Understanding Autonomy: Choosing the Best Digital Mapping Solution

Autonomous drones can transform how mapping and surveying workflows happen across mines, construction sites, and other industrial work sites. But not all autonomy is created equal.

For customers looking to integrate autonomous drones into their surveying, asking the right questions can ensure you get the right solutions that perfectly fit your needs.

To make that happen, you’ll need to know the difference between the levels of autonomy available on commercially available robots. 

Below, we’ll break down these levels of autonomy so you can choose the right autonomous mapping solution to increase surveying efficiency, reduce costs, and improve safety for your entire team.

The Basics of Aerial Autonomy

Like most things, definitions matter when it comes to autonomy. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) created a baseline measure for driverless vehicles, so when we set out to create an industry standard for aerial autonomy we used theirs as a foundation. However, many manufacturers add their own definitions to bridge the gap between different levels of the SAE autonomy scale.

The ExynAI autonomy levels

For this scale, autonomy is categorized by levels numbered “0” through “5”. With 0 being no autonomy at all and level 5 being the highest level. 

• Level 0: The pilot has full control of the drone or vehicle. If the pilot stops providing inputs, the drone or vehicle loses control.
• Level 1: The drone or vehicle has some form of basic piloting assistance, such as altitude hold (vertical position). It may also sense certain obstacles in its path, but it has no memory of those objects or the ability to reason and avoid them.
• Level 2: The drone or vehicle has both vertical and horizontal hold features. It can sense basic objects in its path and provide warnings.
• Level 3: The drone or vehicle can fly on its own under limited conditions. Level 3 allows the drone to sense and then avoid obstacles. This allows the operator to focus on mission planning without the need to control the drone manually. Most commercially available mobile surveying systems are Level 3 or Level 4.
• Level 4A - 4C: This is the highest level of commercially available drone autonomy. The system can fully map areas, determine areas of interest without input, and distinguish between different types of obstacles. At Exyn, we added these extra sub-categories (A through C) to Level 4 autonomy to help surveyors better understand the technical nuances between emerging mobile systems and how they differ.
• Level 5: This is the ultimate goal of robotics and autonomy. A fully independent vehicle or drone that can operate on its own for extended periods of time. You can think of Level 5 as something like the popular droid character from Star Wars, C-3PO.

Understanding the autonomy levels is important if you’re looking to scale operations through drone mapping and surveying. The higher the level of autonomy, the greater the ability to scale efficiently. With higher levels of autonomous drones available to survey teams, no expert training is required. So survey teams can quickly scale their operations without worrying about hiring qualified drone pilots. 

Real World Case Studies

Autonomy doesn't just end after the demo. Enterprise organizations are currently using Nexys to achieve significant productivity gains and cost reductions.

Below are just two examples from a growing list of organizations leveraging the power of Nexys autonomy.

Planning & Logistics

The U.S. Military uses digital surveying workflows to map various sites and then uses those surveys for complex logistical planning. Previously, manual mapping of those sites would take about 90 minutes each.

After adopting our Nexys system, the U.S. Military reduced the surveying time to just 4 minutes per location, on average. This represented a 22X improvement in surveying speed.

The result was improved scalability to cover more sites, faster data collection, and better decision-making using the most recent data possible.

Restarting a Mining Operation

A large mining company was looking to reopen a mining location. To do so, they needed to fully survey and evaluate 30 stopes. Before adopting Nexys, the total surveying time for this job was scheduled to take about a month.

However, using Nexys, they were able to fully survey all 30 stopes in just 3 days. Beyond just the incredible speed, safety was drastically improved since workers could avoid many hazardous environments during the survey.

Experience The Power of True Autonomy

To learn more about autonomy and how it can help you decide which digital mapping solution is right for your organization, we invite you to watch our webinar, hosted by Exyn’s Justin Thomas, PhD.

Justin offers a full, yet easy-to-understand explanation of surveying autonomy and how you can apply those concepts when choosing a surveying and mobile mapping solution for your project.