Orthophotos with Inspire 1

m00se · May 19, 2015

does anyone have the specs of the sensor?

particularly the width and height , plus pixels across and up?

m00se · Aug 10, 2015

Just a quick update, I have done some photogrammetry work with the I1 over the last few days, and if used slightly differently to usual it seems to, at first glance, give acceptable results.

I have yet to use it with any surveyed GCP to control the accuracy and see what it is like in reality. But according to its overestimated accuracy estimates, it is doing quite well considering the overall cost and ease of use of the system

IrishSights · Aug 10, 2015

What's your setup m00se?

m00se · Aug 11, 2015

Well, I have an MD4-1000 at my disposal with a sony A6000 on it. So I am using that as a reference point in terms of results.
When flying the inspire at 50m AGL, it seems to get a decent result, but saying that, the estimated errors that I have measured are twice that of the a6000 flying at 100m. But there are some reasons for that, ie the a6000 is flying waypoint flight and the inspire is being flown manually etc.....

None the less, for a low budget result, it seems that the inspire may have something to offer. Even if only as a backup plan

IrishSights · Aug 11, 2015

I have just put my A6000 on my GoPro Mount on a dampening plate on the Inspire. I haven't been flying with it yet. I have used my NIR modified 5.4mm lens GoPro on the mount and got very good orthos from 300ft. I used Dronedeploy beta for the waypoints and got the NIR and visible all in one flight. Hope to try the A6000 this week. Should be able to compensate for the reduced flight time by flying at 400ft esp with 24 MP.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well Photoscan Pro created the ortho from the GoPro as it was quite gusty and you can see the camera plane was off on nearly every shot but it still did the job very well.

m00se · Aug 11, 2015

Sweet setup.
I have been toying with the idea of putting the A6000 under the I1 ever since I saw the panohead for it.
I refuse to pay 600 euro for a 3d printed panohead though, I will make one myself if and when I have a need for it.
I will take a 360 degree servo and find a way of measuring position, hopefully I can find a 360 ish servo which isnt cont rotation, then I can do it easily, I would just have to have a second RC system to trigger the panoramic photo shoot and hey presto.

My main concern in that project, would also concern me on your setup. being that the wind will incline the plane of the photo. That would make a big problem for flights with overlap that had been calculated to be just on the limit of sufficient, I think the way around it would be to plan a lot more overlap than normally neccesary.

How does dronedeploy work? I was looking into the pix4d capture app last night, but its only on android so far and requires a beta firmware...... when its on IOs I will consider trying it.

Im also considering the Sony A7r or whatever the 36mp one is called, but thats a serious investment on just a camera.

m00se · Aug 11, 2015

out of interest, how will you trigger the sony?

IrishSights · Aug 11, 2015

m00se said:
out of interest, how will you trigger the sony?

I just installed the timelapse app and set it going before takeoff as the GoPro in my old P2. Set it to 2 sec which got me plenty of overlap in fact I reduced the images to around 1/3rd and still got adaquate overlap.

As the Dronedeploy app works it all out but for the Inspire cameras profile I was a bit doubtful as to the side overlap on the GoPro but it turned out fine.

The A6000 has the 16mm prime lens so it will be interesting to see the results of it.

Dronedeploy beta is android at the minute. It's real easy to to use but still developing...fast though.

Between DD and Autopilot there will be some good new functionality for the Inspire soon.

m00se · Aug 11, 2015

So how will you trigger the sony? does this timelapse app work on it?
how is the center of gravity with all that weight up the back? I flew an additional 6-700g on the I1, but uniformly distributed around the chassis.

IrishSights · Aug 11, 2015

m00se said:
So how will you trigger the sony? does this timelapse app work on it?
how is the center of gravity with all that weight up the back? I flew an additional 6-700g on the I1, but uniformly distributed around the chassis.

It flew with the modified GoPro as if it wasn't there! I'll see what the Sony does. Got friends with us this week from Dallas so not much if any flying.

Yeah the app works fine, it just adds it into the Sonys menu and start running before takeoff. No triggering in the air though.

I've also been using Fiji (ImageJ) to create NDVI images.

m00se · Aug 13, 2015

have you had a chance to fly the sony yet?

Luis Morales · Aug 13, 2015

drone deploy maps done with the inspire are pretty good.

http://www.dronedeploy.com/app/view...oRreKxICxdI9DJiotlF9SoLDCvw&layer=Orthomosaic

this was done almost by the end of the day, at about 85m altitude. i think the result is pretty acceptable.as soon as DJI releases the fw with the new SDK i wan to try mapping at lower altitude 25meters or so.

IrishSights · Aug 15, 2015

m00se said:
have you had a chance to fly the sony yet?

Sorry @m00se, had visitors staying with us and didn't have a chance yet to see how it does. My visitor works for Bell on Ospreys and I didn't want to potentially embarrass myself by tail diving my i1!

m00se · Aug 16, 2015

Luis Morales said:
drone deploy maps done with the inspire are pretty good.

http://www.dronedeploy.com/app/view...oRreKxICxdI9DJiotlF9SoLDCvw&layer=Orthomosaic

this was done almost by the end of the day, at about 85m altitude. i think the result is pretty acceptable.as soon as DJI releases the fw with the new SDK i wan to try mapping at lower altitude 25meters or so.

How does that ortho get made? is it automatic? It looks pretty until you zoom in, then it looks all wonky,
if the program is free and automatic then its not a bad effort. Also can it produce a True ortho?

Luis Morales · Aug 16, 2015

m00se said:
How does that ortho get made? is it automatic? It looks pretty until you zoom in, then it looks all wonky,
if the program is free and automatic then its not a bad effort. Also can it produce a True ortho?

it looks as best as a 85m photos will look like taken from the inspire camera.

it does generate real orthos is all automatic like every other professional software to do geo orthos.

m00se · Aug 17, 2015

Luis Morales said:
it looks as best as a 85m photos will look like taken from the inspire camera.

if you look in the ortho you posted, all of the trees and ground look like an oil painting where it has all been ajusted. if you take a look at my pic, there is no difference in the photo quality between the individual photos and the ortho. The one I took is from 100m so pixelates if you zoom anymore

I included a shot of bathtubs from both photos so we know the scale

why are there so many bathtubs in the world?

Luis Morales said:
it does generate real orthos is all automatic like every other professional software to do geo orthos.

Not every software is automatic, infact many are far from that. And people widely recognise that the fully automatic ones arent as good, but they are easier to use so most people use them as the result is sufficient for peoples needs.

m00se · Aug 17, 2015

IrishSights said:
Sorry @m00se, had visitors staying with us and didn't have a chance yet to see how it does. My visitor works for Bell on Ospreys and I didn't want to potentially embarrass myself by tail diving my i1!

Its monday now

have they left yet? can you tell im eagre to see the results?

Luis Morales · Aug 17, 2015

m00se said:
View attachment 3266

if you look in the ortho you posted, all of the trees and ground look like an oil painting where it has all been ajusted. if you take a look at my pic, there is no difference in the photo quality between the individual photos and the ortho. The one I took is from 100m so pixelates if you zoom anymore

I included a shot of bathtubs from both photos so we know the scale why are there so many bathtubs in the world?

Not every software is automatic, infact many are far from that. And people widely recognise that the fully automatic ones arent as good, but they are easier to use so most people use them as the result is sufficient for peoples needs.

you are correct, but that is how the individual photos looks like, it was kinda windy and there is not a lot of details in the photos.

also i was not aware you could create geo referenced orthophotos and elevation maps manually.

m00se · Aug 17, 2015

Luis Morales said:
you are correct, but that is how the individual photos looks like, it was kinda windy and there is not a lot of details in the photos.

also i was not aware you could create geo referenced orthophotos and elevation maps manually.

I honestly dont think the original photos look like that, to me it looks like a photo textured mesh has been used to make the images in the link you provided..

can you post a crop of the road from one of the original images?

Luis Morales · Aug 17, 2015

m00se said:
I honestly dont think the original photos look like that, to me it looks like a photo textured mesh has been used to make the images in the link you provided..

can you post a crop of the road from one of the original images?

it is the photo over a textured mesh, in that you are right, but you can also export the geotiff from drone deploy and it does not look much better.

i won't be able to post anything until 2 weeks as i am on vacation and all my media is on an external disk array