The use of drones by OSS

The last few days have been all about organisational structuring to support OSS and digital transformations. Today we take a different tack – a more technical diversion – onto how drones might be relevant to the field of OSS.

A friend recently asked for help to look into the use of drones in his archaeological business. This got me to thinking about how they might apply in cross-over with OSS.

I know they’re already used to perform really accurate 3D cable route / corridor surveying. Much cooler than the old surveyor diagrams on A1 sheets from the old days. Apparently experts in the field can even tell if there’s rock in the surveyed area by looking at the vegetation patterns, heat and LIDAR scans.

But my main area of interest is in the physical inventory. With accurate geo-tagging available on drones and the ability to GPS correct the data, it seems like a really useful technique for getting outside plant (OSP) data into OSS inventory systems.

Or geo-correcting data for brownfields assets (it’s not uncommon for cable routes to be drawn using road centre-lines when the actual easement to the side of the road isn’t known – ie it’s offset from the real cable route). I expect that the high resolution of drone imagery will allow for identification of poles, roads and pits (if not overgrown). Perhaps even aerial lead-in cables and attachment points on buildings?
Drone-based cable corridor surveys
Have you heard of drone-based OSP asset identification and mapping data being fed into inventory systems yet? I haven’t, but it seems like the logical next step. Do you know anyone who has started to dabble in this type of work? If you do, please send me a note as I’d love to be introduced.

Once loaded into the inventory system, with 3d geo-location, we then have the ability to visualise the OSP data with augmented reality solutions.

And other applications for drone technology?

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