Drone dike inspections

Deformations and weak spots in dikes can be detected quickly and efficiently with geophysical research. This can be done from ground level but also with a drone.

Drone IR Thermography

T&A Survey Drone Services conducts dike inspections using a drone equipped with an Infrared (IR) thermography camera. The IR thermography camera provides a thermogram, a visual representation of the temperatures on the object of measurement. Weak spots in dikes are often not visible to the eye, but can easily be recognized on thermography images. It is therefore important to have the GPS coordinates of each recording, in order to accurately locate weak spots.

Drone LiDAR

With a LiDAR (Laser Imaging Detection And Ranging) sensor attached to a drone, T&A Survey Drone Services can register the geometry of dike bodies in detail. The LiDAR sensor measures the distance to a point in the surroundings using a laser pulse. This results in a point cloud of millions of points. The end result is a very accurate 3D image of the surface of the dike.

Drone photogrammetry

Photogrammetry is the making of maps with a special, high-resolution photo camera. By attaching this lightweight camera to a drone, high-resolution digital 3D aerial photographs are generated which are then processed with special software.