Planning mapping missions with drones

Planning mapping missions with drones

In this article I will explain how to plan a drone mission for mapping purposes. We will use a software developed by SRM Consulting (where I am working as R&D Manager)in collaboration with EUITA (where I am lecturer in simulation of aerospace vehicles).

Define a mission involves four steps

1. Locate the area
2. Define the mission type (linear or superficial) and the drone to use (multirrotor or fixed wing)
3. Define the take-off, landing and the area to map
4. Configuration of some basic mission parameters: altitude, flight speed, sensor type, overlap and sidelap

The application (http://91.212.182.179/) is online and free. You can use it previous registration. In the registration process the application will send a confirmation mail. If your are using gmail check your spam folder.

Locating the area to map.

The first step is to locate where do you want to make the mission. To do that we are going to create a new project and search the area where we want to work (in this case, Madrid)

Creating and locating a project

Define mission type

Once we have defined the project let us create a new mission. The wizard will ask for the drone type (multirotor or fix wing) and the mission type. If we want to cover an area let us choose superficial mission but, if we want to cover a linear infraestructure it is better to choose linear mission.

Creating a superficial mission

Define take off, landing and area to map

The next step is to define the take off landing and the area we want to cover. Once we have defined these three parameter we want to click on the “Click here to draw mission” to display the result.

Setting up takeoff, landing and area

If we zoom-in we will apreciate five waypoint types:

1. Landing: an icon with a hand holding a drone
2. Take Off: an icon with a drone and a dartboard
3. Start taking pictures: a blue camera icon. This is the place where the drone will start to take pictures in order to cover the full line untill the end of the area.
4. Stop taking pictures: an orange camera icon. When the drone get out from the area stop taking pictures until it entry again in a new line.
5. Overshoot: a yellow flag icon. A fix wing needs some meters (in this case 150) to re-enter the area mission. During this operation the drone will no take pictures.

Modify some basic mission parameters

The application has some default parameters such as flight altitude, fix wing overshoot, sensor type, picture overlap and sidelap. We can modify all these parameters by clicking on “Mapping Mission Wizard”.

In the example we will modify the flight altitude (from 120m to 200m) and the picture sidelap (from 60% to 40%). After that we will click again on “Click here to draw mission” to display the new mission. We can see that the number of lines to cover the full area will decrease.

Modify basic mission parameters

The same example with a linear mission

We can make a linear mission in order to map, for example a road. In this case we have to define an axis (instead off an area) and a mapping buffer from the axis. See the example:

Linear mission example

Let us modify the buffer (from 200 m to 300 m):

Buffer modification

Final considerations

You can play with all the parameters and watch some flight statistics by clicking on “Mission data” switch. Also you can export your mission to a kml file in order to display the mission on Google Earth or to share it with your colleges.