With drones, quarries are measuring stockpiles in less time, for less money and with less risk to employee safety.
Drones have become a leading tool for quarry management. From planning to operations to measurement, drones are being used to save companies time and money, while increasing safety.
One popular way drones are improving quarry efficiency is through stockpile measurement.
Prior to using drones, a majority of aggregate companies would use a combination of employees on the ground and third-party surveyors to measure stockpiles. Quarries conducted surveys a few times a year and used a variety of surveying equipment. The surveys would take a few days to a week to complete. This method was costly, hazardous and time-consuming, and the data was not immediately available. Once the data was available, it was difficult to share within the company or audit.
By using drones, companies frequently and automatically calculate the perimeter and volume for all their aggregate stockpiles – even odd-shaped piles against walls. Drones are able to fly a large site in minutes and output pile measurements that same day. Data captured by drones is being used for everything from daily production measurements and spot checks to end-of-year third-party audits.
Stockpile Measurement ROI Case Study
Founded in 1957 and headquartered in Alabama, Whitaker Contracting, a leading aggregate company, previously used employees and third-party surveyors to measure its stockpiles.
Whitaker employees conducted surveys four times a year. It would survey three sites, and each site had 30 large stockpiles. Collecting and processing the data would take a full week.
Using the Kespry Automated Drone System, Whitaker’s combined annual surveying costs are 22 percent less than before. The company now measures its stockpiles twice as frequently, while spending four times less time on measurements.
Whitaker measures as many sites and stockpiles as needed, without requiring any additional equipment or hiring third-party surveyors.
The new process is faster, less expensive and much safer. A Whitaker employee now taps just a few buttons on an iPad, and the Kespry drone automatically flies over each quarry site. What used to take days now takes hours.
The only equipment used by Whitaker is the Kespry Automated Drone System. Third-party surveyors are no longer needed. The yearly cost for the Kespry Drone System includes all the integrated hardware and software, including unlimited flights, data analysis, data storage communications, online storage, maintenance and customer support.
Automated Drone System for Aggregates
Based in Menlo Park, California, Kespry is the leading provider of a fully automated and integrated drone system for aggregates. With the Kespry Drone System, aggregate companies can more efficiently measure stockpiles, manage inventories and improve mine planning and operations.
Kespry’s Automated Drone System is turn-key and includes the Kespry Drone and Kespry Cloud reporting system. The products work together and make it easy to scale across hundreds of sites with no additional resources or training required.
Dangerous ground inspections and expensive third-party surveys are unnecessary.
No Joysticks Required
Kespry Drone 2.0 takes off, flies and lands automatically without any human piloting.
Kespry Drone 2.0 can capture 150-acre sites in a single flight. Simple field-swappable batteries allow for vast sites over 500 acres. Due to having an onboard LiDAR system, Kespry Drone 2.0 automatically avoids obstacles such as trees, buildings and cliffs.
Collect and Analyze Aerial Data
Kespry Cloud allows customers to export volume, density and mass measurements to Excel or generate an automated inventory management report, including the volume and cost for every stockpile for auditors. While logged into the Kespry Cloud, customers can view and download contours. Each of the high-resolution 2D mine maps and 3D quarry models are available for download and manipulation in AutoCAD and other third-party software platforms.
Kespry Cloud allows users to automatically measure, cut and fill volumes, distances, areas and perimeters; overlay PDFs and drawings on their maps; make annotations for collaboration; and view contours, elevation maps, 3D models and more.
Using Kespry to measure stockpiles is as simple as tapping a few buttons on an iPad. Once the drone lands, the data is automatically uploaded and processed in the Kespry Cloud.
Customers log into the online Kespry Cloud, view their stockpiles and make a few clicks, and the perimeter, area, volume and cut and fill sizes for the stockpile are instantly shown. It takes less than one minute to identify and automatically measure each stockpile.
To learn more about how using the Kespry Automated Drone System can save you time and money, while increasing safety, visit www.kespry.com/aggregates.
This page was produced by North Coast Media’s content marketing staff in collaboration with Kespry. NCM Content Marketing connects marketers to audiences and delivers industry trends, business tips and product information. The Pit & Quarry editorial staff did not create this content.
