DroneMapper

Decemeber 25th, 2012

Back in May we processed an interesting data set from Easter Island, Chile at 30 cm / px GSD. Kim Anh Hoang from the Easter Island Statue Project used the 30 cm Orthomosaic and DEM to produce a 3D Flyby of Rano Raraku and an EISP excavation site. We've now re-processed the data at the highest resolution possible, 15 cm / px GSD. The original imagery was obtained using an autonomous UAV flying at an elevation (AGL) of ~330 meters with a consumer level Ricoh GR Digital III camera. The GR Digital III is not GPS enabled, so geo-tagging was accomplished locally using the UAV flight controller logs. In total, 140 NADIR images were shot at 10 mega pixel covering an area of 3.7 km^2.

"Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation, where 397 moai remain. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park." Rano Raraku – Wikipedia

A map of Easter Island/Rapa Nui, showing the three main volcanoes Terevaka, Poike, Rano Kau, as well as Anakena beach, the islets including Motu Nui. Modern Hanga Roa and Mataveri International Airport, the ruins at Orongo and the quarry at Rano Raraku. It marks major ahus with moai.

Above we've displayed a small subset of 8 images from the original 140. We recommend obtaining more overlap and imagery for an area of interest (AOI) this size.

Contact Us for the full geo-referenced downloadable data set.

November 15, 2012; The Pinery Project

In a collaboration between DroneMapper, Falcon UAV, CompassData, Inc. and The Pinery Country Club we collectively demonstrated accurate geo-spatial mapping (in 3 dimensions) of a reasonably large area using affordable technology – UAV, consumer camera and ground control. First, a little bit about our partners:

• Falcon UAV  is a small unmanned aircraft designed to provide live aerial reconnaisance and airborne sensor capabilities to those who require a military grade system at a fraction of the cost. Capable of providing over an hour of endurance, day or night, the system provides public safety communites, research organizations, academia, and industry a professional hand launched UAV solution at an affordable price. For more information please visit – http://www.falcon-uav.com/
• CompassData, Inc. provides the world's largest commercially available ground control data set – complete global coverage with 18,000 ground control points available for download. For more information please visit – http://compassdatainc.com/
• The Pinery Country Club offers as one of its amenities a private 27 hole golf course in Parker, Colorado. Management at the Pinery was very gracious in allowing us to collect imagery over their property. In addition, the property contained 15 precision (5 or 30 cm absolute position) ground control points that were used for data processing and accuracy quality verifications. For more information please visit – http://www.thepinerycc.com/club/scripts/home/home.asp

This ortho shows the Pinery CC area of interest and the ground control that was mapped by Falcon in a 1 hour flyover. The area covered was approximately 3.4 Km^2 @ 13 cm GSD.

Falcon being hand launched.

Typical ground control point being surveyed.

Pinery ortho detail.

3 digital elevation models (example shown above) were constructed using 1) only camera GPS tags, 2) only Falcon flight log GPS tags and 3) 6 ground control points. For cases 1) and 2) all 15 GCPs were used for accuracy evaluation. In case 3) 9 GCPs were used for QA evaluation. The table below shows the Root Mean Square Error in meters and the Circular Error at a probability of 90% for each of the 3 cases. 

Values below represent absolute accuracy for this data set.

Contact us for the full accuracy reports from CompassData, Inc.

On October 26th, 2012 DroneMapper will cease the free trial period (< 25 images), offered for the last 6 months. Beta testing has been completed and orthomosaic/DEM processing capabilities demonstrated. Our imagery processing service will charge to the following schedule:

< 1 sq. Km area – $20,
> 1 sq. Km to < 2 sq. Km – $40,
$20 per sq. Km thereafter.

Prices are USD, payment is possible via invoice, paypal, or credit card via paypal.

The schedule rates assume 10-12 Megapixel imagery formats with ground sample distance of 5-10 cm. If you have imagery you would like to have processed at larger formats and/or better resolution please contact us. Thank you!

 
We are very pleased to announce that we have teamed with Ulf Bogdawa and Carlos Hennig of Skydrones in Brazil. Skydrones provides full service UAV design, development, manufacturing and operations training to the Brazilian commercial and civil markets. With this partnership, Skydrones will be the exclusive source of our image processing in Brazil.

"A SkyDrones tronou-se parceiro comercial exclusivo no Brasil da empresa Dronemapper. A Dronemapper (www.dronemapper.com) processa conjunto de imagens aéreas para produzir mapas georeferenciados e mapas de superfície digitais (DSM). Estes mapas são utilizados para documentação de construções, IPTU, reflorestamento, cadastro de áreas de risco, cálculo de volumes e dados para estudos de enchentes entre muitos outros usos. É possível fazer o upload de até 15 imagens para que sejam processadas sem custo. O serviço é interessante pois o cliente não precisa comprar um software para processar as imagens. Basta fazer o upload do conjunto de imagens e uma cotação será enviada. Após o pagamento via PayPal do serviço, será feito o processamento das imagens e a entrega dos arquivos processados. Um site está em construção para dar suporte ao cliente Brasiliero com instruções e exemplos (www.dronemapper.com.br)."

DroneMapper has just been notified by the city of Denver, Colorado that is has been selected as a top-10 finalist in a business competition called "JumpStart, Biz 2012". The competition looks for innovative business ideas that can contribute to the growth and health of Denver, CO. 150 applicants submitted their ideas during the first phase. The second phase – more in depth evaluation of business plans occurs for the next 2-3 weeks with the finalist announced in late October. First prize is $50,000, one year of office space in Denver, CO, and business mentoring. We look forward to attending the JumpStart Biz Plan Awards events and Startup Week Denver. For more information please visit the Denver OED website at the following link: more..