Agcopter delivers high-accuracy, bare-earth aerial LiDAR engineered specifically for Pacific Northwest data center, renewable energy, and large-scale civil projects. We provide civil-ready terrain data your estimating, engineering, and construction teams can trust on day one, fully compatible with Civil 3D, AGTEK, TBC, MicroStation, and PVCase.
Drag the divider. On the left: photogrammetry / RGB surface (DSM) where vegetation obscures true grade. On the right: Agcopter's LiDAR bare-earth ground model (DTM), with vegetation removed and ground measured directly.
Photogrammetry works well on open dirt, pavement, rooftops, and any visible surface. We fly it ourselves when it's the right tool. It struggles where grass, weeds, brush, crop residue, orchard canopy, or timber hides the ground: the surface in the model is the top of the vegetation, not the grade you'll bid on.
LiDAR pulses penetrate vegetation, and the ground returns are classified into a true bare-earth surface. On mixed sites we'll combine both in one flight: LiDAR for grade under cover, photogrammetry for crisp visible-surface imagery and orthomosaic.
It comes down to how much of the real ground each pulse can reach. Most drone LiDAR is still captured with a previous-generation sensor. We fly the DJI Zenmuse L3, and every difference below points at one thing: cleaner, more trustworthy ground.
A single pulse fired at the ground hits the canopy, then branches, then brush on the way down, and every hit sends back an echo. A 5-return sensor runs out of echoes up in the vegetation and never records the ground. The L3 logs up to 16, so it captures every layer and still catches the last return off the true grade underneath.
The laser spreads as it travels, so a tighter beam puts a smaller dot on the ground. A small dot slips through the gaps between leaves and branches instead of catching on top of them, and it concentrates all its energy onto one small patch of dirt.
Because the L3's 1535 nm laser is eye-safe, it fires with far more power per pulse than the older 905 nm type. The faint ground return that squeezed through a gap in the canopy comes back strong enough to record and trust, instead of getting lost in noise.
Every point also records how strongly it reflected. The L3 captures 65,536 levels of that instead of 256, so two surfaces that look identical to an older sensor read as clearly different.
Put the four above together and the result is ground measured to under a centimeter vertical, holding steady across every altitude and pulse rate tested.
Have one of these jobs on your desk? Send us the boundary and your deadline. We’ll quickly confirm whether we can take it on.
Photogrammetry and conventional drone surveys measure the top of the canopy, not the ground beneath it. On any site with grass, brush, orchards, or timber, the surface you're bidding on is wrong by whatever the vegetation height is, and that error multiplies straight into your earthwork volume. LiDAR's job is to erase the vegetation and measure the true ground.
On bare-dirt or paved ground with quality control and even lighting, photogrammetry can produce excellent results, often at lower cost than LiDAR, and we fly that for you too. LiDAR still wins where you need sharp grade-break definition (pads, curbs, ADA slopes), defensible repeatability across flight dates, or reliable results across steep terrain or poor lighting. Send your boundary and we'll recommend the right tool for your site.
An estimator on a data-center pad, a contractor on a solar build, an engineer stamping a wind or transmission corridor, a developer screening a parcel for site prep: all four work from the same bare-earth surface. Here's how that surface helps each of them do a better job.
Cut/fill, slope, and drainage figured off a real ground surface, so you sharpen the bid instead of padding contingency to cover what you couldn't see.
Lock in existing conditions before the dozers roll, then re-fly for progress and final quantities. A record that holds up in owner review.
Bare-earth DTM, contours, and full point cloud for QA and design, including grade under canopy that photogrammetry misses. Supplemental to your work, never a replacement for it.
Bare-earth surfaces and drainage your civil engineer or surveyor can use for site selection, IC memos, and design RFPs.
Native support for the formats and tools your estimating, survey, and machine control teams already run on.
Licensed operations, insured flights, validated accuracy, and clear professional boundaries.
A price, a schedule, and an honest read on whether we can deliver a usable surface before your deadline, within one business day.
