Using Drone to Mark GCP

[syazoo]

Hey everyone. I am interested in hearing what experience says about this. I came across a mapping article in which a software company suggested that in the absence of a base station or other location measurement equipment, to use your drone to mark GCP's. The article said to put your done on the GCP, take a photo and later use the photo metadata to grab the coordinates and call those the accurate location of the GCP's. I was pretty surprised to read that.

So I am interested in whether someone knows why it would be a benefit in some way. Alternatively does someone know if that since we expect errors in our drones GPS, that using them to mark GCP's will cause additional errors. Finally, do you think they will make no difference.

 

[Donnie Frank]

Hey everyone. I am interested in hearing what experience says about this. I came across a mapping article in which a software company suggested that in the absence of a base station or other location measurement equipment, to use your drone to mark GCP's. The article said to put your done on the GCP, take a photo and later use the photo metadata to grab the coordinates and call those the accurate location of the GCP's. I was pretty surprised to read that.

So I am interested in whether someone knows why it would be a benefit in some way. Alternatively does someone know if that since we expect errors in our drones GPS, that using them to mark GCP's will cause additional errors. Finally, do you think they will make no difference.

This claim is kind of ironic. Here's why. The very REASON for Ground Control Points is BECAUSE consumer-level GPS and GLONASS aren't nearly accurate enough to be used in mapping. Even RTK systems have come up short because they aren't quite accurate enough. The winning ticket MIGHT be PPK. Me and my business partners just "test drove" a $90,000 PPK system (which included LIDAR). The greatest carrot for this system is that it MIGHT eliminate the need for GCP's. This would allow us to ROI this expensive rig in about a year. We flew several test flights for the purpose of collecting data. Unfortunately, that data hasn't been processed as of this writing. So until it is processed we won't know if this new PPK system works well enough to eliminate the need for GCP's.

All that said...

The short answer is "no, you can't use your drone to mark a GCP." At least not for professional mapping. If that were the case, you could us an iPhone.

D

 

[syazoo]

I am of the same camp. But I also know that there is a lot I do not know. And that was why I was so surprised to see a software company suggest the technique. For me,
Error2 (results from using the drone marked gcp’s) > Error1 (expected drone gps error)

I was just interested in thoughts from somebody who understands this better than I do.