An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for detecting buried assets includes a chassis, a global navigation receiver and processor, an electromagnetic locator device (ELD), and a processor for receiving a first data structure that represents a two dimensional area comprising a buffer zone at an above-surface location, wherein the buffer zone corresponds to a particular buried asset sought by the UAV, navigating towards the buffer zone and executing a detection process for storing a plurality of buried asset data points, and transmitting the buried asset data points.
