Use of unmanned aerial vehicles on example of Phantom 4 (standard) for creating digital terrain models

Abstract

Nowadays, more and more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used to solve various problems. The use of specialized unmanned aerial vehicles causes some difficulties. The UAVs are quite expensive, and you need to have the necessary qualifications in order to effectively operate them. At the same time, there are a lot of non-specialized UAV models, which are much cheaper and easier to use. But the question remains about their capabilities. For example, how to generate a digital terrain model (DТM) of the required quality in order to use it in land use planning? The report is tasked with the scientific (theoretical) substantiation of the need for preliminary calculation of the parameters of aerial survey from the UAV to ensure a required accuracy of the DTM. The calculation involves taking into account the pixel size of the sensor, overlap, image base and the required RMSE of the heights. The report presents a comparison of two methods for DTM generation. Namely, the DTM generation as a result of photogrammetric processing of images obtained during aerial surveying with UAVs and a more traditional method of ground surveying using a modern total station. Obviously, the main criterion for the quality of the generated DTM is the accuracy of the spatial coordinates of its points. This paper presents the qualitative comparison of DТM that were generated using different engineering equipment and using various processing methods. The analysis of the results is based on the least squares method. The study concluded that the use of the photos from the UAVs is effective for the DТM generation.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetric Products Accuracy Assessment: A Review

“…Aerial photography accuracy is dependent on the quantity and placement of GCPs; they must be evenly dispersed over the area (Handayani et al, 2017). The distance of the reference point from the points affects DEM height inaccuracy (Aleshin et al, 2019). The best results from the RPAS photogrammetric survey are obtained when combined with GCP measurements made by highly accurate topographic instrumentation.…”

Creation and Assessment of a Topographic Map from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Data in the Province Phu Tho, Thanh Son District

“…Today, the utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has the potential to significantly decrease the cost of aerial photography [1] [2] and [3]. Diverse types of UAVs have demonstrated their precision in conducting topographic surveys across the globe [4] [5] [6] and [7]. According to [8] and [9], using UAVs is a cost-effective, ease of use, low-maintenance, and time-efficient monitoring tool that grants scientists and engineers access to high-resolution geospatial data [10].…”