Hit 1,000 drone inspections and my view on LiDAR flipped

I passed 1,000 drone site inspections last Tuesday on a parking garage job in Columbus. For the first 800 flights I thought LiDAR was overkill, just extra money and setup time. But after mapping 40 acres of uneven terrain for a new warehouse foundation, the point cloud data caught a 2 foot elevation error my visual checks missed. That one fix saved us about $18k in rebar and concrete rework. Now I run LiDAR on any lot bigger than 5 acres. Has anyone else hit a number that made you change your tool setup?

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keith2748d ago

Gotta say I see it the other way, man. I've done about 850 inspections myself and LiDAR still feels like a crutch for me. I get the elevation catch saves money, but I've found the setup time and processing drag kills my pace on smaller jobs. For bigger lots like your 40 acres, sure, I'll break out the fancy gear, but under 5 acres my old-school grid and a good visual walk beats it every time for speed. I just worry folks lean on the tech and stop trusting their eyes, which is where I've seen more mistakes happen than the LiDAR ever fixed.

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