Operational Efficiency of Advanced Surveying Tools: A Case Study

Today, with advanced surveying instruments, surveying has become easier and more powerful. Accuracy is a prime concern concerning the time and cost involved in surveying. The advanced surveying instruments perform differently in different locations depending on their specifications and functions, pertaining to time and cost. Hence, it is necessary to determine the performance of these instruments with respect to precision, time, and cost. The study aims to take measurements using advanced surveying instruments and compare them regarding accuracy, precision, and time requirements. For these three advanced surveying instruments, viz. Total Station (TS), Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) were used to take measurements on two study areas, viz., a college campus and agricultural land. The data collected was processed using Agisoft Metashape, Leica Infinity, and Leica Geo Office software. The result of taking measurements of two study areas using the instruments found that average variations in easting, northing, height, distance (of HCPs), bearing (of HCPs) and area of TS and DGPS are 0.012m, 0.016m, 0.014m, 0.021m, 25 sec and 3.184 sqm, respectively. The average variations in easting, northing, height, distance (of BP), and area of DGPS and drone are 0. 213m, 0.198m, 0.224m, 0.251m and 113.78 sqm, respectively, and that of TS and drone are 0.236m, 0.224m, 0.267m, 0.280m and 97.89 sqm, respectively. In comparing time expenditure, a Drone requires less time than a DGPS and TS. In comparison, the cost expenditure of the DGPS is twice as high as that of the other two instruments.