IIT-R professor develops new technology for aerial survey

A professor with the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, has developed a new technology for carrying out aerial survey, which is more cost-effective and precise than the LiDAR system used at present.

Professor Kamal Jain at the civil engineering department of the IIT used a drone for taking videos with an interactive web map to demonstrate the technology that records data, including the place and time on a computer screen.

The LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is used in aircrafts to map aerial images of an area and which is a costly and cumbersome technology that requires a camera-mounted aircraft mapping images from the air, for which an aircraft needs to fly at a specific height and requires permission from civil aviation authorities, Jain said.

“Taking the aspects into consideration I have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle mounted video geotagging system,” he said.

“We use drone over a particular area to take video images which are tagged with a web map that enables the user to know the accurate geospatial information like latitude or longitude of each point.”

He further said that with the help of Google map, the system is quite useful for infrastructure and defence sectors.

Elaborating on the use of the system for Uttarakhand, where landslides, flood and armed forces troop movement takes place, Jain said he has conducted successful tests.

“As one takes video it’s displayed simultaneously on the satellite map taken from a vertical distance of 100m which is permissible under aviation parameters and the resolution images of the video are sharper and more effective,” he said.

Citing high cost of aerial monitoring of infrastructure projects through the LiDAR-based technology, Jain said one km of aerial video monitoring costs more than ₹30,000, while the newly developed system will cost less than ₹5,000.

Apart from being cost-effective, the technology is also more accurate, he said.

Jain has also carried out a survey and mapping of a railway infrastructure with the new system.