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Which drone is suit for survey? fixed-wing or multi-rotor drone?

Drone for surveying and mapping obtain high-definition image data through low-altitude photography of UAVs to generate three-dimensional point clouds and models to achieve rapid acquisition of geographic information. High efficiency, low cost, accurate data, flexible operation, can meet the different needs of the surveying and mapping industry. It greatly saves the workload of surveying and mapping personnel in the field and has achieved huge social and economic benefits.

Aerial survey drone


Some are also called RTK drones.

Compared with aerial drones, has the following four characteristics:

1, rapid aerial survey response capability

2. Outstanding timeliness and cost performance

3, the monitoring area is small

4, rapid acquisition of surface data and modeling capabilities

First, it is clear that UAVs are divided into two categories: fixed wing and multi-rotor

Today, let’s understand the difference between fixed-wing and multi-rotor UAVs, and how to choose a suitable UAV to operate during aerial surveys.

Multi-rotor drone


The advantages of multi-rotor drones: simple operation, light weight, relatively low cost, and can hover at a fixed point

Multi-rotor is suitable for small area applications such as aerial photography, environmental monitoring, reconnaissance, architectural modeling, and transportation of special objects

The characteristic of the multi-rotor UAV is that it can hover, and the vertical lift has low requirements for the take-off site, but the speed is relatively slow, and the endurance period is relatively slow. Therefore, it is more suitable in many areas with complex environments and small ranges, such as: aerial photography, surveillance, Investigation, architectural modeling, etc. The operation is simple and can be operated after simple training.

Consumer-grade drones such as DJI and ZERO on the market are all rotor drones. Usually the rotor drone has a flight time of about 20 minutes, and the load is basically a mirrorless camera.

Industrial-grade rotary-wing UAVs have a maximum load of 7KG and a battery life of up to 40 minutes. Compared with ordinary consumer-grade rotary wing, it also greatly improves operation efficiency and adaptability. It is not involved in urban areas, mining areas, disaster emergency, etc. The surveying and mapping has a good performance.

Fixed-wing drone


Advantages of fixed-wing UAV: long battery life, good wind resistance, and wide shooting area.

Fixed wing is suitable for aerial survey, area monitoring, pipeline inspection, emergency communication, etc.

Fixed-wing UAVs are similar to airplanes in the principle of flight. The thrust generated by propellers or turbine engines is used as the power for the airplane to fly forward. The main lift comes from the relative movement of the wings and the air. Therefore, fixed-wing UAVs must have a certain relative airless speed to have lift to fly.

The fixed-wing aircraft has the characteristics of fast flight speed and large carrying capacity. When there is a need for range and altitude, fixed-wing UAVs are generally selected, such as low-altitude photogrammetry, power line patrol, highway monitoring and so on.

Fixed-wing UAVs are generally used in industrial applications and require systematic training to operate. And in terms of convenient performance, the battery life can reach 2 hours, and the single shooting area is more than 30 square kilometers (scale: 1:1000), which is suitable for large-area surveying and mapping and large-area shooting.

Precision and safety


In addition to considering the price, battery life, wind resistance and other factors when choosing a drone, there is another point that must be paid attention to is accuracy. Generally, the working height of UAV is above 1000 meters, so it is the basic requirement that it can meet the resolution of 1:1000 and 1:2000.

There is also the safety of drones. To prevent drones from "exploding", a good drone should have a stable flight control system and a complete emergency system. Design route, autopilot, automatic return in unsafe state, etc. Of course, when using it, the flight area, catapult frame, ground station, parachute landing point and even weather should also be carefully and carefully considered.

Finally, in the process of using drones, there is another very important point to note-that is the no-fly zone. And the no-fly is divided into 30 meters, 60 meters, 120 meters and completely no-fly!

In fact, it is not terrible to fall electric drones. In comparison, the privacy issues of national security agencies and units are more sensitive. After all, Heifei can be sentenced. In order to avoid being included in the black flying range, you can obtain a drone pilot license.