STRABAG, a leading European construction firm, is using the DJI Dock with Drone Harmony and SkyMap to automate drone-based data collection and analysis for an LNG Terminal in Germany, a key project to reduce German reliance on Russian gas. This technology saves time, ensures compliance with strict regulations, and allows remote, 24/7 monitoring without disrupting site operations.
Case Background
One of the largest construction companies in Europe, STRABAG, has been tasked with facilitating the construction of an LNG Terminal in Brunsbüttel (official website, further info), North Germany.
The construction is supported by the German government, to separate the German energy market from dependence on Russian gas by importing Liquified Natural Gas from overseas, and is a cornerstone of a 9.7 billion euro approach to resolving this issue. Therefore, the successful and timely construction of the site is not just foundational to German economic security, but also domestic defense strategy for Germany and the rest of Europe.
With associated time, costs, and political pressure, STRABAG has opted to use the innovative DJI Dock at their site, accompanied by Drone Harmony and SkyMap, to monitor their construction process with minimal interference. This solution allows them to complete a full cycle data collection & analysis process without having to interfere with the day-to-day construction process on the ground.
LNG terminal construction site, North Germany
Decision to integrate DJI Dock & Drone Harmony
René Seifert (Field Service Technician) and his team at STRABAG have been performing Stockpile Volume Calculations, Stakeout Planning, Backfill Inspection Audits, Cut and Fill Analysis, and Construction Progress Monitoring for months.
However, like many others in the industry, they have more time pressures and more sites requiring their surveying services. That’s why they’ve turned towards the DJI Dock coupled with the industry-defining Drone Harmony & SkyMap integration to achieve seamless and fully automated data collection and analysis at their site, whenever they need it.
24/7 on-site Dock installation
This step-up in tech integration into their processes has meant that their daily, weekly, and monthly operational processes require zero human intervention at the construction site. Meaning, René can spend more of their time focusing on analysis and planning with the reports they receive automatically every week, without having to lose time going to the site to perform weekly drone inspections.
Deliverables
Seamless Dock data capture and transfer
The Dock is fully integrated at the site, with a 24/7 electricity supply and internet connection. This not only means that it can be accessed and activated from anywhere in the world at any time, but it also means that all the data the drone collects during each flight, is sent directly for processing on the Drone Harmony servers, and conveniently sent to René and his team for analysis immediately.
“The Dock does the work, and then we make the analysis later”
- René Seifert, Field Service Technician
As the cumbersome manual tasks of flight planning, drone preparation, data extraction, data upload, and data processing are now skipped, René has estimated are saving around two to three hours of time per week.
“Without this integration, the frustrating part is that you have to manually transfer like 5 gigabytes of pictures. This can take a long time on your laptop and then you have to upload it to a photogrammetry platform, which also takes too much time.”
- René Seifert, Field Service Technician
STRABAG has also been happy to encounter some unexpected benefits of using the advanced flight management software from Drone Harmony. The construction site is located just 300m away from an environmentally and security-sensitive Nuclear facility, which has strict rules about drone flights in the vicinity.
Thankfully, Drone Harmony has an easy-to-use tool that means the drone activity at the LNG terminal will never violate those regulations. By using the manual geofence creation tool, René can sleep easy knowing their drone will always return safely to the Dock before crossing the boundary they set out at the beginning of the project.
Geofence creation in Drone Harmony
This feature, as well as many others such as the automated mission planning catalog is just one of the many ways Drone Harmony is helping STRABAG take their construction monitoring to the next level.
The original intention was to remove the Dock at the end of the initial 14-month construction planm and relocate it to another site. However, if the decision is made to leave the Dock in place permanently, the site can benefit from regular site inspections thanks to the various additional building inspection tools offered by Drone Harmony.
“When the tank is built, and we want to do an inspection, then it will be cool to use the orbit flight tool”
- René Seifert, Field Service Technician
Full site final orthomosaic output in SkyMap
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