The utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles for volume calculation

Nowadays, volume calculation is one of the most important works in the civil engineering and mining sector. The volume can be calculated by means of geodetic and photogrammetric measurement methods. With the development of advanced technology, photogrammetric methods have been used. Volume calculation with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) has been investigated in this thesis. Besides, same data were processed in different software in order to get software differences. The selected area in the city of Eskisehir-Seyitgazi is approximately 18.800 m². This area is filled with approximately 10.000 m³ per a month. In parallel with the local measurements performed in May 2016 and November 2016, the photogrammetric measurements were also performed by using UAV. The geodetic surveys were carried out with GNSS. The photogrammetric measurements were also carried out using the UAE (DJI Phantom 3 Pro). The Ground Sample Distance (GSD) in the photogrammetric measurements were 4.18 cm in May and 3.95 cm in November. The data collected in the photogrammetric measurement results were evaluated. 507 m3 excavation and 61000 m3 filling values were reached in May and November. The results obtained from the photogrammetric measurements were compared with the geodetic surface measurements and the results were consistent with the terrestrial measurements.