See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/311495417

The Use of UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles) in geology

Conference Paper · December 2016

CITATIONS READS

0 318

2 authors:

Javier Fernández-Lozano Gabriel Gutierrez-Alonso

Universidad de Cantabria Universidad de Salamanca
90 PUBLICATIONS   342 CITATIONS    286 PUBLICATIONS   4,804 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Oroclines and Delamination: Relations and Effects III (O.D.R.E. III) View project

Geology, Archaeology and UAVs View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Gabriel Gutierrez-Alonso on 30 January 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The Use of UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles) in geology

Javier Fernández-Lozano1, Gabriel Gutiérrez-Alonso1,2

1
Geology Department. Facultad de Ciencias. University of Salamanca (37008 Salamanca, Spain)
2
Geology and Geography Department, Tomsk State University, Lenin Street 36 (Tomsk 634050, Russian
Federation)

Emerging geomatic technologies for the capture, processing and display of three-dimensional data are of
great interest in the field of geology, because of the need to analyze information and parameters contained
in outcrops and landforms. The integration of these technologies such as airborne laser, multispectral
cameras or other geophysical devices in drones, provides a useful tool especially in remote, inaccessible
or highly vegetated areas. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can reduce the accessibility problems,
tedious and complex time-consuming data acquisition and processing, as well as enables a reduction of
field campaign costs in comparison with traditional geological surveys. The emergence of low cost aircrafts
drives the development of detailed and high resolution works, being of special scientific and educational
interest. In addition, the three-dimensional models facilitate the dissemination of results to the general
public.

Introducction gathering a large range of data which can be

UAVs are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also
known by different acronyms in English
(RPAS - Remotely Piloted Aircrafts). They
consist basically in a remotely operated
device which incorporates precise GPS and
inertial systems that allow autonomous
navigation and have been made accessible to
the general public in the last years. The
technological advances have facilitated the
incorporation of the UAVs into many
different scientific fields, like geodesy,
physics and geology (Thomson et al., 2007;
Watts et al., 2012). The use of UAVs permits
the decrease in costs for the data acquisition
and the enhancement of the capacity for data
processing to produce effectively large
volumes of information (Remondino et al.,
2011; Carrivick et al., 2013; Hernandez-
Lopez et al., 2013). They have been also
important in gathering data from
inaccessible or much vegetated areas (Van
Blyenburgh, 1999).
The main use of UAVs nowadays is the
acquisition of orthophotographies and high
resolution 3D topographical digital models,
which are especially useful in geology. They
can be used in different topics such as
geomorphology paleontology, structural
geology, geoheritage, etc. The capacity to
ship different types of sensors allows
used separately or combined. (Caltabiano et
al., 2005; Lin et al., 2011; Su and Chou,
2015).
These technologies provide a useful support
in research as well as make information
more accessible to other researchers or the
general public through different tools, like
reducing the distortion of photographic
images, map construction and building high
resolution 3D models (Fernández-Lozano
and Gutiérrez-Alonso, 2016).
UAVs types
According to their structure there are two
main types of commercial drones that are
regularly used:
Fixed Wing UAVs which can reach long
flight distances (up to 60 km), heights up to
500 m over the topographic surface and
speeds between 50 and 70 km/h. They carry
the sensors in a fixed position and are useful
in gathering data over large areas.
Rotating Wing UAVs are more limited in
terms of which flight distances (up to 10
km), speed and autonomy (less than 30 min).
They consist of 4 to 8 helix and are more
versatile when attempting detailed surveys
over small areas as their trajectory is easily
modified when needed and they can be kept
still in a required position for the needed
time. The sensors carried by this type of
drones can be focused in any direction.
Sensors carried by UAVs
Most of the UAVs in the market carry a
geolocalization system (GPS and/or
GLONASS), inertial and radar control
systems that allow stability and very precise
localization of the different sensors that can
be carried as well as the control and stability
of the device. The stability and localization
provided by these systems is fundamental to
obtain reliable datasets from the different
sensors that can be launched with the UAV.
The most used sensors carried by UAVs are
those pointed to gather images from
different light bandwidths, mostly regular
photographic pictures but also, infrared and
hyper- or multi-spectral images. These
sensors are mainly used for surveying, 3D
modeling, and agricultural monitoring.
They can also carry other types of more
specific, and usually sophisticated, sensors
that have different purposes: LiDAR (for
surveying, prospecting and air quality
monitoring purposes mainly); Geophisical
sensors (mainly gravimetric and
electromagnetic); Chemical sensors (for
pollution or volcanic emissions monitoring);
new Radar and Sonar sensors (for surveying
and geologic, oceanographic or
archaeological prospection).
Geological applications
Characterizing the shape of geological
outcrops or structures is a powerful tool
when doing scientific research or for
preservation issues. It is, from these two
pints of view where the importance of UAVs
in geology arise. Most of the uses nowadays
in geology are related to the building of
accurate 3D models that allow customized
visualization of outcrops, allowing
measurements and characterization of them
virtually with no need of visiting them and
also in the use of specialized sensors to
gather other types of specific data.
Regarding the construction of 3D models,
the advent of the SfM (Structure from
Motion) photogrammetry has been crucial to
make accessible this technique. SfM is based
in the acquisition of random digital images
of an object (or outcrop) with large overlaps
(Fig. 1). This technique discriminates, from
the different images, correlated points
(pixels or pixel groups) based on the gradient
or color intensity and locates them in space
allowing the automated building of 3D
models or to plot them on any flat surface
with a given orientation. When the position
of control points, located directly in the
studied object, is added the models are
georeferenced and can be used as virtual
objects. Resolution of the models depends
on the resolution of the images used (type of
camera and distance to the object). Once the
point cloud is generated there are many
different tools for processing and filtering it
in order to extract data, enhance
visualization… There are many application
of this techniques to geology, for example,
surveying in areas of difficult access, taking
stratigraphic or structural measurements at
inaccessible cliffs, making area or volume
measurements, mineral prospecting,
geological risk assessment, hydrology,
geological preservation of friable samples or
outcrops, geological engineering,
communicating geology to the general
public, etc. (Fernández-Lozano and
Gutiérrez-Alonso, 2016, 2016) (Figs. 2 and
3). This technique is normally limited by the
size of the model to be built and is not
suitable for very large prospects, where the
limitations from the UAVs autonomy and
the computing capability may not be
appropriate.
Other types of sensors provide specific
capabilities to the UAVs for projects with
other objectives. For example, LiDAR
sensors are more useful when dealing with
high vegetated areas, as the tree-shrub cover
can be easily removed using different
filtering algorithms. Emerging geophysical
sensors for UAVs (gravity and
electromagnetism) are becoming more
available recently (despite their elevated
cost) and are being used in detailed
geophysical prospecting, both for scientific
or economic purposes. UAVs with themal
and multi-spectral cameras are also common
nowadays for projects involving soil studies
and management, water pollution and other
side topics, like agriculture, decay
characterization and preservation of
architectural heritage buildings, forensic
geology or geo-archaeology. Chemical and
atomic sensors are being used in order to
monitor gas volcanic emissions, air pollution
(chemical and/or radioactive), etc.
Future of UAVs use
From the said above, it can be foreseen that
UAVs are becoming an important tool to be
widespread used in the Earth Sciences in the
near future and that they will bring large
benefits to us. Given the high rate of
development of the UAVs and of the tools
used to process the obtained data, it is not
easy to know in detail which advantages may
them provide in the near future in the way
Earth sciences progress, but there is no doubt
that they will play an important role in the
ways geologists gather and display data.
Aknowledgements
Financial support for this work has been
provided by the Spanish Ministerio de
Economía y Competitividad CGL2013-
46061-P and through the “Programa de
Financiación de Grupos de Investigación del
Plan Estratégico de Investigación y
Transferencia de Conocimiento de la
USAL”.
References
1. Fernández-Lozano, J., Gutiérrez-
Alonso, G., Fernández-Morán, M.Á.
(2015): Using airborne LiDAR sensing
technology and aerial orthoimages to
unravel roman water supply systems and
gold works in NW Spain (Eria valley,
León). Journal of Archaeological
Science, 53:356-373.
2. Fernández-Lozano, J. y Gutiérrez-
Alonso, G. (2016): The Alejico
Carboniferous forest: a 3D-terrestrial
and UAV assisted photogrammetric
model for geologic heritage
preservation. Geoheritage (In press).
3. Fernández-Lozano, J. y Gutiérrez-
Alonso, G. (2016): El pliegue de
Llumeres: apliación de los drones para el
estudio geológico estructural 3D. XIX
Congreso Geológico de España. Huelva.
Geo-Temas: 1-4.
4. Carrivick, J.L., Smith, M.W., Quincey,
D.J. y Carver, S.J. (2013):
Developments in budget remote sensing
for the geosciences. Geology Today,
29:138-143.
5. Remondino, F., Barazzetti, L., Nex, F.,
Scaioni, M. y Sarazzi, D. (2011): UAV
photogrammetry for mapping and 3d
modeling–current status and future
perspectives. International Archives of
the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing
and Spatial Information Sciences, 38,
C22.
6. Hernandez-Lopez, D., Felipe-Garcia,
B., Gonzalez-Aguilera, D. y Arias-
Perez, B. (2013): An Automatic
Approach to UAV Flight Planning and
Control for Photogrammetric
Applications. Photogrammetric
Engineering & Remote Sensing, 79:87-
98.
7. Van Blyenburgh, P. (1999): UAVs: an
overview. Air & Space Europe, 1:43-47.
8. Su, T.-C. y Chou, H.-T. (2015):
Application of Multispectral Sensors
Carried on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) to Trophic State Mapping of
Small Reservoirs: A Case Study of Tain-
Pu Reservoir in Kinmen, Taiwan.
Remote Sensing, 7:10078-10097.
9. Lin, Y., Hyyppä, J. y Jaakkola, A.
(2011): Mini-UAV-borne LIDAR for
fine-scale mapping. Geoscience and
Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE 8:426-
430.
Fig 1.- 3D model built from SfM technique. a) Locations of the UAV from which the needs
images were taken and primary point cloud obtained. b) resulting 3D reconstruction of roman
gypsum mines from the model in (a).

Fig 2.- Different models obtained with LiDAR of gypsum roman mines in central Spain (a and b,
using different resolution and shading parameters). c) is the geological interpretation constructed
from the LiDAR based 3D model and field work.
 Fig 3.- a) 3D model of the Llumeres fold (Asturias, northern Spain) with a draped color image.
b) Detailed digital model of the fold indicating the different types of information that can be
extracted from it.

View publication stats