Evaluation of the videogrammetry method for calculating the volume of earthworks in comparison with the conventional methods of land surveying

Calculating the volume of earthworks in mines is one of the challenging, costly, and time-consuming issues in the field. In mining projects, it is necessary to calculate the volume of excavation to estimate the volume of extraction in order to plan the sale of the produced products and to calculate the cost performance of the contractors. The calculation of excavation volumes presents many challenges, such as the selection of the best measurement tool and technique, the need to adjust maps produced in different time periods, the existence of inflation coefficients and the volume to weight conversion factor. Today, tools such as laser scanners, total stations and metric cameras are used to calculate earthwork volumes. However, they are expensive to use and require an experienced operator. Therefore, there is a need to investigate methods to calculate volumes in less time with acceptable accuracy. This research evaluated the use of smartphones for optimal volume estimation of earthworks. In this research, the image data obtained from the smartphone was processed with a technique based on structure from motion (SFM) and the results were used to create a digital terrain model to estimate the volume of earthworks. The calculated volume differences for the earthworks volume compared to ground methods for a soil mass and the studied excavation are 3.86% and 1.84% respectively, which shows that the method used in this research has the necessary accuracy to calculate earthworks volumes and considering the many advantages it has over traditional methods in terms of cost and time, it can replace them.