INNOVATION November-December 2017

ENGINEERING AND GEOSCIENCE USE OF DRONES

RYAN PRESTON, P.ENG.

Piloted with the aid of a first-person view screen, this UAV is flying into an abandoned stope underground.

U nmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones are becoming increasingly popular in engineering and geoscience applications because they are easy to use and inexpensive, especially when compared to previous options such as rope access or helicopters and airplanes. At their most basic, UAVs allow for site or scene overviews that could previously only be achieved using manned aircraft. With many types of units fitting in a backpack or briefcase, they can easily be mobilized to remote sites and used for a range of inspections from infrastructure such as bridges, flare stacks, and powerlines to open pit mines and rock cuts. Most units carry high resolution cameras, but onboard GPS, thermal imagers, and laser scanners are common and allow for a variety of data to be collected. As UAV technology continues to improve, they are being used in even more innovative ways, such as placing monitoring prisms on inaccessible rock cut benches and flying through open stopes in underground mines. BACKGROUND UAV use in industry has increased significantly over the last several years thanks to improvements both in UAV platforms and software for data processing. During this time, the legal environment has also changed.

UAVs are regulated by the Canadian Aviation Regulations and operating a UAV for commercial purposes requires complying with a UAV Exemption or attaining a Special Flight Operations Certificate. Although the commercial regulations have been relatively static over the past several years, they are currently under review by Transport Canada and the permitting process may be updated by as early as spring 2018. As members of Engineers and Geoscientists BC we have a professional obligation to operate UAVs safely while adhering to applicable regulations. Additionally, members wishing to fly UAVs recreationally should be aware of the March 2017 updates to recreational UAV usage regulations. Finally, the current regulations primarily focus on protecting the public and preventing conflicts with other air traffic but do not provide guidance for special applications such as wildlife surveys. UAV operators are encouraged to continually check for updates to the non-aviation regulations (e.g., BC Wildlife Act ) that may affect their work and seek guidance from relevant government bodies when interpreting the regulations. RECENT ADVANCES Since their advent, UAVs have been subject to rapid improvements in all aspects of

their operations including battery life, ease of control and, most importantly, sensor variety and quality. Many commercially available UAVs carry an action camera or its equivalent. While these cameras provide good quality photos, resolution is limited unless more expensive, professional UAV models are deployed. Previously, users who sought higher quality photos had to upgrade to a significantly larger and more expensive unit that could carry a conventional digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR). Now UAV manufacturers are producing lightweight, UAV-specific Four Thirds format sensors that greatly improve image quality and resolution at similar cost and complexity to units carrying action cameras. With the popularity of UAVs in industry, an entire suite of UAV-specific sensors is being developed including thermal imagers and near infrared. The applications for these sensors currently include vegetation health, solar panel inspections, seepage inspections and looking for near surface underground mine workings. These new imaging options can be integrated into standard UAV workflows to build 3D models with additional texture overlays such as plant health or temperature. In addition to new sensors, existing accessories have been drastically

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