Coal India to use drones for volumetric measurements

New Delhi: Coal India Limited (CIL) is all set to use drones to monitor the mining and other measurement-related operations. On Monday, CIL's Chairman Pramod Agrawal witnessed a live demonstration of the first drone procured by Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) at Ranchi.

In a social media post, the company said that the drones will be used by the CMPDI for volumetric measurements in case of in-situ excavation, overburden dumps & coal stocks using its LiDAR sensors. LiDAR sensors can also be used for tree height estimation, vegetation assessment and accurate terrain mapping besides indicating various other parameters. The thermal sensors on the drones (which will be supplied with the second unit) will be used for the detection of spots of underground coal mine fire, flaw detection etc.

By using drone-based sensors, it would be possible to generate 20 cm resolution thermal data which can be very helpful to accurately detect spots where underground coal mine fire exists through mapping of the thermal anomaly. The high-resolution optical cameras on-board the drone will be used for generating optical images of high-resolution, which will be very useful for the generation of orthophoto mosaic for areas of plantation studies, settlement mapping and various other applications.

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