The Use of Drones (UAV’S) in seismic survey.

LIDAR

Lidar technology has been used for years in seismic survey. In the past it has been an expensive

addition to the cost of the front end, Cameras were large and bulky and needed to be mounted on a

helicopter or fixed wing. Lidar would only pay for itself on the bigger 3d’s and was very often the

clients decision to pay the additional cost.

Today lidar has come a long way, cameras are smaller, lighter and faster, the software is user friendly

and does not require the processing time that Lidar took even 5 years ago. With the development of

commercial drones and their increased payload capacity it has made UAV mounted Lidar a very

economic option for use in Seismic Survey.

Lidar image with contour map.

How lidar works in a seismic application.

A lidar camera is basically a laser camera, it will send millions of rapid beams out and reflect off any

object in its path , the rate of shots per square meter can be changed. A rate of 3000 / m2 would be a

high precision survey.

For seismic the desired product would be the final ground Elevation. This is done with software that

filters the highs of the reflected treetops (canopy) with the lows of the ground elevation.

Once the processing is done a detailed map and values are generated, X-Y-Z (position and Elevation)

or DEM ( Digital Elevation Model). However this does not give us the elevation at our known points

(stations and Shots). For this we still need to stake out and generate a position (X-Y) on these points.

In the past clients have agreed to many different ways of generating a quality position. Garmins with

a DGPS antenna would be at the minimum requirements and a standard L1-L2 Receiver with GNASS

and DGPS link would be preferred.

Mena 3D Drone

The Mena 3d drone is a fixed wing battery operated UAV with a range of 2 hours reaching speeds of

50-70 km / hour. It can be launched from the top of a moving vehicle or a tall scaffold and has a

parachute that deploys during landing. With a battery life of 2 hours flights of 100+ km can be

expected, The Mena comes with Lidar, IR and video cameras .

More information about the Mena can be found at.

http://www.mena3d.com/unmanned-aerial-vehicle.html

Applications of UAV’S in Seismic Survey

• Scouting. Countless man hours are spent driving, walking or flying a prospect searching for

access, rivers ,dozer paths and general lay of the land. A Drone equipped with the IR camera

gets different Infrared signatures and gives it the ability to see below canopy to identify trails

and other geographic features. A drone would significantly cut down man hours and reduce

the exposure of workers to various elements including conflict areas.

• Survey. With the Lidar equipped drone the entire survey crew can be rolled into the line

crew. The Lidar makes it possible to have the stakeout crew coupled with the recording crew

by taking out the RTK requirements and replacing it with DGPS. ( No RTK base station) . This

will eliminate costly re chaining and greatly reduce the man hours and exposure to elements

such as conflict or terrorist threats.

• Security. With the IR and video cameras the drone can be used to fly real time

reconnaissance sorties. With a possible flight distance of 100 km, the UAV could be used to

monitor any armed threats or possible security breaches that could affect the daily

operations.

• Data Harvesting. The use of UAV’S to collect data from the GSR’S of wireless recording

systems . This would greatly reduce the man hours of driving up and down the line collecting

the recording information from systems such as Oyo.

HSE and Risk Reduction.

In various different environments the use of a UAV will reduce the man hours and exposure to

elements such as water hazards, traffic hazards, armed conflict areas and other situations that

would be considered high risk.

The UAV would greatly reduce the man hours in the field on the Front end and survey crews.

In a conflict area the survey crew would be coupled with the recording crew and reduce the

number of vehicles and guards.

In a high conflict area such as Iraq this would reduce the need for an entire Survey crew and

support, on a 3 man Rover operation requiring 9 security, 3 helpers 5 drivers , vehicles and 3

expats. A total of 18 men could be reduced and rolled in with the recording phase after the

lidar was flown. Realistically cutting out 15 men from the entire operation and having a

trickle-down effect of reducing camp size, transportation and administration costs.

Bryan Roberts