Service 03

Drone Photogrammetry

UAV-based aerial surveys producing centimetre-accurate orthomosaics, 3D point clouds, digital terrain models, and volumetric reports — covering hectares per hour with precision that rivals traditional survey methods.

2cmBest GSD
±3cm3D Accuracy
500haPer Flight
100+UAV Missions
Overview

Survey at Scale with Aerial Precision

Drone photogrammetry uses Structure-from-Motion (SfM) algorithms to reconstruct precise 3D geometry from overlapping aerial photographs taken by UAVs. The result is a rich set of geospatial outputs — orthomosaics, point clouds, DEMs, and 3D meshes — generated in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional survey methods.

Planora operates a fleet of 20+ enterprise UAVs including DJI Matrice 350 RTK, Phantom 4 RTK, and senseFly eBee X fixed-wing platforms. Our pilots are DGCA-licensed and our missions comply with all Indian civil aviation regulations.

With integrated RTK GPS on our drones, we achieve absolute positioning accuracy without the need for extensive ground control points — though we always deploy GCPs as a best-practice quality check on engineering-grade projects.

🚁

Planora's UAV fleet can cover 2,000+ hectares per day with the eBee X fixed-wing, making large-area corridor and agricultural surveys fast and economical.

Technical Specifications

Best Ground Sample Distance2cm/pixel
Absolute Horizontal Accuracy±3cm (with GCPs)
Absolute Vertical Accuracy±5cm (with GCPs)
RTK Accuracy (no GCPs)±5cm H / ±10cm V
Overlap (default)80% fore / 70% side
Area Coverage (rotary)200–300 ha/day
Area Coverage (fixed-wing)1,000–2,000 ha/day
Point Cloud Density200–500 pts/m²
Applications

Where Drone Surveys Make the Difference

🏗️

Construction Monitoring

Weekly drone surveys to track earthwork progress, measure cut/fill volumes, and verify grading compliance against design.

🌾

Precision Agriculture

Multispectral NDVI/NDRE mapping for crop health monitoring, variable-rate prescriptions, and yield prediction.

⛏️

Mining & Quarry

High-frequency stockpile volume surveys, haul road mapping, and mine wall monitoring with millimetre change detection.

🛣️

Highway & Railway

Corridor mapping, earthwork volume estimation, cross-sections at any interval, and longitudinal profile extraction.

🌳

Forestry & Ecology

Canopy height models, above-ground biomass estimation, tree count, and habitat mapping at sub-metre resolution.

🏛️

Heritage Documentation

Photorealistic 3D models of heritage structures, archaeological sites, and cultural monuments for conservation and restoration.

🌊

Flood & Terrain Analysis

High-resolution DTMs for hydraulic modelling, flood risk delineation, and watershed analysis in data-sparse areas.

🏢

Real Estate & Development

Marketing-quality aerial views, site context models, and 3D flythrough animations for development projects.

Workflow

Our UAV Survey Workflow

01

Mission Planning

Flight path design using Pix4DCapture or DJI Pilot 2 — calculating optimal altitude, overlap, GSD, and waypoints. NOTAM applications filed and airspace clearance obtained from DGCA/AAI where required.

02

Ground Control Point Survey

Targeted GCPs and Check Points are laid out and precisely surveyed using RTK GNSS. Minimum 8 GCPs per flight block for engineering-grade accuracy. Points are visible from 50–100m AGL.

03

Autonomous UAV Flight

Fully autonomous mission flown at pre-planned altitude and speed. Camera triggers at calculated intervals; onboard RTK or PPK records precise photo-centre coordinates for each image.

04

Image Quality Review

In-field laptop review of image sharpness, overlap coverage, and exposure consistency. Re-flights are conducted immediately if any strips are substandard — before leaving the site.

05

Photogrammetric Processing

Agisoft Metashape or Pix4Dmapper processing — feature matching, bundle adjustment, dense point cloud generation, orthomosaic and DEM/DSM output. GPU-accelerated cloud processing for rapid turnaround.

06

QA, Product Generation & Delivery

Accuracy verification against check points. Final products: GeoTIFF orthomosaic, LAS/LAZ point cloud, DTM raster, volume report, and 3D mesh — delivered via our secure client portal.

SfM Processing Pipeline

Structure-from-Motion reconstruction from thousands of overlapping photos creates dense point clouds with RGB colour at every point.

Metashape Pix4D DJI Terra OpenDroneMap
Our Fleet

UAV Fleet & Sensors

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DJI Matrice 350 RTK

Enterprise-grade quadcopter with integrated RTK for engineering surveys. Supports interchangeable payloads including LiDAR and multispectral.

55 min flight / RTK ±1cm
📸

DJI Phantom 4 RTK

Compact RTK mapping drone with 20MP mechanical shutter camera for medium-scale projects and hard-to-access sites.

20MP / 1" CMOS / RTK
✈️

senseFly eBee X Fixed-Wing

Long-endurance VTOL fixed-wing for large-area corridor surveys covering 500+ ha per flight at 3cm GSD.

90 min / 500 ha per mission
🌡️

MicaSense RedEdge-MX

5-band multispectral sensor capturing Blue, Green, Red, Red Edge, and NIR bands for precision agriculture NDVI analysis.

5-band / 1.2MP per band
🔭

Zenmuse P1 (45MP)

Full-frame 45MP camera with triple-axis stabilisation for premium-resolution mapping requiring ultra-fine GSD.

45MP / Full-frame / 2cm GSD
💻

Agisoft Metashape Professional

Industry-leading SfM photogrammetry software for point cloud generation, orthomosaic, DEM, and 3D mesh processing.

GPU-accelerated processing
Outputs

What You Receive

Raster Outputs

  • Orthomosaic (GeoTIFF / ECW)
  • Digital Surface Model (DSM)
  • Digital Terrain Model (DTM)
  • Contour map (DWG / SHP)
  • NDVI / multispectral maps

3D Point Cloud & Mesh

  • Dense point cloud (LAS/LAZ)
  • 3D textured mesh (OBJ/FBX/PLY)
  • Tiled 3D model (Cesium 3D Tiles)
  • Cross-section profiles (DWG)
  • Volume calculation report (PDF)

Reports & Documentation

  • Flight and processing report
  • GCP survey report
  • Accuracy assessment (RMSE)
  • Area & volume statistics
  • Raw images + flight logs
Sectors

Industries We Serve

🌾 Precision Agriculture
🏗️ Construction
⛏️ Mining & Quarrying
🛣️ Roads & Highways
🌳 Forestry
🌊 Water Resources
🏛️ Heritage Conservation
🏢 Real Estate

Ready to Fly Your Project?

Get a fast-turnaround drone survey quote — we fly across India.