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2018 | Book

Small Drones and Geographic Observation Read chapter Read first chapter

Small Flying Drones

Applications for Geographic Observation

Editors: Gianluca Casagrande, András Sik, Prof. Gergely Szabó

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book focuses on small flying drones and their applications in conducting geographic surveys. Scholars and professionals will discover the potential of this tool, and hopefully develop a conceptual and methodological framework for doing the following things: a) Translate their data acquisition needs into specifications. (b) Use the developed specifications to choose the best accessible configuration for their drones, and (c) Design and organize effective and low-cost field deployment and flight operations by integrating technical aspects with regulatory and research requirements.

Readers can apply this knowledge to work in cartography, environmental monitoring and analysis, land-use studies and landscape archaeology. Particular attention is also given to the reasons why a drone can dramatically boost a geographer’s capability to understand geographic phenomena both from hard-science and humanities-oriented approach.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Small Drones and Geographic Observation
Abstract
This is an introductory chapter in which the overall scenario of the book is presented. Theoretical aspects are discussed so as to clarify what is the interest of using small drones in geographic observation (1.1), what the most common application scenarios and limitations are (1.2), and some general perspectives about future developments (1.3).
Gianluca Casagrande
Chapter 2. Concepts and Issues
Abstract
This chapter is intended to describe the main concepts and issues of applying small UAVs to geographic observation. The discussion begins with an overview of drones as flying platforms (2.1). We then introduce a fundamental concept, accessibility, or the set of criteria to have the needed technology (2.2). The following point, called field deployability, considers aspects regarding how the drone can get to be used in practice, based on technical and organizational steps (2.3). General but crucial concepts of the emerging national and international regulations about small drones are then discussed (2.4). In the last Sect. (2.5), a case study is presented in order to explain how mission planning should be approached based on available technology and operational needs.
Gianluca Casagrande, Davide Del Gusto
Chapter 3. Opportunities
Abstract
This chapter presents some aspects of how drones are expanding the potential of aerial geographic observation. General basics are summarized in the first section (3.1). Some development lines of the use of small UAV in geography-related remote sensing are then discussed from a theoretical point of view (3.2). The following section (3.3) presents a series of current applications in reference to selected works from the scientific and divulgation literature and news from the Web. The adopted point of view on the topics is centered on the data acquisition capability of small UAVs. Such an approach highlights the fact that currently available technologies can possibly be used to fulfill several and sometimes thematically distant purposes in geographic observation. The last section (3.4) is devoted to a general discourse on the potential of small drones toward the exploration of historic and cultural landscapes, from archaeology to a more humanistic-oriented interpretation of present-day places.
Gianluca Casagrande
Chapter 4. Zooming on Aerial Survey
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to provide a general overview about the main components of a developed UAS mapping system, the survey, and processing procedure. At first (4.1), a brief introduction is given about basic operational elements and accessories of UAS. Then, recent camera/sensor technologies allowing various survey solutions are going to be discussed. Once these hardware components are presented, the detailed workflow of a basic UAV-based mapping procedure is described (4.2). A further discussion focuses not only on the analytical or planning phases but also on providing useful information on the operational and processing parts as well (4.3). Then, there comes image acquisition and project planning (4.4). The photogrammetry-based image processing requires detailed expertise and attention; Sect. 4.5 maybe helpful to avoid potential mistakes. The last section (4.6) summarizes some aspects of the use of LiDAR technologies in UAV-based surveys.
Gergely Szabó, László Bertalan, Norbert Barkóczi, Zoltán Kovács, Péter Burai, Csaba Lénárt
Chapter 5. Examples from the Boundaries of Geographic Survey: Architecture and Flood Modeling
Abstract
This chapter will be more practical in nature. It will discuss two fields in which UAV-based photogrammetry proves a particularly efficient tool in geographic and architectural surveys. We will also reflect on the expectable accuracy of these relatively low-cost instruments.
The first section will present a case study about the accuracy assessment of the digital stereophotogrammetry method (5.1). We will then present examples from two fields: the first one is architecture (5.2) and the second is flood modeling (5.3).
We give some examples about UAV applications in architecture because high-detail surveys focusing on one building are very different from low-detail surveys covering an entire settlement. The former are mostly used by architects and civil engineers; the latter belong more to the field of spatial planners and urban geographers. Flood modeling is mostly used by geomorphologists and disaster management experts and is more connected to physical geography.
These examples might be very different from a purely geographical point of view, but they present some methodological similarities. They provide an excellent base for comparing the criteria of different survey and flight planning techniques. In the case of building-scale architectural survey, the camera looks horizontally, and small details – in the order of centimeters or millimeters – must be captured. The output is a point cloud which will be later imported into an architectural software.
In the case of settlement-scale survey, the camera is looking at nadir, and 10–15 cm error is still not a big problem. The output is usually more GIS-related: this means that an orthophoto, a raster, or a digital elevation model is the absolute minimum. The point cloud is also a possible output which can be used, for example, to detect low-detail building models.
If we want to use a UAV for flood modeling, the acquisition method is similar to that of a settlement-wide survey: the camera points to the nadir and the covered area is relatively large; the main – and possibly only – output, however, is the digital terrain model.
The following sections focus on survey and data processing methods – mostly in point cloud format. The reader is therefore assumed to have some basic understanding of geographic survey and remote sensing in general.
Norbert Barkóczi, László Bertalan, Gergely Szabó, Márton Deák, Szabolcs Kari, Judit Csenge Vizi, Márk Zagorácz, András Sik, Miklós Riedel, Balázs Kohán, János Mészáros, Zoltán Szalai, Orsolya Szabó, Balázs Nagy
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Small Flying Drones
Editors
Gianluca Casagrande
András Sik
Prof. Gergely Szabó
Copyright Year
2018
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-66577-1
Print ISBN
978-3-319-66576-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66577-1

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