Roof Inspection

DigitalDrone · Mar 31, 2017

Hi Everyone,

To you commercial users, please see attached a picture of a roof (outlined) that I will be doing an inspection on. Can you please give your opinion on how you would tackle this job? The client wants video and is looking for rust and damage. If you know of a better way beside video please inform.

My questions:

1) How long do you think it would take to inspect this roof?

2) How many batteries would it take to inspect this roof?

3) How would you categorize the footage so the client can reference the problem area's location on this large roof?

4) What would you charge for inspecting this roof?

Thank you.

lake_flyer · Apr 1, 2017

Using a high shutter speed you could do 4K video. You will have no motion blur with a fast shutter. That way it is easier to pinpoint where a specific freeze frame is looking at while skipping through the footage.
Flown manually I would prefer to do it in 3 separate runs. South, north and middle. I would fly zig zag from north to south while taking pictures at regular intervals and name and deliver the frames in the order that they were taken.

Flying waypoints or grids with Autopilot or Litchi (video) or (maybe) GroundStation Pro using the 3dMap option (photo) could well be the way to go. If you are going to fly it manually you must make sure to stay within VLOS (to stay safe and to make sure it keeps receiving and following your controls), which is easy to loose while flying over such a wide roof, unless you're flying quite high and you're standing quite far away. Standing on one of the roofs might be your only option to keep VLOS.

i would do a test flight first on location with various settings (foto and film, and testing the app of choice) and different altitudes, check for interferences, determine the risks involved and if extra observer(s) would be needed), go home and determine what the best settings are (for the best end result) and what minimum altitude would work (more altitude means less photo's or less video footage), and how much batteries would be needed (plus 1 or 2).
[edit] + check with the customer if the results will match the expectations.

So I would charge probably 2-4 flights plus the site survey/test flight, observer(s), travel expenses, studio time (to correct and sort/name photo's or video footage). If it can be done with video it might even go in one flight. Flying waypoints while filming or taking photo's automatically at regular intervals gives a better result than flying it yourself.

After documenting your (successful) operation with all the settings and procedures that proved to work I would offer the client a regular inspection for the future, for a flat fee, taking into account that a lot less preparation would be needed for future flights. I would probably refund the first site survey cost if he would sign a contract for aerial inspections at regular intervals.

bluelight.support · Apr 1, 2017

DigitalDrone said:
Can you please give your opinion on how you would tackle this job?

What drone do you have ?

lake_flyer · Apr 1, 2017

bluelight.support said:
What drone do you have ?

I could be a smart *** by saying:

It took me 4 or 5 clicks (not even 20 seconds) to find out the OP had an I1 (before answering his question), browsing through most recent posts of him. It's quicker to find than typing the question.

But I won't, don't worry.

Cheers.

The Editor · Apr 1, 2017

lake_flyer said:
I could be a smart *** by saying:

It took me 4 or 5 clicks (not even 20 seconds) to find out the OP had an I1 (before answering his question), browsing through most recent posts of him. It's quicker to find than typing the question.

But I won't, don't worry.

Cheers.

You sound more like me every day.......

bluelight.support · Apr 1, 2017

lake_flyer said:
It took me 4 or 5 clicks (not even 20 seconds) to find out the OP had an I1 (before answering his question), browsing through most recent posts of him. It's quicker to find than typing the question.

But I won't, don't worry.

to be fair i don't click on previous messages when answering questions, and i have a wife critically ill in hospital so you'll excuse me if i dont meet your exacting standards on member research!

ajobmusee · Apr 1, 2017

lake_flyer said:
I could be a smart *** by saying:

It took me 4 or 5 clicks (not even 20 seconds) to find out the OP had an I1 (before answering his question), browsing through most recent posts of him. It's quicker to find than typing the question.

But I won't, don't worry.

Cheers.

such attitude is not necessary

licensed pilot · Apr 1, 2017

lake_flyer said:
I could be a smart *** by saying:

It took me 4 or 5 clicks (not even 20 seconds) to find out the OP had an I1 (before answering his question), browsing through most recent posts of him. It's quicker to find than typing the question.

But I won't, don't worry.

Cheers.

DigitalDrone · Apr 2, 2017

bluelight.support said:
What drone do you have ?

I have an Inspire Pro with 15mm, 45mm and 14-42mm lenses. Your insight would be appreciated.

Thank you.

DigitalDrone · Apr 2, 2017

lake_flyer said:
Using a high shutter speed you could do 4K video. You will have no motion blur with a fast shutter. That way it is easier to pinpoint where a specific freeze frame is looking at while skipping through the footage.
Flown manually I would prefer to do it in 3 separate runs. South, north and middle. I would fly zig zag from north to south while taking pictures at regular intervals and name and deliver the frames in the order that they were taken.

Flying waypoints or grids with Autopilot or Litchi (video) or (maybe) GroundStation Pro using the 3dMap option (photo) could well be the way to go. If you are going to fly it manually you must make sure to stay within VLOS (to stay safe and to make sure it keeps receiving and following your controls), which is easy to loose while flying over such a wide roof, unless you're flying quite high and you're standing quite far away. Standing on one of the roofs might be your only option to keep VLOS.

i would do a test flight first on location with various settings (foto and film, and testing the app of choice) and different altitudes, check for interferences, determine the risks involved and if extra observer(s) would be needed), go home and determine what the best settings are (for the best end result) and what minimum altitude would work (more altitude means less photo's or less video footage), and how much batteries would be needed (plus 1 or 2).
[edit] + check with the customer if the results will match the expectations.

So I would charge probably 2-4 flights plus the site survey/test flight, observer(s), travel expenses, studio time (to correct and sort/name photo's or video footage). If it can be done with video it might even go in one flight. Flying waypoints while filming or taking photo's automatically at regular intervals gives a better result than flying it yourself.

After documenting your (successful) operation with all the settings and procedures that proved to work I would offer the client a regular inspection for the future, for a flat fee, taking into account that a lot less preparation would be needed for future flights. I would probably refund the first site survey cost if he would sign a contract for aerial inspections at regular intervals.

Hi Lake_Flyer,

Thanks for all this information, I appreciate it. You've also helped me in my past posted questions, so thanks again.

I really like the idea of using waypoints for this inspection. Would a lower flying 3D model be a good way of doing this inspection?

I always follow the "double the shutter speed over the FPS used" rule for smooth footage. In the instance of inspection work, I see where that faster shutter speed is necessary, but how much over the FPS to you set the shutter speed, just past double or at triple the fps? Would you also use the highest FPS setting? Will I be getting choppier look in my footage since I'm using a high shutter speed?

I know it all depends on location, risk and for what asset the inspection is for, but off the record, what do you think would be a good price to charge per flight or flat rate for this type of job? Prices are all over the map and its hard to put a thumb on it sometimes, so I'm just taking in as much info as I can.

lake_flyer · Apr 2, 2017

bluelight.support said:
to be fair i don't click on previous messages when answering questions, and i have a wife critically ill in hospital so you'll excuse me if i dont meet your exacting standards on member research!

Sorry man. I didn't mean anything personal with it. Just that a few clicks gives a wealth of information and saves you the trouble from waiting for anyone to respond.
I wish you all the strength in the world!

lake_flyer · Apr 2, 2017

ajobmusee said:
such attitude is not necessary

Neither is your comment.
I didn't have a certain attitude other than trying to say how simple it is to find answers before anyone else hand them to you. I honestly don't possess, or have the feeling, for the typical tongue in cheek (smily smily) correctness that is so commonly used right now. I try it every now and then but even then I can come across pretty blunt, so it seems. I am known to get into these kinds of arguments, do a search on my profile and enjoy (pick and choose your own smilies here).
Must be the fact that I'm Dutch. We would say 'it's crap' when someone else would say 'rather nice'. Cultural thing.

And I even admitted beforehand that I was a smart ***. What more do you want?
I'm just trying to help people to help themselves again, like we had to 'in the old days'. It's a habit I have developed during my decennia long experience as a commercial people manager in the IT business.
I'm too old to change so live with it.

lake_flyer · Apr 2, 2017

DigitalDrone said:
I always follow the "double the shutter speed over the FPS used" rule for smooth footage. In the instance of inspection work, I see where that faster shutter speed is necessary, but how much over the FPS to you set the shutter speed, just past double or at triple the fps? Would you also use the highest FPS setting? Will I be getting choppier look in my footage since I'm using a high shutter speed?

I have done some testing with the highest possible shutter speeds and frame rates (with the X3 camera). I needed a sun cap for the X3 to block out the shadows of the props but otherwise the footage was very usable. And every frame was a perfect still picture, crisp like a photo. Using the highest frame rate allow you to slow down smoothly if needed. Since there is no motion blur it will seem kind of choppy at times. For cinematic shots you would normally do the Shutterspeed=(Fps*2) but some shots(action) really stand out with a very high speed. It is a good overal rule but just not always the only one. Be sure to use a good sun hood.

bluelight.support · Apr 2, 2017

lake_flyer said:
Sorry man. I didn't mean anything personal with it. Just that a few clicks gives a wealth of information and saves you the trouble from waiting for anyone to respond.
I wish you all the strength in the world!

no problem - thank you.

bluelight.support · Apr 2, 2017

DigitalDrone said:
I have an Inspire Pro with 15mm, 45mm and 14-42mm lenses. Your insight would be appreciated.

I think one of the first things is where is this - it looks like an industrial estate, surrounded by access roads - Im assuming your US and Im in the UK, so there is the issue surrounds horizontal clearance between the target and public area, so that would need looking into - as this would be a commercial job your insurances etc would kick in.

I personally would go along the route of flying at 150-170ft with the 15mm lens, and use something like map pilot to take photos as a survey grid. Then you would be able to provide orthophotos at around 1cm-1.5cm/px which would allow the client to zoom into part of the roof to inspect, you would also be able to offer a 3d model via photocan etc if needed.

If you don't have photo scan let me know - and ill happily process it for you. I cant fly at the moment due to both no Inspire 2 while its being reported, and going to and from the hospital, i have 2 machines free currently.