Remote Sensing with Satellites and Drones

State-of-the-art satellites systematically measure ground movements directly, across the board and with an accuracy in the millimeter range. Optical satellites and drones offer flexible application options for the detection and quantification of surface changes or for inspection underground.

Satellite-based detection of ground movements

The ground moves more often than expected. The information obtained by satellites (InSAR) is particularly valuable for planning and monitoring infrastructures and buildings as well as for the detection of natural hazards such as landslides. For the analysis of ground movements, several radar recordings are compared with one another in order to be able to determine the difference in distance between antenna (satellite) and reflector (earth’s surface) with millimeter precision. This results in a large number of individual measurement pixels which each contain displacement curves over time.

Use of drones on the surface and underground

UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems / general drones) are versatile platforms for airborne data acquisition for all phases of infrastructure projects. Our drone fleet is broadly diversified and ranges from standard drones and swarms of drones to special models with high-precision DGPS receivers and state-of-the-art sensors (optical, thermal, LiDAR). In addition to surface surveys, we also use specially developed systems for recording and inspecting underground.

We fly in a swarm

For the flight over larger areas (> 1 km²) conventionally planned flight missions reach their limits. Flight missions often have to be spread over several days, effort and costs increase and, due to the longer period, changing framework conditions (including weather) influence the data quality or can lead to the termination of an entire project. By using several UAS at the same time – in swarm flight – a flight can be optimized considerably. Larger areas and more complex objects can be flown over within a mission and good framework conditions (weather, lighting, etc.) can be used efficiently.