UAS Point Cloud Accuracy Assessment Using Structure from Motion–Based Photogrammetry and PPK Georeferencing Technique for Building Surveying Applications

Martinez, Jhonattan G.; Albeaino, Gilles; Gheisari, Masoud; Volkmann, Walter; Alarcón, Luís F.

doi:10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000936

Cited by 28 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The authors indicated that the error would have been lower should a more advanced UAS with higher quality camera be used. More recently, Martinez et al (2021a) conducted comparative analyses between a commercially available UAS and another dual-frequency GPS platform with post-processing kinematic (PPK) georeferencing capabilities for site surveying types of applications. After evaluating the effects of different technical configurations (i.e., dual-frequency GPSs, PPK GPS correction) and flight parameters (i.e., image combinations, camera angle) on the accuracy and visual quality of the derived point clouds, the authors advocated the usage of UAS technology for site surveying and proposed a matrix summarizing the levels of point cloud accuracies with respect to the processing time and adopted technical configurations.…”

Section: Pre-construction Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, UASs' recent developments in terms of regulation updates, low acquisition costs, enhanced navigation features, autonomous flight capabilities, increased battery life, and variety types of onboard sensors, have played a significant role in their popularity and wide deployment in the construction industry (Hassanalian and Abdelkefi 2017;Zhou and Gheisari 2018). UASs can be adopted through different phases of a construction project from site surveying and mapping (Martinez et al 2021a;Neitzel and Klonowski 2012) and progress monitoring (Álvares and Costa 2019;Unger et al 2014) to building inspection (Eiris et al 2020;González-deSantos et al 2020;Hallermann et al 2015a;Hallermann et al 2015b), and structures maintenance (Mutis and Romero 2019). A significant amount of research has been done about how UAS technology can be used for specific construction-related tasks; however, understanding how the construction industry is incorporating such technology in their day-to-day practices is yet to be investigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trends, benefits, and barriers of unmanned aerial systems in the construction industry: a survey study in the United States

Albeaino¹,

Gheisari²

2021

ITcon

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Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) have rapidly been integrated into the construction industry over the past few years, and their application is continually growing in this domain. The recent development in UAS regulations and technical capabilities have played a significant role in their popularity and wide deployment in various stages of the construction lifecycle. UASs could be used as a platform to enhance the construction practices in general; however, little is known about how construction professionals are adopting this technology in specific construction practices and the barriers they are facing for their successful implementation. The purpose of this study is to explore the current state-of-practice of UAS integration in construction from the industry professionals’ viewpoint. A comprehensive survey study was conducted in the United States to identify the practical construction UAS application areas, their adopted technologies, as well as the benefits and barriers encountered during their implementation. Responses (n=56) showed that most common UAS applications include progress monitoring, site planning, and site surveying/mapping. Rotary-wing vehicles and visual and thermal cameras were the most used platforms and onboard sensors, respectively. Saving time, improving accessibility to compromised spaces, and reducing cost while accomplishing construction tasks were highly regarded as UAS implementation benefits in construction. Participants also considered flying in various weather conditions, within confined or congested areas, as well as the advanced technical know-how requirements, and the increased liability and legal challenges as barriers to using UASs in construction-related tasks. By understanding UAS adoption in construction, this study provides a roadmap to better identify the industry needs and guide researchers and professionals in investigating application areas and barriers that might have maximum benefits for the construction industry in the United States.

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Section: Pre-construction Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends, benefits, and barriers of unmanned aerial systems in the construction industry: a survey study in the United States

Albeaino¹,

Gheisari²

2021

ITcon

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“…Methods to evaluate traditional survey accuracy relied on instrument and method calibration, which is not applicable to the practice of using un-calibrated cameras on unstable unmanned aerial System (UAS) platforms [38]. The most defensible method to compute the accuracy of a point cloud is to use a dense network of ground truth that is not used in model creation [38,39]. There has been some work on establishing the accuracy of LiDAR-generated point clouds, though Toth, Jozkow, and Grejner-Brzezinska [38] note that with the exception of the Vertical Accuracy Reporting for LiDAR Data (VARLD) guidelines, that there are no generally accepted methods for point cloud accuracy-which, for the surveying methods reported here, is the final product.…”

Section: Computing Accuracy Differences Between Point Cloud Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extending Multi-Beam Sonar with Structure from Motion Data of Shorelines for Complete Pool Bathymetry of Reservoirs

2020

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Bathymetric mapping is an important tool for reservoir management, typically completed before reservoir construction. Historically, bathymetric maps were produced by interpolating between points measured at a relatively large spacing throughout a reservoir, typically on the order of a few, up to 10, meters or more depending on the size of the reservoir. These measurements were made using traditional survey methods before the reservoir was filled, or using sonar surveys after filling. Post-construction issues such as sedimentation and erosion can change a reservoir, but generating updated bathymetric maps is difficult as the areas of interest are typically in the sediment deltas and other difficult-to-access areas that are often above water or exposed for part of the year. We present a method to create complete reservoir bathymetric maps, including areas above the water line, using small unmanned aerial vehicle (sUAV) photogrammetry combined with multi-beam sonar data—both established methods for producing topographic models. This is a unique problem because the shoreline topographic models generated by the photogrammetry are long and thin, not an optimal geometry for model creation, and most images contain water, which causes issues with image-matching algorithms. This paper presents methods to create accurate above-water shoreline models using images from sUAVs, processed using a commercial software package and a method to accurately knit sonar and Structure from Motion (SfM) data sets by matching slopes. The models generated by both approaches are point clouds, which consist of points representing the ground surface in three-dimensional space. Generating models from sUAV-captured images requires ground control points (GCPs), i.e., points with a known location, to anchor model creation. For this study, we explored issues with ground control spacing, masking water regions (or omitting water regions) in the images, using no GCPs, and incorrectly tagging a GCP. To quantify the effect these issues had on model accuracy, we computed the difference between generated clouds and a reference point cloud to determine the point cloud error. We found that the time required to place GCPs was significantly more than the time required to capture images, so optimizing GCP density is important. To generate long, thin shoreline models, we found that GCPs with a ~1.5-km (~1-mile) spacing along a shoreline are sufficient to generate useful data. This spacing resulted in an average error of 5.5 cm compared to a reference cloud that was generated using ~0.5-km (~1/4-mile) GCP spacing. We found that we needed to mask water and areas related to distant regions and sky in images used for model creation. This is because water, objects in the far oblique distance, and sky confuse the algorithms that match points among images. If we did not mask the images, the resulting models had errors of more than 20 m. Our sonar point clouds, while self-consistent, were not accurately georeferenced, which is typical for most reservoir surveys. We demonstrate a method using cross-sections of the transition between the above-water clouds and sonar clouds to geo-locate the sonar data and accurately knit the two data sets. Shore line topography models (long and thin) and integration of sonar and drone data is a niche area that leverages current advances in data collection and processing. Our work will help researchers and practitioners use these advances to generate accurate post-construction reservoir bathometry maps to assist with reservoir management.

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“…Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly named drones, are gaining more and more importance in the world panorama of photogrammetric surveys (Barazzetti et al 2014;Malinverni et al 2016;Martinez et al 2021;Nex 2011;Waagen 2019). Some typical applications are for architectural or archaeological purposes, regional planning, or risk analysis and mapping (Bitelli et al 2017;Boccardo et al 2015;Gomez & Purdie 2016;Samad et al 2013;Spangher et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performing low-altitude photogrammetric surveys, a comparative analysis of user-grade unmanned aircraft systems

Mugnai

Longinotti²,

Vezzosi³

et al. 2022

Appl Geomat

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This paper shows results of comparing performances of four unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in terms of photogrammetric survey’s quality. This study aims to investigate what is the more suitable UAS for specific applications considering the required scale factor, such as for architectural, environmental, and restoration purposes. A series of photogrammetric surveys were conducted in a hilly area of about 5 ha using Phantom 4 Adv, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic Air 2, and Mavic Mini 2. These unmanned aircrafts are commercial user–grade systems used mainly by private professionals. Several photogrammetric reconstructions were performed by varying essential parameters, such as flight altitude and cameras of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), applying structure-from-motion (SfM) algorithms to the images taken from the UAS. The surveys’ quality was analyzed by comparing the ground targets’ coordinates extrapolated from the point clouds to those measured on the field with indirect georeferencing through GNSS technology. Fifty targets were installed and arranged following a reasonably regular mesh. The boundary conditions were maintained the same for each flight mission, flight trajectories, and the ground control point distribution on the ground. For each survey made by each of the four UAS, altimetric and planimetric residuals were reported and compared. Average residuals from Phantom 4 Adv, about 15 mm, almost disappear compared to the other UASs; the discrepancy is one order of magnitude. With a regular grid geometry of ground targets, the Mavic Mini 2 led to an error average of about 5 cm. Remembering that the Mavic Mini 2 is an ultralight drone (does not require a pilot's license), it could significantly reduce cost compared to the other systems.

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UAS Point Cloud Accuracy Assessment Using Structure from Motion–Based Photogrammetry and PPK Georeferencing Technique for Building Surveying Applications

Cited by 28 publications

References 49 publications

Trends, benefits, and barriers of unmanned aerial systems in the construction industry: a survey study in the United States

Trends, benefits, and barriers of unmanned aerial systems in the construction industry: a survey study in the United States

Extending Multi-Beam Sonar with Structure from Motion Data of Shorelines for Complete Pool Bathymetry of Reservoirs

Performing low-altitude photogrammetric surveys, a comparative analysis of user-grade unmanned aircraft systems

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