APPLICATION of UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE DRIVEN PHOTOGRAMMETRY in ROAD PROJECT SURVEYING and PROFILING: A CASE STUDY on UPGRADING ROAD PROJECT in TULU MOYE

Abstract

Contractors and Engineering firms must develop innovative tools to optimize the design, construction, and supervision phase of construction projects and use these tools to reduce project costs and effective anticipation of the infrastructure update at hand. Amongst these innovative tools, which is the core subject of the thesis, are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)/ Systems. Its usage in the construction industry has increased worldwide and started to enter Ethiopia, especially in road projects: geometry control, inspection, and surveying/mapping. In addition, UAVs built for private use in the last decade can acquire Ground Spatial Data (GSD) that can be processed to create models that can match the precision and accuracy of total station-based models. In short, the thesis paper allowed the Researcher to evaluate the application of UAV in road surveying and assess time and possibly cost saving advantage of using such technology in comparison to the usage of more conventional surveying tools such as total stations (for the creation of high accuracy maps for road projects, for accurate preliminary survey of hard-to access sites). It also allowed the Researcher to appreciate the high level of accuracy of such technology comparable to conventional surveying techniques (like total stations), but this result is not as apparent for small scale project. To describe and investigate the use of UAV in road construction projects and how it is a potential time and cost savings, both exploratory and descriptive types of research design with qualitative and quantitative research were used. Data have been collected using observation (direct primary data collection using total station and UAV); interviews for the primary data source [interviews and meetings with companies providing or that have used (or intention to use) UAV photogrammetry]; and data analysis services in addition or as an alternative to Total Station surveying for which the Researcher used existing data collected at the case study location. The analysis is primarily descriptive, and the data have been presented using tables, figures, charts, percentages, and graphs. Information was collected from primary and secondary sources and processed using Microsoft Excel, satellite imagery processing tools, orthomosaic map-reading tools, and LiDAR software. The evaluation was conducted based on these collected data. Using a small scale 3.8 km access road upgrading project as case study, researcher observed that survey speed wise, UAV takes the front line however, to the researcher surprise, accuracy wise the tendency was reversed even if marginally. Cost wise, for the case study purpose, total station usage was the cheaper option. Simulations showed that with the same set-up, UAV cost will be interesting after 54 km. It is therefore the Researcher’s recommendation that the application of UAV, from time, cost and survey data accuracy perspective for large road project planning is very high as an alternative tool.