Digital Transformation Through Drones and LiDAR: Revolutionizing the Grand Canyon National Park Water System Project

CARLOS FEMMER: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Digital Transformation Through Drones and LiDAR-- Revolutionizing the Grand Canyon National Park Water system. My name is Carlos Femmer. I'm the director of data acquisition with HDR engineering. We're a large engineering firm based-- headquartered out of Omaha, Nebraska. And we're going to jump right into the presentation.

So going back 20-plus years, within the Grand Canyon-- had the opportunity at the time in 2003, where we did a survey within the Grand Canyon. Technology at the time was a helicopter system to fly below the rim. And using survey equipment with GPS, you're able-- and LiDAR, you're able to accomplish the capture throughout.

Fast-forward to 2022, we had the opportunity to collect data within the Grand Canyon, similar component below the rim. And in this case, technology is changing fast. So fast-forward 20 years, and using drones tied to GPS with specific payloads, we're able to capture a good bit of data. And we're going to talk about that through the project.

So today's agenda-- we're going to look at the project overview and data collection goals. We're going to look at authorizations and approvals, go through flight planning and execution. We're going to look at products delivered and summarize it with some final thoughts.

So project overview and data collection goals-- so we are fortunate to be working with the National Park System to design a replacement for a 50-plus-year-old trans-canyon water line and related utility projects. So goals of the project were to reduce costs by enhancing site understanding, improve contractor safety by assessing hazards. We want to visually assess compliance requirements, provide documentation of preproject conditions, and to visually inspect power infrastructure condition, amongst other goals as well.

Looking at the authorizations and approvals, the Department of Interior with respect to authorizations-- the reality is within the Grand Canyon National Park, there-- it's a no-drone zone. So in order to fly and have it approved, we had to go through and obtain DOI authorization. It preceded the National Park Service approval via their NPS aviation manual, Appendix RM-60. We assisted the park with completing the DOI, or designated UAS assessment guide, selecting equipment not manufactured or covered by a foreign entity. We also prepared concept-level flight plans to define project area and initiate compliance.

Part of the forms are-- we're looking at the Block 2 authorizations for safety and preservation of physical property as a core component. We had a National Defense Authorization Act-approved drone also that's on the blue list. So we selected equipment as part of the Blue sUAS. Cyber mitigation plan, work-- previous work with similar requirements-- and then, again, that's, at a minimum, NDAA-compliant.

Looking at the overall project, it was a complicated project. So we had different areas, a pretty large swath on the North Rim, a power line between the North Rim and the inner canyon, and a large component within the inner canyon, as well, as you can see from the flight plan here. So we provided detailed information of flight paths and visual observer positions, which encompassed the flight durations. We provided equipment noise levels. US Fish and Wildlife was also consulted. Their advice was to assign a wildlife biologist. There's endangered condors in the Grand Canyon we wanted to be aware of and to ensure that the drones weren't flying anywhere near them. We also had a NPS Park-certified UAS commercial pilot. And then we had a park superintendent approval, which was a wilderness minimum tool assessment as well.

So long story short, the planning process required a SGI COA from the FAA. We also have the appropriate permission from the National Park, Department of Interior. And we'll get into some of the details of why this was an appropriate tool for the project.

Looking at the equipment selection, we utilize two drones. One was a Skydio X2 Delta. This is an NDAA-compliant and Blue drone equipped with AES-128 wireless encryption, has a 16 digital zoom camera, a 4K video. We also had a WingtraOne Gen 2, Blue sUAS, also NDAA-compliant. It's a vertical takeoff and landing. We're going to talk about what-- why that was important for the project. It was equipped with PPK. And the payload was a 42-megapixel Sony A7r camera.

So on the flight plan development document PIC, or pilot in command and visual observer personnel qualifications, we established deconfliction procedures with manned aircraft, people, and wildlife, emergency communications, established safety procedures for our standard operation communications, National Park Service briefings and JHAs. We also produced a number of flight risk assessments.

And then on the desktop planning and modeling, launch points were identified and recovery points. Also, emergency areas in case something were to happen. Program the flight path, identify the known hazards, define responsibilities, establish procedures for fly away, provide supplemental flight documents, and then lastly, implement considerations from Wingtra's pilot as well.

On the preflight coordination, helibase coordination, review flight plan and discuss experience best practices from previous projects, site logistics. That's because we had a lot of equipment that had to be ferried in. So we had a helicopter manifest, equipment, helibase briefings pre and post, launch site coordination. So we localize flight plans, direct wildlife monitor and trail guards, and position visual observers up and downstream to ensure we always have visual line of sight on the drones.

Looking at the details, total areas covered were about 1,000 acres. Flight hours was roughly eight hours. We deployed two drones. With the Skydio, we had four inspection areas. With a Wingtra, we had four mapping areas. And like we said before, visual observers placed up and downstreams. We had the wildlife monitor looking for condor activity.

And then after each deployment, we would debrief with the NPS staff, talking about communication, radio, and communications that were ongoing. And then flexibility, so if there were any particular emergencies, we would ground the flights and we ensure that we stayed safe throughout the mission.

So looking at it, as we brought the equipment on board, or we had to bring the equipment onto the project site, this required bringing a large number of equipment into the canyon, into the inner canyon. And we took off and landed from-- here's a picture and a video of the helipad. And this is the drone taking off.

This is the case where we would take off. It takes off vertically, turned into a fixed wing. There's another video that show that. And then here's a picture of the Skydio that we use for some of the deliverables as we left the project site, packaged up all of our equipment, and was able to come out of the canyon safely and for a successful mission.

So here, this is going to show kind of a take off. And why this is important is we have a small footprint to take off. As you can see, the inner canyon is a canyon, so the Grand Canyon. So as it comes up, we directed what altitude to transition. So now we transition to a fixed wing aircraft. Then we loiter up into an appropriate altitude.

And once we're on the altitude of-- that we need it to fly and execute the mission, we would go throughout and capture that. Because the GPS is on the drone, this is pretty important because GPS works off of satellites. And what's important to note here is, as we're landing and coming down, where it takes off with, it thinks it knows where the position is.

And because we're occluded by some of the hillside, what you'll notice here is, even though we took off from the center of the helipad, it thought that it took off 15 feet away. So we were able to have control of that aircraft. As you see here, we paused it. We moved it back into a safe position to land and maneuvered it manually. And then we brought it down. So just being very familiar with how survey technology works, how drones work, and the like, enabled us to go and execute these safe missions in a complex environment.

So looking-- fast-forwarding to products delivered, we deliver virtual site videos, 4K video, and flythroughs, interactive digital twin for 3D models of project areas, produced a high-resolution orthomosaic imagery, inspection photos and videos of the power poles and other assets.

We collected terrestrial LiDAR data, high-density 3D point cloud data, and 360 imagery for different pumphouses and water treatment plants. Lastly, been aggregating all the engineering data, so 3D point cloud, DTM/DEM data, aerial imagery. It was completely integrated into a single CAD/BIM environment. And then we also leveraged Revit and Navisworks.

So first product was a virtual site visit. So this isn't the whole video. As you can see, this was captured with a Skydio drone, but this was basically a virtual site visit. The ability to produce a video of the entire route and have one single source of truth of, here's the environment. This was disseminated with a bid package, but this is from a safety element too.

It is a little choppy, but this is just because we fast-forwarded it to it-- of the video for in the interest of time. But because the GPS is on board the drone, you can see the red is kind of like a map to show where you're at within the project site. And then key areas that needed to be highlighted throughout were identified.

And this was coordinated with the NPS. And it's collaborative access to project review areas, reduce exposures to terrain temperatures. I think when we were down there in the summer, the temperatures in the inner canyon were roughly 115 degrees plus. So imagine having to do walkthroughs with a number of folks. It just reduces the exposure to more people.

It's additional context for subject matter experts to produce budget and reduces change order throughout project lifecycle, so being able to see everything in one go. From an interactive digital twin, a web-based interactive access for key stakeholders, 3D visualization provides context for engineering, environmental, and constructability. You could do in-app measurements and then toggle 3D visuals for pipeline alignment.

So here's a case where you have the entire water pipeline overlaid with the digital twin. And being able to see where these water assets are within the environment was important to capture, and take measurements, and bring everybody to the site. Here's another case where we did a digital twin of the actual pump house. And creating a reality mesh of this was important to do as well.

On the orthomosaic imagery, another benefit from the Wingtra captures is you get updated imagery of the entire project area tied to precise location data within six inches, utilized for engineering, inspection, geotechnical, environmental, and constructability. And then we also developed a web map service to consume in numerous products.

Big takeaway here is existing imagery from Google Earth and other data sets in the inner canyon. The picture on the right is what was available public and to the project team. And as you can see on the left, what the drones able to give you is high-resolution imagery. So it's just a night and day.

Here's another case where we have inspection visuals. So we have close range, high-resolution photos to assist in the inspection process. It is a challenging environment. So on the left side, here's a case where the closest you're going to get to it is from the ground level. And that's your perspective.

On the right, we took 300 photos per pole. So being able to see this in high fidelity, different angles of different views, I'm not limited like I am on the left. I can get up from the perspective, and see the top, and really look at the data. The other thing is this particular drone, because it flies on vision, you're not susceptible to magnetometer data, or mag data, like you are on other platforms.

So in this case, we're able to get pretty close safely with an energized asset and have confidence that it's going to fly safely and capture the required data. So it informs in-person inspection planning and enhanced accessibility to this challenging asset. In addition to pitchers, we're able to get high-resolution photos. So, again, being able to get at the unique perspective and get a high-resolution 4K video in addition to the pictures was also critical for the inspection process as well.

And this kind of gives you a perspective of looking from the interproximal canyon to the rim. That was from top-down. There are two benches, we call it. And then this is from the top looking down. So from bottom-up, you're going to-- it goes to one bench, which is located over here, then it goes to another bench, then it goes into the inner canyon. So it's almost a mile up from the inner canyon. So it's complicated terrain, and you want to use the appropriate tools for the project.

The terrestrial LiDAR was another component, where we wanted to capture the pump house and we also wanted to capture the water treatment plant. We're not going to show one area, but just for showing this particular example, where if you have something that doesn't have a lot of drawings or existing drawings, we're able to now model from the LiDAR.

So we're able to come in quickly, capture the data, and then produce this off premise. So it enhances visual understanding of as-built conditions. We have better design and integration of existing systems. We can overlay all of the information into it. Here we can export into Navisworks and then have a dissemination tool. So from the LiDAR, we can model the structural, architectural. We can model the MEP. So this would be kind of the mechanical pipes that you see here. And we utilize AutoCAD ReCap and Revit to produce the BIM models.

The other thing is, just bringing out-- showing this in Revit as well-- and I'll fast forward it a little bit in the interest of time. But in addition to modeling everything and getting the information, once you export this into Navisworks, it makes it shareable. But you could also slice and dice in this tool as well. So not only can you cut through walls and everything else, but once you overlay and enable the point cloud, you can also create a cut of profile.

So here I'm taking from the north to south, and I'm now expanding and dropping it. And we can see-- remove the roof and access inside of the building. And this allows us to access the information. And this is all done through Autodesk-- in this case, Navisworks, where we produced it in Revit and we exported it for the team to interact with. Here we're cutting a section from the side. So, again, just the ability to slice and dice, that's how we're able to get to the specific assets we want to model.

And the overall LiDAR data was millimeter accuracy. We have the actual registration report. But, again, being able to get high-fidelity data, we got it captured in the field, but this was all modeled offsite from our office, gives you that flexibility to blend the information all together. So now we have the reality mesh from the drones. We have the internal scans from the LiDAR data. And we're able to blend all of that into one holistic environment.

So in addition, aggregating the engineering data, so expanding site context beyond existing survey corridor, control and manage one layer versus thousands of photos, view existing survey data. And then it also provides less downtime, enabling more creative design and more design iterations. So we had survey data already that was done conventionally, which you see in green.

But having the drone data really allows us to QC the data that was already existing. But we're able to provide contours, which is what you're seeing in the red and white beyond the area that was conventionally surveyed. So it provides that additional site context beyond the existing survey corridor.

Taking that imagery, now we're inside of Civil 3D. Again, we're looking at the survey data. The imagery is difficult to work with. So we took all of that imagery, loaded it into an image server, exposed it as a WMS. So in this case, there's no images that are loaded inside of AutoCAD at all. We wrapped the imagery behind a web mapping service, and now we have the high-resolution photos that pyramided and tiled. And that's why we're able to get the speed and performance.

So that image service is able to be consumed by AutoCAD Civil, by Esri, by MicroStation. And, again, all of this is just via one web mapping service. So no data is incorporated as streamed. Once you zoom in to your resolution, it will load the full fidelity data that you're looking at.

And the speed and performance, we've been very impressed with. So looking at new ways to disseminate drone data, high-resolution imagery, and other type of data sets, AutoCAD has the infrastructure to incorporate and read in these type of services to make the best use of the data.

So moving forward, kind of looking at final thoughts. Safety first. It's an unforgiving environment, especially in the summer months. So being able to come out there and collect all this information and reduce people go on-- going out in the field and looking at the site, it offers a safe environment.

The cost savings of collecting the data once and having multiple uses. And then lastly, having precise data between the drones and the terrestrial data, and then having it with Civil 3D, the Revit models, having it all blended together, having precise data to make engineering decisions. One example is when you have all this information in the past, if you had just enough information for your designs, you might be able to go through a couple iterations with the time allotted for the project.

Because we had extended context and data at your fingertips, and we're able to now stream the imagery and others, we're able to do more iterative designs for the same cost. So what you end up with is a better product because it's gone through more iterations. So we're pleased with how things are coming together across from the project teams that have been using it. And this was a good success story. We do want to thank the National Park Service for demonstrating creativity and collaboration throughout the project.

In proposing some tools like this and having the National Park understand the safety components of it and whatnot, just super thankful to the NPS and the entire project team for a job well done. And, yeah, we're excited about the overall project and how things have been put together. And in summary, thank you guys for joining the presentation. And my information was on the first slide. So if there's any questions, please feel free to reach out.