Possibilities of obtaining terrain models, orthophoto maps and point clouds with the use of multirotor

Abstract

In the paper a method for acquiring spatial data using unmanned aerial vehicles was presented. In this work the UAV is a hexacopter equipped with a high-end camera that allows recording of 4K movies and high-detailed pictures registering.
The first step in data acquisition is to make a flight over the analyzed object, which can be both land and construction object. During the flight a series of photographs or film footage is recorded. In a later process this recordings are transformed with the use of appropriate software. This processing consists of several steps. In the first of them recorded photos are arranged according to the place of their shooting and then stitched properly. On this basis a dense point cloud is created, where it is possible to build a mesh with an adjustable number of vertices. In addition, the polygons’ textures are retrieved from the photographs taken.
According to this approach, it is possible to obtain high quality data on both terrain and architectural objects. The obtained point cloud can serve as a starting point for performing a variety of analyzes or inventories, provide the basis for high-precision models or for supplementing existing clouds of lower density.