Development of a Low Cost and Light Weight UAV for Photogrammetry and Precision Land Mapping Using Aerial Imagery

Abstract

Land mapping and surveying is an important part of all civil works. An important part of land surveying is Digital Elevation Models which are also critical inputs for flood prediction, landslide models etc. Currently, most of land mapping for construction purposes is done using terrestrial methods. In this paper we develop a method to attain similar results in a simpler, rapid and cost effective manner using aerial imagery acquired using customized, self-integrated low cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Firstly, a low cost UAV is selected with capabilities to carry land mapping missions. For land mapping missions, there is an extra payload of high quality RGB sensors. The selected UAV has the flight capability of covering 0.25 sq. Km in 25min. The desired image quality is 6cm/pixel. Second step is setting up flight parameters. To attain desired level of accuracy in images flight altitude, cross overlap, longitudinal ad transverse coating percentages are set for each flight mission to capture images. Third step is to produce digital map and digital orthophoto. Using dense point clouds rich textured 3D model is generated to produce industrial standard topographic map, digital elevation map (DEM), orthophoto and contour maps. The results show that in comparison to terrestrial, satellite and manned aircraft the proposed method is: cheaper, quicker (saves time), higher accuracy, easier to deploy.