Post Processing
Commercial software: Producing ortho-rectified 2D photo-mosaics and 3D Digital Surface Models
The most straightforward method of post processing aerial photographs is to stitch them together using commercially available software, such as Kolor AutoPano Giga, PIX4D, Agisoft PhotoScan and others. The resultant mosaic is essentially a near real-time land-use and land-cover map that could be used for monitoring land-use change. Most of these software packages are very easy to use, and some of them can produce not only ortho-rectified 2D photo-mosaics but also 3D Digital Surface Models. However, they can cost between several hundreds to over ten thousand dollars. Microsoft offers a free Image Composite Editor that could be used for a quick-and-dirty stitching job. However, it does not ortho-rectify the resultant product, nor does it create 3D models.
Online services: DroneMapper.com
DroneMapper.com specializes in the generation of geo-referenced Orthomosaics and Digital Elevation Models from aerial images obtained by UAVs and/or manned aircraft. They operate an innovative Software as a Service (SaaS) system that allows UAV or manned aircraft pilots to upload and manage their imagery processing through this web based interface. They also offer extensive imagery consulting, data management, data cleanup, software development and GIS services to our customers and partners.
The video below shows a 3D forest model of a transect in Sumatra, Indonesia, based on aerial images acquired by Conservation Drones. Data were processed by Dronemapper.com, and animated by Ervine Lin of the ETH Future Cities Laboratory (futurecities.ethz.ch).
Open-source solutions
There are also open-source solutions out there. Brenden Duffy from FlightRiot.com has produced several awesome video tutorials on how to use them. Visit his website for more.
I have used PIX4D ,Agisoft Scan Pro and Visual SFM for my project “Generation of High Resolution DSM using UAV images-(www.slideshare.net/Uttampudasaini/generation-of-high-resolution-dsm-using-uav-images)”.However I am not getting satisfactory results during Geo-referencing of images (in Erdas Imagine) and tie point generation in other commercial software.I have been provided 25 images (5 cm GSD,taken by Sony Nex 5N Digital Camera ) of NUS Campus Singapore.I am expecting suggestions from someone who is interested to solve UAV image processing problems.
I am experimenting different software like PIX4D ,Agisoft Scan Pro and Visual SFM for my final year project “Generation of High Resolution DSM using UAV images-(www.slideshare.net/Uttampudasaini/generation-of-high-resolution-dsm-using-uav-images)”.However I am not getting satisfactory results during Geo-referencing of images (in Erdas Imagine) and tie point generation in other commercial software.I have been provided 25 images (5 cm GSD,taken by Sony Nex 5N Digital Camera ) of NUS Campus Singapore.I am expecting suggestions from someone who is interested to solve UAV image processing problems.
Is the problem the geotagging of the images or making the mosaic or both? If you have the flight gpx file you can try geosetter to geotag the images if that is your issue. Do you know what the overlap between the images is?
Serge
I have the exterior orientation parameters(coordinates of perspective centers for every image),flying height=150 m ,focal length of camera(Sony Nex-5N)-16 mm and other necessary camera calibration parameters as well.Image overlap is 80% in forward and 60% lateral overlap.I am having problem with accurate georeferencing of these images.The error with the bundle block adjustment is very high.What can be the reasons behind such outcome despite the fact that the tie points have been generated with higher accuracy in some software version(LPS).Just clicking on software and generating the output wont be enough for me as this is a final year project.I would also require details about the algorithms involved 🙂
I am not sure. Perhaps others can help?
Geo-referenced Orthomosaics, intresting you can visit here for more information http://www.imagesatintl.com/products/mapping-products/mosaic/
Thank you this is an excellent article, especially as you have links to describe in detail most of the best practices.
Hi We are using PIX4D more than a year, Pix4D can give 4 cm resolution data.
Hi, I saw a lot of commerical softwares on UAV 3D modelling, such as pix4D, AgiSoft. Is there any open source 3D modelling software suitable for UAV images? Because I want to study the code and improve their performance so open source project will be of great help!
Check out the workflow for an open source method on this website: http://flightriot.com/
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Hi
Thanks for this post!!
I use Kolor APG 4.2 to produce Orthopictures
How much overlap do you use for your flights to get a perfect result?
Is there another software for MAC Computers to create 3D models and so on for free?
What do you recommend
Thanks
Regards
André
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A free product is also sometimes useful. Especially for simple tasks. Thank you for the article.