Drones for Engineering

LiDAR Drone Surveying Grows Business for MP Design Group


Drone LiDAR Speeds up Surveying Projects for MP Design Group

MP Design Group is one of the latest customers of Microdrones to use Drone LiDAR for surveying, mapping, and many other applications.

Recently they used the mdLiDAR1000LR on a project for the Scarlett Pearl Casino in D‘Iberville, Mississippi, to create a 3D point cloud of the property to assist with future development and expansion. Learn more about the project and review the point cloud in this brief 3 minute case study video:

MP Design Group, headquartered in Biloxi, Mississippi, is a multi-disciplined architecture & engineering firm with projects across the Southeast. The company recently added the mdLiDAR1000LR to their toolbox to take advantage of all the benefits of using drone LiDAR for surveying and mapping, which is showcased in the video below.

Using the drone LiDAR, they were able to capture all the topographical and different aspects of the property from the tower, to the parking garage, to the casino area, mini golf course, and all the exterior parking areas, with two twenty five minute flights.

Ryeley Jacobs, the construction inspector and drone pilot for MP Design Group created the plan and piloted the mission at the casino. “At the start of this project we were a little bit nervous,” he admitted, “because this was one of our first big flights with the mdLiDAR1000LR and flying around the active casino high rise building was a little nerve racking. But with the ease of mdCockpit throughout the planning process, we felt confident when it came time to fly the mission.”

The Scarlett Pearl Casino Project

Using mdCockpit the team at MP Design Group was able to take a KML off of Google Earth and upload it into the flight planning software to come up with the best parameters that fit what they were trying to accomplish. They ended up flying the tower in two separate flights, with the parking area covered in one flight and the tower in the second. The tower was flown at 100 meters above ground, in a cross hatch pattern in order to collect all the corners and details of the building.

The parking area was flown at 70 meters above ground level. In order to avoid the casino, the team disabled curve flights in mdCockpit and squared off the turning points to keep clear of any obstacles. Jacobs used the software to ensure there would be no issues. “Planning the flight through mdCockpit, we felt very confident in all the features offered,” he said. “We were able to work through our plans and upload the flight back into Google Earth to check that all our flight paths were clear of the building and safe to proceed.”

Greg Thompson, PS is the vice president of field services, who oversaw the casino project and helped create the final visualizations using mdInfinity software. Once the flights were complete, he brought all the data into mdInfinity for processing and created a point cloud to visualize in Trimble Business Center so they could create the final data deliverables for the customer.

He explained, “mdInfinity is really easy to use and the processing time takes us about an hour to an hour and a half per flight. On screen we can see a straight-up plan view of the entire project and we can switch over to a 3D  view to see all the detail- the different levels, the garage, ad we can even pick up power lines. This can be used by architects and planners to provide a master plan for future development and expansion at the casino.”

David Machado P.E., one of the owners of MP Design Group, recognized the efficiency and potential that drone Lidar can bring to their full service, design engineering firm.

“Manual groundwork and intense data crunching that used to take weeks can be turned around in days,” Machado explains. “Our team underwent intense training, similar to flight school, to become FAA certified to bring these services to you and we can’t wait for you to experience the difference

They’ve created a turn-key operation, where a one man crew can quickly perform large surveys and provide more analysis than ever before.

If you’re ready to experience the drone-Lidar difference from Microdrones, talk to one of their friendly sales representatives today.