Virtual Surveyor Introduces Enhanced Cut-and-fill Mapping in Drone Surveying Package

Virtual Surveyor has added cut-and-fill mapping capabilities to Version 7.0 of its popular unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or 'drone') surveying package. The new functionality enables users to quickly perform volume difference calculations and generate cut-and-fill maps from drone images captured on two or more different dates.

“Calculating volume differences between surface models derived from drone imagery now takes less than a minute instead of hours…and the results are more accurate,” said Tom Op ‘t Eyndt, CEO of Virtual Surveyor in Belgium. “The entire workflow of cleaning the surface models and subtracting one from the other can be accomplished in Virtual Surveyor without exporting data to another application.”

Generating accurate topographic end products

The Virtual Surveyor package enables professional surveyors to generate accurate topographic end products from drone data five times faster than traditional field work, bridging the gap between UAV photogrammetric processing software and engineering design packages.

“Cut-and-fill mapping will dramatically improve the efficiency of our core user base among quarry operators and open-pit mine managers,” said Op ‘t Eyndt. “In addition, the new functionality will expand our already growing share of the market for UAV mapping by contractors in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC).”

The enhanced cut-and-fill functions are part of a new feature in Virtual Surveyor 7.0 called Terrain States. This allows the user to create separate terrain states for surface models generated from UAV images captured over the same area on different dates. The user can easily delineate and delete objects, such as bulldozers or excavators, that appear in a single surface model. These changes are saved in only one Terrain State, so they do not cause volume measurement errors when a surface model is subtracted from another.

“Managers whose projects involve moving large volumes of dirt and soil can be more confident in the accuracy of their cut-and-fill maps,” said Op ‘t Eyndt.

Contractors on large construction projects can use drone imagery and Virtual Surveyor on a regular basis to map the progress of their earthworks excavations, ensuring the volume of dirt added or cut meets the design specifications. Virtual Surveyor 7.0 even allows users to model proposed cut-and-fill design plans to compare the costs of various earth-moving scenarios.