<i>Using Flight and Field Datasets with Digital Photogrammetric Systems to Assess the Accuracy of a UAS Sensor Platform for Mapping Geospatial Input Treatment Zones</i>

Abstract

<b><sc>Abstract.</sc></b> <b>Spatial accuracy is a necessity for a treatment map that has data acquired by a UAS sensor platform.</b> <b>The GPS accuracy in small UAS can be degraded by several sources of errors such as satellite clocks, satellite orbits, earth‘s atmosphere, multipath errors and the receiver itself. The accuracy of GPS-receivers and the inertial navigational system (INS) that allows for stabile flight path in small UAS purposed as a georeferencing sensor platform should be ascertained first.</b> <b>A remedy is the use of a Digital Photogrammetric System (DPS) or image stitching software. However, “Image stitching can be considered a black box process; data is input, but the mathematical process driving the stitching is complex and difficult to predict - or even to precisely understand. In that sense, you could think of it as more of an art.” In other words the cure can be as worse as the cause.</b> <b>Can a regimen be formed to assess a UAS for platform stability, path accuracy and spectral sufficiency? How can a DPS be implemented to assess the accuracy of UAS platform sensor performance? With flight data and ground control point (GCP) coordinates obtained for each marker from Real-Time-Kinematic (RTK) GPS the basis of a testing regimen is formed using a DPS. A result is the determination of a spatial proximity method to use for an accuracy assessment regimen.</b>