for drones has become common. Most vendors of inspection drones or drone inspection solutions provide relevant software for free. This makes it easier to use drones. It also makes the whole process more efficient and improves the overall quality of the results.