Ten courses a year, captured for someone else's product

The challenge

When the capture feeds someone else's product, the tolerance is theirs and it is not negotiable. Data arriving outside specification means a return visit at somebody's cost and a delay in their release. The client needs a pilot they can dispatch to a course they have never seen, without being present, and get back something that loads.

The sites

Around ten courses a year, captured for a green reading provider whose software consumes the elevation data. The client is not named here.

Equipment and method

Greens are mapped to the client's capture specification so the surface resolves at the level their product needs, with positioning carried to their stated tolerance. Each course is read on arrival: access, launch positions, the order greens can be taken in, and how the day's play is moving. Capture is planned around play rather than the other way round.

Airspace and safety

Varies course to course and is checked for each one. Golfers are on the property throughout, so distance and timing are managed so that no group is held up and the aircraft is not the thing anyone remembers about their round.

Deliverables

Green surface elevation data in the format the client's processing expects, delivered per course.

Result

Around ten courses a year, dispatched to properties we have not seen, with the data accepted into their pipeline each time. The client keeps sending us, which is the only measure that matters in subcontracted capture. A course that has a bad experience with a drone tells the client, so discretion is part of the deliverable rather than a courtesy.

Read more about golf course work