automating combining lots of pictures for larger map

[Bryce steiner]

I have a Mavic 2 Pro and I would like to know what would be the best way to take a bunch of pictures that are looking straight down at and then combining them into a large map.
My county has asked me about this as they will have to do this every couple years going forward for auditor/tax purposes.

Is there a way to automate the taking of the pictures so that every 200 feet or so it takes another pictures until it makes an entire grid based upon coordinates? Then once the coordinates are tied to the pictures the software can then combine it together? It would be similar to way points but in a grid where the computer or app tells the drone exactly where to take them.

It would be kind of like Google Maps but specifically for the county where it is more up-to-date, consistent and can be repeated?

 

[brett8883]

I have a Mavic 2 Pro and I would like to know what would be the best way to take a bunch of pictures that are looking straight down at and then combining them into a large map.
My county has asked me about this as they will have to do this every couple years going forward for auditor/tax purposes.

Is there a way to automate the taking of the pictures so that every 200 feet or so it takes another pictures until it makes an entire grid based upon coordinates? Then once the coordinates are tied to the pictures the software can then combine it together? It would be similar to way points but in a grid where the computer or app tells the drone exactly where to take them.

It would be kind of like Google Maps but specifically for the county where it is more up-to-date, consistent and can be repeated?

This sounds like a pretty big job. There are tools for the mavic to do this but I think you may have to manage your expectations for what it’s capabilities are.

Does it have to be with a Mavic? There are other industrial grade drones that are better equipped for this job and can access professional grade programs for this with centimeter level accuracy.

How big an area we talking? You know you’ll need a 107 license for this in the US right?

There are couple of ways to do this with the Mavic. The “all-in-one” solution is called “drone-deploy” which is designed to do exactly what you are asking. It is specifically is a map making tool. You upload the pictures it takes to the cloud and they will put the pictures together for you automatically.

I quickly made this Drone Deploy mission to show you.
This is approximately a 16 square mile area. It says that it’s going to take 26 batteries and 7 hours of flight time to complete. Keep in mind that doesn’t include battery charging time. But what’s nice about this is it automated this process so it will continue where it left off when switching batteries.

There’s another product called Auto-Pilot which you can fine tune controls much more. Where drone deploy is kinda the mapping tool for dummies (not that you are a dummy that’s not what I mean. What I mean is it doesn’t give you many options, it’s just does what it thinks is best) auto pilot on the other hand is very sophisticated and let’s you control everything. It will automatically take the pictures but then you’ll have to upload them to a service (like drone deploy) which will create the map for you.

Drone Deploy has a free trial you can try out to see if you like it autopilot does not. Keep in mind Auto-Pilot isn’t a “download it and fly” app. You’ll need to study it and practice before some simpler missions first.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Bryce steiner]

Hello Brett,
The information you gave certainly puts me closer. The area is 420 square miles.
I was looking at DroneDeploy and I see the pricing is a subscription model. Do you lose access to everything you've done once you have decided to cancel the subscription when your done? Or do you get everything to download? Does it come back as a massive JPG or something that you have to always use their cloud?

 

[brett8883]

Hello Brett,
The information you gave certainly puts me closer. The area is 420 square miles.
I was looking at DroneDeploy and I see the pricing is a subscription model. Do you lose access to everything you've done once you have decided to cancel the subscription when your done? Or do you get everything to download? Does it come back as a massive JPG or something that you have to always use their cloud?

I’m sure it comes back as a JPG you can download and keep. 420 square miles holy cow!

 

[Meta4]

Hello Brett,
The information you gave certainly puts me closer. The area is 420 square miles.

420 acres would be a big job for a drone to survey.
To do 420 square miles, you need to talk to an aerial mapping company who will use large mapping cameras mounted in airplanes.

Or see if there's a company like this one in your area of interest: High Resolution Aerial Maps & Imagery in Australia - Nearmap

 

[Bryce steiner]

That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. Maybe it is too big for a single drone. Are there drone fleets that could be sent out and controlled by computer so that it can still be a 2 or 3 person job, but doesn't need to be manually controlled?

 

[Keule]

The area is 420 square miles.

That's totally unrealistic for any quadcopter mapping mission.
It can be done with fixed wing mapping aircraft.

Just to give you an overview:
420 sq miles area to cover results in:
flying at 120 m height
GSD of 5.2 cm/pix
8179 waypoints
total flight length 14.164.921 m
29092 minutes flight time
1819 sets of batteries
335.836 photos taken

Let alone weather conditions, sun, rain and the wind.

 

[Keule]

Are there drone fleets that could be sent out and controlled by computer so that it can still be a 2 or 3 person job, but doesn't need to be manually controlled?

Yes, use UgCS

 

[Meta4]

That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. Maybe it is too big for a single drone.

420 square miles is much too big to do with a drone or fleet of drones and no, it has to be manually controlled.
You need a real aerial photography company that specialises in aerial survey and mapping.
You really do.
Have a look here: ohio air mapping companies - Google Search

 

[bushie]

Until I saw the area you are talking about I was going to recommend Drone Harmony for the photography and Precision mapper for the preparation of the orthomap. I have used this combination for areas of a few hundred sqm. As per above, the area you are talking about is well beyond the capability of a UAV