RTK or PPK on Inspire?

[simon@DEF]

Has anyone managed to integrate a RTK or PPK system successfully with an Inspire (pro)?
I'm looking for factual data on this.
Extremely large photogrammetry job and looking to reduce the number of GCPs.

 

[RoddyJoff]

Has anyone managed to integrate a RTK or PPK system successfully with an Inspire (pro)?
I'm looking for factual data on this.
Extremely large photogrammetry job and looking to reduce the number of GCPs.

Hi
Did you ever get anywhere with this? I'm looking at putting EMLID RTK on mine. Just need to find a way to get shutter trigger time from a mission log from whatever mission planner is used and then find time offset to GPS time to update EXIF header info. Are you able to provide any of your findings into this?
Thanks in advance

 

[FlyaDrone]

@simon@DEF

ERROR look at AirGon or GeoCue for the source of Loki technology

http://www.geocue.com/GeoCueAnnouncesGNSSDirectGeopositioningSystemforLowCostDJIDrones.pdf

http://airgon.com/Loki-brochure.pdf

There are 2 different onboard PPK products that I have found

UAV Geomatics - UAV Geomatics

http://veritymapper.com/pdf/Verity_Positioning_Product_Data_Sheet.pdf

And this one...the LOKI PPK system from Vertical Aspect derived from Robota LLC, both of these companies are Texas based.

http://www.robota.us/about/

Vertical Aspect
Exclusive Texas Dealer for Robota Eclipse fixed wing mapping platform

I am investigating if this ground transmitter will work with the Vertical Aspect Loki receiver for a base station corrections transmitter.

Emlid Reach RS — RTK GNSS receiver with an app as a controller

 

[FlyaDrone]

Has anyone managed to integrate a RTK or PPK system successfully with an Inspire (pro)?
I'm looking for factual data on this.
Extremely large photogrammetry job and looking to reduce the number of GCPs.

Tom Inloes did this large project, 20 mile long road, in Oregon -

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http://tcicorp.com/

 

[Surveyor1000]

We use the Inspire 2 with Loki PPK and X4S camera on a regular basis now.
Loki is not super cheap, but it just works (it has been developed specifically for I2 & X4S).
With no GCP's we get typical results of 4-5cm horizontal errors, 5-7cm vertical errors (measured against surveyed check points). With the I2 we typically survey areas of around 100ha (i.e a couple of adjoining flights at 400' with 70% side overlap).

 

[FlyaDrone]

That is great news from a real world application of this PPK solution. Is it also correct that the X4S must be calibrated to their specifications so that a specific pixel is selected as the geospatial reference point for each image? Are your flights conducted with the camera facing directly downward? Are your 100ha (247 acre) flights performed with more than 1 set of batteries on the Inspire 2 ( a couple of adjoining flights)? How many images are taken to cover the 100ha? Are you using a dual frequency GPS to store the data and convert to RINEX format? Does your setup also use a ground base plus rover setup to provide ground location tie in or perhaps your mapping is not required to have a ground tie in? Are you using the AirGon flight mapping application and does it provide terrain follow capability that adjust AGL automatically? Is your data then gathered and edited with Agisoft for processing with LP306 application?

I hope that I am not asking too many questions, it is just that the accuracy which you are getting with 400 ft AGL and not using GCP's is quite good for this solution and many other forum members might not know about this technology which is all available from the GeoCue Group corporation in the USA.

Thank you again for sharing your real world experience with us here on the forum.

 

[Surveyor1000]

Hi FlyaDrone,
Answers as follows:

• Camera MUST be calibrated. That's the case for any system. We had vertical errors of ~5m when processing with default camera parameters in Pix4D. When processing the same data set with or our own calibrated numbers, that reduced to 4cm.
• Yes, camera directly downward.
• 100ha takes us 2 x flights (2 sets of batteries). At 65-70% side overlap we get around 60ha in a single flight.
• In terms of number of photos - just looked at a recent data set that is 130ha and it has 450 photos.
• Yes, dual frquency (L1/L2)
• Yes, we use a ground base station which logs at a known point. We then convert that log to RINEX for processing with the rover (Loki) log.
• We use DJI GS Pro app for the flight planning/control. Not perfect, but seems to be most stable. Planning to try UGCS software soon so that we can upload DTM and use that for flying below ground level (into large open pit mines, which we do with our other fixed-wing UAV's). Our main issue is the fact that we are stuck with using tablets - they can't handle our hot weather and often shut down mid-flight...would much prefer to be using our Toughbooks, which I think we may be able to do with UGCS??
• We process all our own data (PPK processing with the Airgon software that comes with the Loki, then Pix4D, then various other software for generating final deliverables)

 

[FlyaDrone]

Thank you Sir.
You might already know about this tablet cooler + battery powered. Not cheep but my drone flight instructor uses it here in Houston during the Summer and it gets hot + humid here. I am also looking at Universal ground Control Station application for PC mission planning and Android tablet support.

www.x-naut.com

 

[Surveyor1000]

Yes, We have the X-naut cooler for our iPad mini. Very expensive for a piece of plastic with some $2 fans in it...
Seems to help, but we have very high temps (+40 degrees C).