Signal 3: Drones Construct VR Cities
We have never had an accurate overall observation of urban space before the application of drones to urban surveying and drawing. For a long time, urban modeling relies on manual completion, with small coverage, poor accuracy, low efficiency, and high cost, which cause the limited perspective of the urban space. But with drones, we can quickly get accurate 3D urban models. Aerial mapping saves at least an order of magnitude of cost over ground mapping. At the same time, the drones aerial survey technology can complete the work in 30 days that the Total Stations take 70 days to complete. In summary, drones are the key to urban surveying and mapping based on which we can build VR cities.
How do drones construct 3D city models? Inclined photogrammetry and LiDAR are the main methods to get depth information. With inclined photogrammetry, only five photos are needed to get the full depth information of the scanned area to build a 3D model. Meanwhile, Lidar’s has high accuracy in geometric ranging. By LiDAR data’s participating in inclined photogrammetry calculations, it is easy to obtain highly accurate data quickly.
We can build VR cities with the 3D models constructed by drones to simulate the real world. First of all, through the virtual simulation of the traffic system, the relationship between people, vehicles, and roads can be presented in a more advanced way, thus achieving an efficient and safe green urban transportation system and helping to solve problems such as congestion, accidents, and traffic pollution. Secondly, VR cities can establish a simulation platform for intelligent security and emergency in urban and even larger regional spaces. In addition, VR cities can realize visual simulation scenarios of urban energy systems that are difficult to achieve in reality. Finally, opening the VR cities system to the citizens can promote public participation in urban planning and urban management.
Inspiration and background: https://d32xrmdsd5z66d.cloudfront.net/DJI+Enterprise/Cultural+Surveying+-+Datumate.pdf
