Aerosense surveying drone markers use u-blox positioning

Japan-based Aerosense Inc. has commercialized its AEROBO marker solution for drone surveying using the u‑blox NEO‑M8T timing module.

Photo: Aerosense

Conceived to compute absolute time to within 20 nanoseconds using incoming GNSS signals, the NEO-M8T lets users access raw GNSS data output, making it attractive for positioning applications that rely on post-processing GNSS data to enhance location accuracy.

Aerosense’s surveying solution is designed to reduce the time spent surveying construction sites. By combining ground markers equipped with a GNSS receiver with surveying drones and cloud-based data processing, Aerosense has converted huge workloads into a user-friendly application.

The surveying operation on the site involves setting up ground markers fitted with u‑blox NEO‑M8T high-performance GNSS receivers. The smart ground markers send the GNSS data they receive to the cloud, where it is post-processed using a static surveying algorithm to achieve high accuracy.

The AEROBO solution can transform high-resolution drone images into a survey-accurate map by using the absolute geographic coordinates of specific points on the surveyed terrain. Images gathered by overflying the terrain with the drones are combined to create centimeter-precise outputs, including orthomap views, 3D models and point clouds.

The challenge that engineers at Aerosense faced while developing their solution was achieving sufficiently high position accuracy. “We found a robust solution to the accuracy challenge by using the u‑blox NEO‑M8T high-performance positioning module,” said Satoru Shimizu, project leader of AEROBO technology development at Aerosense.