See through the surface of ground, ice or any structure with a drone equipped with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
Riga – October 17, 2017 – To bring technically advanced solutions for surveyors, land engineers, researchers, rescue service providers and sappers – SPH Engineering – the developer of leading drone mission planning software UgCS and Radarteam Sweden AB – the manufacturer of Ground Penetrating Radars completed test flights combining Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, drone) and GPR technologies.
For the test, a Radarteam Sweden AB Cobra Plug-in Ground Penetrating Radar with SE-70 antenna and penetration of 80 m was integrated with DJI M600 drone.
GPR is a geophysical method using radar pulses to image the subsurface. As displayed in the processed data image, during the test flight over an abandoned area some objects were detected in 10-16 m depth with the drone flying on 5 m AGL altitude.
Processed underground data acquired with a drone equipped with Ground PenetratingRadar (GPR)
“A GPR installed on a drone enables to see through the surface of ground, ice, rocks and buildings or through structures at unsafe and hazardous environments without compromising the safety of staff, providing an additional solution for more efficient surveying” added Per Wikström, Radarteam Sweden AB CEO/ Managing Director.
The information and results acquired during the test flights will be put together to develop best practice recommendations for the use of GPR installed on a drone and flight mission planning in UgCS to acquire usable data for post-processing.
“UgCS has proven to provide sophisticated tools for professional UAV surveyors to acquire data with diverse camera types, LIDAR or towed magnetometers. The list of drone applications is expanding with every day, so the development of UgCS has to be one step ahead – therefore experienced team members of SPH Engineering and Radarteam Sweden AB joined forces to researched the not so usual combo of a drone and a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to create guidelines for its usage,” informed Janis Kuze, SPH Engineering Sales director.
