Case Study: Canadian Forces Base Borden

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Canadian UAV Solutions is Proud to be the First Commercial UAV Operator granted permission to Operate at CFB Borden

Canadian UAV Solutions Case Study:

CFB Borden Orthographic Imagery and Topography

Client:

Jeanette McIntyre, DST Consulting Engineers Inc. Contracted by Defense Construction Canada & the Department of National Defense

 

Scope of work:

To perform the first of its kind UAV Survey over CFB Borden Fire Fighting Training Area.
60 Hectares, Orthographic Image 2.5cm, 1m DXF Grid, 1m Contours, and .5m Contours in the Containment zone.

 

Purpose:

To provide up to date orthographic mosaics and identify topography for a large contaminated site on CFB Borden.

 

Conditions and Requirements:

Class E and F Airspace controlled by 400 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, 16 Wing RCAF required specialized planning and coordination with CFB Borden Base Operations, Helicopter Flight Operations Command, and ground personnel operation in the contaminated training area.

Area’s of the contamination zone were not to be disturbed by traditional surveying methods. The site as a whole had an extensive variation of terrain; Dense tree lines, large structures, concrete slabs, sand dunes, trenches, pill boxes, and other training scenario equipment and landscapes.

Accuracy requirements were +/-8cm on bare earth and +/-30cm in wooded or wetland areas.

DST provided Canadian UAV Solutions several aerial control and calibration points.

 

Methodology and Timeline:

An Aerial surveyor and Aerial spotter were deployed with an eBee+ RTK and a propeller aeropoint.

DST survey crews had laid and marked 9 aerial ground control points, distributed throughout the area.

Canadian UAV Solutions took approximately 30 mins to set up eBee, deploy aeropoint, and coordinate flight clearance with the Base Heli ATC.

A single flight was performed by a Fixed Wing UAV and the data collection took approximately 1 hour.

Once the aircraft was safely back on the ground, the crew took another hour for target and equipment clean up.

Field work was completed in about 3 hours.

Processing took a single GIS Photogrammetrist 3 days to generate, edit and QA/QC the 3D model.

The survey was completed in less than a week, approximately 4 business days.

 

Summary:

Canadian UAV Solutions and DST were able to provide accurate data in a fraction of the time compared to traditional aerial or ground based surveys.

They were able to conduct the survey with very little interference to on site conditions.

Canadian UAV Solutions coordinated seamlessly with CFB Borden Flight Operations, and flew a UAV’s within the base perimeter which had not be done before by an outside entity.

QA/QC reports a RMSE on check points found on bare earth and wooded areas no greater than 6cm on the Z and 3cm on the XY, within the accuracy requirements.

 

Testimonial:

“For a current large contaminated site project, we required high accuracy topographic information to use as baseline for soil remediation, as well as high resolution imaging for inventory of large items at the site.

We contacted Canadian UAV Solutions Inc. who were able to tick of the check boxes of our needs. Murray and his team were able to accommodate a tight timeline which was challenged by weather. i.e. snow and high winds.

A short window of snow free ground was available and they were able to accommodate us as well as other clients. The data and imaging were delivered in the format we required and additional information was provided upon request.

We were very satisfied with the services provided by Canadian UAV Solutions Inc. for our project, and highly recommend them.”

Jeanette McIntyre, Senior Project Manager – DST Consulting Engineers Inc., A Division of Englobe Corp.

Should your Engineering firm or CFB be open to exploring a more efficient mode of achieving up to date orthographic imagery or survey data, contact Canadian UAV Solutions today, and they will be happy to answer your questions or provide quotations.