UAV Integrated with Low-Frequency

GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar)

for
Freshwater Bathymetry

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https://industrial.ugcs.com
Phone: +371 25453422 (EET/GMT+2)
Sales: UGCS@UGCS.COM Support: SUPPORT@UGCS.COM
UAV integrated with GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) for bathymetry

Bathymetry is the measurement of the depth of water in oceans, rivers, or lakes. The standard
measurement tool for bathymetry is echo sounding, and the survey process involves the use of a ship,
boat or unmanned surface vehicle (USV) as a platform for the sensor.

Sometimes, the use of a boat can be complicated, especially in the case of small or hard to reach rivers
and lakes. The use of USV is not feasible in every situation either. Firstly, in most cases, USV should be
big enough to resist the waves and a big car may be necessary to transport it. Secondly, it is necessary to
have a good point of entry to the water for deployment/recovery. Last but not least, it may be
impossible to use USV in shallow lakes with lots of seaweed.

An alternative is a drone (UAV) combined with low-frequency GPR (ground penetrating radar). A drone
is compact and easy to transport and deploy. Drones also have a high precision of following planned
survey lines and can be used in any place where there is at least a small area for take-off and landing
near the surveyed water surface.

While standard method to measure the depth is using echo sounder, GPR as a sensor for bathymetry
surveys has benefits for some applications because GPR works without contact with water:

- allowing to do your work in basins with a lot of seaweed where a USV or boat survey is not
possible;
- allows surveys of rivers and streams with extremely high current;
- can perform depth measurements over water covered by ice.

Image: Low-frequency GPR deployed for bathymetric survey

© SPH Engineering – all rights reserved.

https://industrial.ugcs.com
Phone: +371 25453422 (EET/GMT+2)
Sales: UGCS@UGCS.COM Support: SUPPORT@UGCS.COM
Two additional benefits are derived from the physical principles of how GPR works:

- allows an estimate of sediment layer thicknesses;

- allows detection of objects and irregularities in the sediment layers.

The integrated system for bathymetry includes:

- A commercially available drone like DJI M600 Pro (as well as big enough drones based on the
Pixhawk autopilot);
- Low-frequency GPR system beneath of the drone;
- Radar altimeter to measure the precise altitude of the drone over the water surface;
- On-board computer to control the mission and store geotagged measurements;
- UgCS – Universal ground Control Software to plan and control the mission.

The sensor

The system uses the low frequency GPR to measure depth of water and also thickness of sediments.

There are 2 systems available for bathymetry surveys:

 Center frequency 124Mhz, penetration to the water is ~6m

 Center frequency 80Mhz, penetration to the water is ~10m

Altimeter

For precise depth measurements (and for the safety of the drone) it is vital to control precise altitude
over the water’s surface.

We use a high-frequency radar altimeter and a special terrain (surface) following algorithm to keep the
altitude of the drone constant during automatic survey missions.

On-board computer

The heart of the integrated system is UgCS SkyHub – a small and powerful onboard computer with
special software.

The first function of this onboard computer is to maintain a constant altitude of the drone over the
water surface using data from the radar altimeter. Standard DJI drones do not have such function and
rely on a barometric altimeter for altitude control. Unfortunately, it is not a precise sensor and altitude
drift per single flight can be up to several meters. With a radar altimeter, on the other hand, the
deviation of flight altitude is about 10 cm.

The second function of the onboard computer is to store GPR data in geotagged form. To geotag data,
the UAV’s GPS receiver is used. If the drone is equipped with an RTK/PPK receiver, data points will have
coordinates with precision down to centimeters.

Measurements are stored in industry standard SEG-Y files and can be processed in variety of
applications.

In addition, the onboard software sends current GPR trace data to the ground station allowing the
operator to make sure that everything is functioning.

© SPH Engineering – all rights reserved.

https://industrial.ugcs.com
Phone: +371 25453422 (EET/GMT+2)
Sales: UGCS@UGCS.COM Support: SUPPORT@UGCS.COM
Ground Control Software

The ground control software is UgCS with the additional companion application that controls the GPR.

Survey sample

Image: Sample of a 3D model built using data gathered by GPR in Silkeborg lake, Denmark.

Video of the Silkeborg Lake GPR survey - https://youtu.be/S2Bdm-6_69M

Data samples - https://files.ugcs.com/s/2K2XJL77FoAns8D

© SPH Engineering – all rights reserved.

https://industrial.ugcs.com
Phone: +371 25453422 (EET/GMT+2)
Sales: UGCS@UGCS.COM Support: SUPPORT@UGCS.COM