Drones for Architectural Surveying. Their Use in Documenting Towers of the Valencian Coast

Abstract - We continually hear about the virtues of the use of drones, but not about the real possibilities of the existing ones in the market applied to the work of architectural survey; and neither about the advantages and problems it solves in the incorporation of aerial photographs in the photogrammetric survey, covering topics such as the necessary software, turnaround times, the accuracies achieved or costs…. Additionally, there is a legislative part which is necessary to highlight, so below we have also summarized the legal and facultative needs to perform these work as established by AESA (We use the word drone (drones in plural) because it has been recorded in the 23rd edition of the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, meaning unmanned aircraft. It can also be referred to as a UAV (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle) or as the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency, has recorded it RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems)).