QuestUAV Survey Ilkley Moor Using Fixed Wing Drone

RGB Land Survey of Ilkley Moor using 8000+ Images to create 650-hectare point cloud and orthoimage

QuestUAV Ltd was commissioned jointly by Friends of Ilkley Moor and Bradford Council Countryside Service to undertake an orthographic survey of the Ilkley Moors in the UK.  The area of the Moor was an approximately 650-hectare survey and QuestUAV used one of their Datahawk PPK fixed-wing drones, equipped with a Sony RX100 RGB.

In ideal flying conditions and taking 11 hours to complete, the drone crisscrossed the moor 80 times covering almost 100 miles and taking over 8,000 overlapping digital photographs. QuestUAVs Pilots said that the moor was the largest area they had ever flown in a single day. The photos will be ‘stitched’ together to make both full vertical and 3D images of the moor.

Commissioned and funded jointly by Friends of Ilkley Moor and Bradford Council Countryside Service the survey is part of the Heritage Lottery funded Big Ilkley Moor Survey managed by the Friends of Ilkley Moor.

Ian Condliffe of the Friends said that the photography will help create a baseline map of main habitats and vegetation types on the moor, focussing particularly on the wetter areas. He added: “The high resolution of the photos and digital technology available these days will allow us to look at the photos using different light wavebands which will help identify and map the many smaller watercourses and footpaths on the moor. We also hope that computer software will enable young trees to be identified, mapped and counted automatically so that we can monitor what appears to be a growing number of trees on the moor’s lower slopes.”

QuestUAV are highly experienced and qualified drone services providers. For more information click on the link