Flying property boundries

[Timb12957]

My son is looking to buy a piece of property. Approximately 9 Acres. I want to set up a GPS route to fly my drone alone the boundaries of this property using GPS coordinates from a county map. Can someone tell me how to create this flight path? I currently use DJI go 4 is this the correct app or is there another app I should use?

 

[bumper]

Go 4, unfortunately doesn't allow you to enter GPS waypoints by Lat and Lon, nor is there an option to display them on the screen (even though the info is there and part of picture info when you take them. I've suggested it to GPI to no avail - I'm sure others have too.

Litchi (operating system that will work with many DJI models), is the only option I know about.

 

[Meta4]

My son is looking to buy a piece of property. Approximately 9 Acres. I want to set up a GPS route to fly my drone alone the boundaries of this property using GPS coordinates from a county map. Can someone tell me how to create this flight path? I currently use DJI go 4 is this the correct app or is there another app I should use?

Litchi is ideal for this.
It allows you to set up the mission visually and adjust the points you use, configure heights, speed etc.
One good way to show off a property is to fly a little way outside the property and angle the drone 45 ° to look half forward and half in/across the property.
Litchi will do the flying for you and you can point the camera wherever you like.
You can save the mission to fly again and make changes if you think of a way to improve on your first go.
Here's a quick dummy flight I just set up as an example:

 

[Greekislandlover]

You can do it in the GO4 app, provided the drone supports waypoints 2.0. However, it's a right faff and I prefer to use Litchi - much simpler, and works better.

With Litchi, you plan the path on your PC. Litchi uses Google maps so you get both the map view and aerial view. All you have to do is log onto the Litchi app on the phone / tablet you use to fly the drone (internet is required) and download the saved route and hit go.

You can go a step further and use Virtual Litchi Machine (PC only). In Litchi, export your path as .csv and open it in virtual Litchi, it will then do some converty-type-stuff, automatically open Google earth and you can then check your path for obstacles in 3d (trees grow and things get built after the Google scans) and even fly a virtual flight to see how the footage will look so that you can make adjustments. There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube.

The only thing to say is if the drone is the Air 2 (maybe the Mini - not sure on that one) DJI have yet to release the SDK to allow Litchi to add that drone, so it works with the Mavic 2 range and the original Air. Just check your drone is supported before purchase as things change.

The PC parts of this are free so you can have a play with it. You do need to pay for the app to fly the drone though. Android and Apple both supported and work brilliantly.

 

[Timb12957]

In the example you show, the boundaries are pretty well defined in the picture. Were the corners set up visually? Here is a google maps view of the property I am looking at and it is all wooded including the surrounding property. It is not possible to set up corners visually, I have to be able to enter the points as GPS chords obtained from a plot of the land.

 

[Greekislandlover]

The corners are something you can adjust with Litchi from anything to nicely rounded to no rounding.

With regards to entering GPS coords - yes, you can do that. In the mission hub page it opens to, click anywhere you like and that adds a waypoint. The box on the right has the GPS lat and long coordinates. As you move the waypoint around they change. But in your case, if you want to add them manually that is where you do it.

Further down that page is where you adjust the curve size. You need a waypoint either side of the one you want to adjust. Click on the waypoint and adjust curve size.

 

[Forensics_Pilot]

You may want to consider a trial version of one of the several drone mapping programs such as Drone Deploy. These programs are specifically for mapping and a 9 acre tract will be a piece of cake. Search online for “drone mapping software.”

 

[Timb12957]

Thanks all!

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

Hello. I am a land surveyor in New Zealand so I don’t know what you have locally, but here we have good GIS systems freely accessible online with city and regional Local Councils where we can download recent aerial photographs overlaid with line work for property boundaries, on a selectable coordinate system. Check and see if your Council has similar as it would help you to determine where, in the trees, your area of (boundary) interest lies. Then plan your flying overlaps from there and move on to the other suggested software programmes (above). If you are wanting to mosaic, point the camera vertically down, aim for 15-20 % overlaps and try to maintain a uniform flying height and exposures. The software should provide a guide, also. Learn as you go! Good luck. ? ?

 

[Meta4]

If you are wanting to mosaic, point the camera vertically down, aim for 15-20 % overlaps and try to maintain a uniform flying height and exposures.

Thick forest canopy can be the most difficult land cover to stitch properly (apart from open water).
For the land shown in post #5 overlaps of 70% or maybe more would be needed and raising the flying height might be too.

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

Thick forest canopy can be the most difficult land cover to stitch properly (apart from open water).
For the land shown in post #5 overlaps of 70% or maybe more would be needed and raising the flying height might be too.

An existing professionally flown GIS orthorectified aerial image overlaid with property boundaries on an established coordinate datum (true to scale) is where I would be researching, if they exist for that area. New Zealand has them and they are readily available, for mapping and land development and planning. Supplemental low level drone photos would be more useful just for individual tree identification purposes, around the canopy and along the boundary lines. If the GIS exists, they may also obtain a contour overlay model for the site terrain, which can be used for design assessments. We use a DJI Phantom 4 with surveyed ground control to produce excellent site mapping photos and 3D models. The drone plus PIX4D software post processing produces excellent results. The latest drone version has onboard real time GPS coordination for the images which removes the necessity for the ground control in the images. Super hi-tech in your hand. It is a game changer for close site ground mapping. Good luck! ?