What does ‘Drone Scanning’ a cell tower mean?
— it basically means taking a bunch of pictures to form a 3-D model. The drone flies around in circles from the top of the tower to the bottom, with camera angle adjustments in between, and typically takes over 1000 photos. These photos are then stitched together to form a virtual model of the tower and any equipment mounted to it. The geolocation metadata embedded into the photo files helps to position the parts of the model. DJI drones paired with Litchi software is a common UAS for this, due to low cost. There is also a Precision Hawk software app designed for larger drones. Skydio is a technology that utilizes fully autonomous drone scans along with Skyfish, another U.S. company.
Drone scanning of telecom equipment is important because it gives us an accurate view of infrastructure for cellular, radio, and 5G. The use of UAVs saves time, money, and is safer than putting workers on the tower. Dangers associated with telecom drone scans include RF interference, microwave interference, and operator error. These instances are rare and definitely worth the risk of using drones to scan telecom equipment. Training for this position should be focused more on Geo-location of the tower sites, obtaining authorization from Tower site and property owners, and getting required FAA authorization for air space in the form of LAANC and COA from aircraft traffic control towers.
