Surveyors have continued to benefit from electronic instruments in their projects, particularly drone technology. However, professionals new to drone technology admit that getting started can be difficult. Nonetheless, things get easier if you buy the right drone for capturing survey data. This article highlights essential features to look for in survey drones.

Local Site Calibrations

Reputable surveyors prefer to operate within their local grids for accuracy and practicality reasons. Therefore, the drone you plan to buy should be equipped with software that supports local site calibrations. Unfortunately, the software in some drones relies on standard global latitude/longitude system. Sadly, the data collected by such drones cannot be used in the context of day-to-day operations since you need a professional to convert the data into local grid coordinates, which takes time. A better alternative is to buy a drone with software that supports local coordinate systems. The best thing is that surveyors can use the data as and when they want.

Industry-Specific Drones

Drone technology has come a long way, and vendors cover a spectrum of industries. Some vendors boast of one-size-fits-all drones that can be used for anything and everything. Other sellers offer industry-specific drones, which are customer-centric. If you are in the survey industry, you should buy specialised drones because they give you the most value regarding data collection. A drone whose data collection capabilities are designed for the agricultural sector will do you no good no matter how much you try to recalibrate it. Therefore, please pay close attention to a vendor's description of their drones and only focus on models that align with surveying operations. Do not fall for irrelevant and flashy features, which are not needed in survey work.

Camera Orientation

In survey projects, image quality is the holy grail. If your drone captures poor images, you will not derive useful data from it. Drones can either have a fixed or adjustable camera. Fixed cameras point in one direction, which means that a pilot must turn the camera every time they want to capture a different angle. It can be problematic in windy situations because disturbances result in blurry images and inaccurate maps and models. On the other hand, an adjustable camera is attached to a gimbal, which allows it to move independently. It makes it easy to capture images from any direction even if a drone remains still, which is ideal for survey work.

For more information, contact a DJI drone supplier.