"Collaborating with Aeroscan was actually a given," he said.

As a land surveyor, you carry out your surveying and measuring work as efficiently, accurately and safely as possible. How do you go one step further? HB Landmeetkundige Dienstverlening B.V. (HBLD) called us in. Freddie Walta, chief surveyor, tells you how the collaboration came about and what it brings them.

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What exactly does HBLD do?

"HB Landmeetkundige Dienstverlening BV is a surveying agency in Joure, working in the northern half of the Netherlands. Our specialties are surveying and laying out underground and overground infrastructure as well as performing construction and civil engineering measurements and topographical surveys. We do this for large parties such as Heijmans, Visser & Smit Bouw, Van Wijnen and construction group Dijkstra Draisma.

Founded in 1998, HBLD has become a leader in dimensional design. This is evident in the impressive projects where sizing was provided by HBLD, including:

- the Princess Máxima hospital in Utrecht

- some subway stations of the North/South line

- the expansion of the Ausnutria plant in Heerenveen

- 570 homes in "New Brooklyn" neighborhood in Almere

- the Bergermeer and Boekelermeer gas storage facilities

Why did HBLD engage Aeroscan?

"I had been testing with home-grown drones for some time, because I wanted to explore how we could use drones to do our work better and more efficiently

can perform. Even then I noticed that drones would be a valuable addition to the way we work," Freddie says.

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He contacted Mark Nicolai, drone specialist and one of our founders, for advice. "To get serious about this, I wanted to know which drone would be most suitable for HBLD's work. Since Mark was just at that time looking for surveying support for an Aeroscan project, a collaboration was actually natural."

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What does Aeroscan do for HBLD?

In general terms, we help HBLD with photogrammetry. Specifically, that means we:

- have arranged drone pilot training for Freddie;

- have finalized the required drone permit;

- Freddie have learned all the things to look out for when taking good pictures;

- provide him with tips and tricks on a regular basis;

- process acquired data into a point cloud and/or orthophotos, with a GSD of 0.4 to 1 cm.

Aeroscan thus guides HBLD through what is required in the complete photogrammetric process from data acquisition with a drone to final delivery to the customer.

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What benefits does HBLD derive from partnering with Aeroscan?

Freddie is convinced of the added value of using drones and Aeroscan's guidance. "In my opinion, photographs are going to play an increasingly important role in surveying and building measurements. The benefits for both us as a surveying company, and our clients are enormous.

- Creating orthophotos, point clouds and/or 3D meshes by photogrammetry from aerial photographs has the advantage for us and the client of complete visualization and a complete data set.

- With a drone, we generate a complete data set much faster and relatively cheaper than with terrestrial scanning.

- Quality control of the drawings to be created from the point cloud becomes easier and any errors are detected more quickly.

- Because a pointcloud is a virtually complete representation of reality, the client can extract data and dimensions that were not specified in the original job. Think for example of extra heights of a ground level, eaves or the volume of an excavation. So we don't have to visit a site twice.

- Our customers now have the ability to view the 3D model and measure in the model in Aeroscan's application Aespect."

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How do you envision the future of surveying and building measurement?

"My expectation is that the vast majority of surveying will come from photogrammetry and less and less will be measured with Total Station, GPS and terrestrial scanner. However, the latter will remain necessary to provide an accurate basis for the

positioning the photographs and creating an accurate point cloud from photogrammetry."

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Are you curious about how we can also help your surveying business with photogrammetry to the next level? We would like to get in touch with you contact!

Prefer to read more about deploying drones first? Here you can find our customer cases.

Curious about all the projects HB Land surveying Services B.V. is conducting with their drone? Find out on their LinkedIn profile.

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