Getting High-resolution Aerial Data in Controlled and Congested Airspace

Dutch company Eyefly is a fully certified drone operator in the Netherlands that has obtained papers regarding the commercial use of drones and additional certificates for flying in congested areas and controlled airspaces. The company focuses on performing inspections and mapping (2D and 3D models) with aircraft that have been tested by the Netherlands Aerospace Center and registered in the aviation records.

The company offers a specialist level of expertise and skills in infrastructure, construction, geo-information and surveying. To provide the best results with their existing certified equipment they need to use high-resolution cameras that are ready to integrate. The Phase One Industrial iXM-100 camera easily integrates with their DJI M600 and Freefly Alta UAVs and provides close-to-1mm resolution data, with a large footprint, at a safe enough distance from the object to meet their safety requirements.

One can identify and zoom, with high-resolution images onto areas of the bridge that require maintenance - Eyefly 2020

"Our business has grown since we started with Phase One cameras as we are able to provide our customers with all the data that they need in one flight. The result is satisfied end-users who come back as we can provide them with more details and better accuracy than we could with lower resolution sensors"

Web-based 3D Models used for Inspection

The availability of GPS is limited on the underside of the bridge. Images are therefore captured with a large overlap in order for their processing software to provide orientation parameters and position data. With the IXM-100 EyeFly has reduced the number of images enormously and is able to create a 3D model of the entire project for their web-based platform with inspection functionality. This method allows their clients to perform an inspection much more efficiently without losing detail and doing any compromises.

3D Model of Buggenum Railbridge - Eyefly 2020

Annual Maintenace Inspection of Stukton Rail

An annual maintenance inspection of Buggenum Railbridge is required to identify changes in the structure from year to year. Areas of wear and damage are identified. Areas with the highest changes are seen and given priority.

Before acquiring Phase One camera Eyefly faced the challenge of keeping their UAVs at a safe distance from the bridge and still getting a resolution/GSD close to 1mm. Lower-resolution sensors meant tens of thousands of images with smaller footprints had to be captured over a number of days.

Images were just provided to their clients via a sharing platform like WeTransfer instead of providing a cloud-based model. So many images without the ability to correctly trace back their position made it too difficult, if not impossible, to generate a 3D mesh of the structure.

Large Footprint without Reducing the Level of Detail

Eyefly company director, Remco Koostra explains “We chose the iXM-100 as it easily integrates with our DJI M600 platform in combination with the Phase One iX Capture Mobile Application.”

“The camera is used on both our DJI M600 and Freefly Alta UAVs. The M600 is used for capturing the top and sides part of the structure and the Alta enables us to perform an inspection from the underside of the bridge because of the ability to mount the IXM-100 on top” continues Koostra.

Eyefly uses the RSM 80 mm lens as it has a focus of 10m to ∞ while the RSM 35 mm AF lens is only 30m to ∞. The 80 mm lens enables them to fly closer to the bridge and achieve a resolution of nearly 1mm with an image footprint of 12m x 9m from a flight height of 10 meters distance from the object.

Integrated System

The system includes:

Phase One iXM-100 Medium-format Camera
35mm RSM lens – focus of 30m to ∞
80mm RSM lens – focus of 10m to ∞
DJI M600 PRO drone
Phase One iX Capture Mobile Application

The Phase One iXM-100 camera easily integrates with Eyefly’s DJI M600 UAV and by using the iX Capture Mobile application, full camera control and remote management is obtained.