Development of Drone-Borne Geophysical Surveys for Mineral Exploration

Drones, also referred as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) orRemotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), are aircraft without pilot on board. Currently the drones are used forgeological and topographic mapping, coastal control, landslide inspections, etc., and are capable to integrategeophysical sensors like magnetic, electromagnetic, infrared, radar, natural gamma ray sensors and etc. UAStechnology have several advantage over conventional airborne geophysics like resolution, accurancy, cost,etc. We are witnessing the birth of a new branch of aviation, which could be profitably applied to geophysicsmeasurements.In the modern-day advent of new technologies and methodologies in geophysics has become moreimportant than ever before in acquiring better data from the Earth’s subsurface. This advent has yielded asomewhat predicted fusion in the way geophysical data is acquired, by combining the power of UnmannedAerial Vehicles (UAVs) and smaller, more hardware-integrated sensing equipment. Safety and costconsiderations very play in the cause and effect of this culture shift in the realm of geophysics, whereasdrones are more capable of flying closer to the ground, have greater vertical gradients, require less power forflight, and most evidently, the nonnessecity of human collateral. Ultimately, drones should be, and to anextent is becoming, at least in geophysics, the way of the future.

Keywords:

UAV , UAS , RPA , Drones , Geophysics