What is Photogrammetric UAV Software?

What has driven many companies to UAV Software?

The massive exposure of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has driven many organizations and research societies. They wish to implement typical software for treating the data which these particular devices acquire. There is a constant increase in the demand of these software solutions to cater the needs of ever-growing and diverse market.

There is a constant increase in the demand of these software solutions to satisfy a widening and complex market. The scope of the UAV properties, expertise, and technological skills of an engineer as well as the current budget is essential. As per these points, there are already various affordable solutions possible in the market. The all-in-one software seemingly does not exist, but some features are inevitably needed when catering to the needs and demands of multiple users.

The software should be well-equipped to upload, prepare, and create images or videos acquired with different sensors. Alongside, we introduce the RGB cameras that can host not just in the payload, but also in terrestrial and aerial sensors. This situation is so because UAV data often integrates into an individual image block with other assets. The software must take out the best quality frames possible when it gets the video.

Numerous multi-spectral/ hyper-spectral cameras, as well as the thermal cameras, are available in the business nowadays. Some applications require specific cameras for the processing, though the camera’s geometry and interpretation are suboptimal for merely photogrammetric processing. Their quality of original synthesis with RGB pictures can also be precious in various applications.

Image processing method

The procedure of image processing is according to “contemporary” and digital photography with algorithms. As per the user expertise, specific solutions (with decreased options) are preferable to more professional and accurate approaches. Built-in parameters can provide quite useful answers in most real-life cases. However, there’s always an option to change the settings, and their masses to bring the desired results. Notably, you can do that in the most difficult cases. Tunable parameters can prove helpful in the image orientation as well as in the generation of the dense point clouds.

For efficient image processing, you can add the tie-points in critical images or removing the errors of mismatches.  These extra points can smoothen out the process, even though they are not the result of automation. It holds correct for the ‘true-orthoimages’ and ‘meshes’ which we get from given datasets. Manual or semi-automatic editing mechanisms to “clean” the results support the faster delivery without any further need of 3D model editors. The final but major step is to create detailed reports on each level, as the statistical explanations make it easier to track the progress of the projects.

UAV applications in different areas

The UAV applications are rising, and the shipment of products apart from the traditional photogrammetric workflow is getting obvious. Computerized DTM extraction, the picture organization, exploiting both images and point clouds is essential. Also, the discovery and tracking of characteristics of interest are inevitable for many purposes. In this regard, software capable of generating such information semi-automatically or automatically can be advantageous regarding productivity.

The battery resistance and the potency of UAVs have substantially increased. Therefore, the result is that the increased amounts of data can get collected, and extra computations are required to process these pictures. Luckily, many of the photogrammetric algorithms can run in parallel and software utilizing multi-core, and heavy computing graphics can relieve this difficulty. Modern software can support the functioning of clusters, or there is another solution to lessen computation time and increase performance, and that is the cloud.

Final Opinion

The UAV arena is modifying at a fast pace and the software devoted to these uses too. The features mentioned above are showing only some aspects that you should consider while buying software for processing UAV data. To find the most proper solution, you should note the capabilities as per your priorities and evaluate their implementation in the software.

Source: https://blog.nibt.education/2018/03/what-is-photogrammetric-uav-software/