Project TAGEBAU: Drone-Based Surveying of Post-Mining Landscapes
For decades, coal was mined in Germany’s Ruhr region and in Lusatia. The energy transition and the resulting structural transformation pose significant challenges for these regions. In order to repurpose the former mining areas, precise surveying and other preparatory measures—such as securing ground subsidence—must be planned and executed as efficiently as possible. The TAGEBAU project explored how fully autonomous UAS could be utilized for this purpose.
The social and economic upheavals in former mining regions are in some cases dramatic. What’s more: before infrastructure or renaturation projects can be implemented in areas once dominated by giant excavators or underground mining operations, large zones often need to be stabilized. Subsurface cavities and abandoned mine shafts present a risk of ground subsidence. Prior to developing these sites for residential or commercial use, vast amounts of soil must be added and compacted at great effort. So far, the required surveying and volume estimation has been conducted on foot or by aircraft. Both methods entail long waiting periods—not to mention the environmental harm caused by traditional aerial surveying. Drones present a sustainable alternative, but their deployment still frequently stalls due to missing permits and time-consuming approval processes.
Generic Operational Concept
In a development project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Würzburg-based company Emqopter set out to provide a solution—both technically and procedurally. In addition to developing a UAS prototype for fully autonomous surveying and AI-based volume estimation, a generic operational concept was also created. Ideally, this would lay the groundwork for a standardized scenario or so-called Pre-Defined Risk Assessment (PDRA), helping to accelerate the approval process for such drone flights in the future.
As a tangible outcome of the TAGEBAU project—an acronym for "Transformation of Abandoned Mining Sites through Terrain Surveying of Mining Impacts using Autonomous UAS"—a coaxial octocopter equipped with a powerful onboard PC was designed, built, and tested. Outfitted with a high-resolution camera, a 360-degree 3D LiDAR sensor, and a matching three-axis gimbal, the system enables AI-assisted surveying and volume calculation. All without the need for time-consuming, personnel-intensive post-processing. If the Emqopter drone is used in the future over Lusatia or former surface mining sites in the Ruhr region, it could significantly ease the planning of construction projects and the calculation of necessary material quantities.
> This article was created in cooperation with Drones, the magazine for the drone economy: www.drones-magazin.de
