A mid-year 2020 Deloitte report on the Engineering & Construction (E&C) industry advises: The pandemic is pushing construction companies to increasingly use drones for remote surveillance and inspection of construction projects and to mitigate disruption in certain construction activities. The extent of digital adoption by E&C firms is likely to play a pivotal role in their ability to recover and thrive in the coming months; and, increasingly, an ecosystem approach is one way of accelerating the adoption. To remain competitive, E&C firms should accelerate their digital transformation to accommodate many of the workplace changes brought on by COVID-19.
And for Mining, government funded initiatives address these same goals for digitalization. The EU-funded Goldeneye project is developing a platform to allow satellites, drones and sensors to collect high-resolution data from an entire mine. This data will be converted into actionable intelligence to be used for safety, environmental observation, more efficient exploitation and increased extraction.
In this vein, Sitemark brings several new features to their platform to specifically support digitalization for construction and mining stakeholders.
Surface Cleanup/Terrain Removal
Perhaps you want to measure a stockpile, but a conveyor belt is in the way. Or you need to determine the surface length of a road, but you forgot to move your car. Or you want to measure how much earth you have to move, but a tree is blocking your view.
Luckily, there is a Surface Cleanup tool to help in all of these cases. Surface Cleanup allows you to alter the digital elevation model of an operation. This means you can clear the terrain to remove objects that are obstructing measurements.This useful feature saves time and improves accuracy when measuring volumes. Surface cleanups work for all types of 3D measurements, so surface lengths or elevation profiles can also benefit from this feature.
In a mining environment, excavation of the overburden (the natural rock and soil that sits above and around the ore body) is required to better see what lies beneath. Due to the need to separate the surface works from the underground works, Terrain Removal software does the job virtually for you. It can also be used to separate the extraction of minerals (e.g. rare earth elements) from commonly useful rocks. To remove the non-useful rock is not always financially feasible so to simulate via modelling is much more efficient and cost effective, plus the impact of the environmental footprint is negated. To extract the rocks to get to the minerals can be a ratio of 4 to 1 or up to 12 to 1 in some cases! Again, the more waste removed, the higher the environmental impact.
Sound interesting? Follow the step-by-step process for using the Surface Cleanup tool here.
Cut/Fill maps
As a Surveyor, you need to see a cut fill map of a volume measurement to visually see the elevation differences to assess terrain changes. In solar construction, especially before installing trackers, you need to ensure the ground is level. In using this tool, you can see where and how much ground has to be added or removed to achieve the required target.
Cut/Fill allows you to compare and visualize different elevation models. Instantly see what was added and what was removed between two drone scans.
For Mining, by using the volume measurement comparison, you can quantify the amount of earth moved to manage stockpile inventory, verify contractor work and ensure the project is on schedule.
You are also able to use Cut Fill maps when working with annotations and have the following capabilities:
• See a colored cut-fill map in 2D or 3D when making a volume measurement
• Allows for all types of volume measurements, including new base surfaces such as DXF
• Adjust the color visualization range
• Filter small noise using a slider
Want to see how it works? Follow the step-by-step process for using the Volume Measurement tool here.
Pre-processed data (aka BYOD – Bring Your Own Data)
Are you a Surveyor who has already experimented with photogrammetry? Or a drone pilot that wants to test the Sitemark Fuse platform to see what it can do with your data? It is now possible to keep the processing of your drone data in-house, while you still use all the functionalities of Sitemark’s drone data platform.
Previously you had to physically walk a stockpile for measurement, but now you can use the Sitemark platform for analysis and reporting which includes the best volume measurement tools in the industry.
Self-processed data (such as orthomosaics and point clouds) can easily be uploaded to our platform so that you can make measurements, generate reports and compare your data with .pdf and .dxf overlays. And it’s not just drone data, it can also import LIDAR and other satellite data. All of which can be shared and transferred with other project stakeholders.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to have more information.
