Today the advancements of LiDar grow gradually day by day for its high-quality accuracy and its cost-efficiency. If you want to know more about LiDar and different modes, you can read it here. In this article, we will see how drones play a significant role in LiDar and also the different types of collecting point clouds.

UAV/Drone LiDar

UAV/Drone LiDar is one of the modes of LiDar, and it is widely used all over the world for its cost-effectiveness and lesser time consumption.

A UAV/Drone survey refers to the use of a drone, or aerial vehicle (UAV), to capture aerial data with downward-facing sensors, such as RGB or multispectral cameras, and LIDAR payloads.

UAV Lidar is used in Land surveying/Cartography, Land data management, and urban planning, etc., and they are also used to generate DEM, DSM, Contours, 3d point cloud, and Orthomosaic maps. Now we see the different kinds of processes used in UAV LiDar to collect LiDar points from advantages and drawbacks further.

Ground Control Points (GCPs)

Ground Control Points(GCPs) are the known points marked and measured on the earth’s surface. It is the traditional and primary method of the field survey to obtain absolute accuracy. The number of GCPs depends on the size of the area of interest. A larger area requires more GCPs than the smaller one, which requires a minimum of five only to get absolute accuracy.

This method is more complicated and consumes plenty amount of time for layout and preparation work. These factors vary depending on the size and surface of the area of interest.

Using these spatially known points, and by adjusting them in the post-processing, we can achieve survey data accuracy to less than 3 meters. The technological advancement in the LiDar field also produces an alternative and convenient modern systematic method for these GCPs. They are called GPS correction technology.

#technologies #drone #geographic information system