Academics at the University of Aberdeen in collaboration with a group at the University of Bergen in Norway are using drones to scan rock formations in remote areas to better understand what lies beneath the surface.

They believe it will help them get a better understanding of subsurface reservoirs.

University of Aberdeen geoscientist Professor John Howell said drilling a well in the North Sea allowed the oil companies to directly measure the rocks in the borehole.

However, he said, you had much less certainty about what was going on away from the well.

"Given that two wells are often several miles apart, predicting what the rock layers in between the boreholes look like is a huge challenge," Howell said.

"To solve this problem we look at similar rock units that occur in cliffs above sea level and we use the drone to make extremely detailed three dimensional models, which we can then adapt to the subsurface.

"This gives us a much better idea of what conditions are like between these two boreholes and allows us to predict how the oil will follow and how much we can recover.

"The advantage of the drone is that it allows us to collect large volumes of data from otherwise inaccessible cliff sections in remote and often dangerous places."

Geological mapping has come a long way since the early days of Victorian pioneers who spent years making painstakingly detailed geological maps by hand.

The recent development of laser scanning systems, initially from the ground and later from helicopters using gyroscopic guidance systems borrowed from cruise missiles, is revolutionising mapping.

It allows very large quantities of very accurate data to be collected quickly and efficiently.

Most recently the researchers have been using drones to map cliff sections.

The drones consist of a computer gyroscopically stabilised body, typically with up to eight tiny motors with helicopter style blades on "spider legs" emanating from its centre.

The vehicle used in the project costs about £10,000 ($A18,660) and is remotely operated using radio controls.

It carries two cameras that allow it to collect stereo, 3D imagery.

The computer stabilisation and multiple motors mean it is extremely stable and can provide an accurate map of the rock formations.

"The work is part of a project called Safari that started in the late 1980s," Howell said.

"The original workers on the project have seen data collection technology come on in leaps and bounds since then but the introduction of laser scanning was one of the biggest improvements.

"We're now able to create virtual rock formations that are accurate to within less than a few millimetres."

Howell said the project's overall goal was to develop a fully searchable database of the relevant rock formations that would help oil companies build better models of the subsurface and improve oil field recoveries.

The research work in the Safari project is supported by 24 oil companies, including many of the major firms.

The next phase, which will be the first to fully utilise the drones, will start later this year.