TOOL Drone Mapping Software - OpenDroneMap

[luchian]

It's been a while since I quickly saved this to post it later. Today is later.

I did not test it yet, but looks like a good (and free if you wish) tool.
Hopefully I'll get to play with a drone over a track at some point and put this to test.

Homepage for the ecosystem: https://opendronemap.org/

WebODM Tool: https://opendronemap.org/webodm/
A user-friendly, extendable application and API for drone image processing. It provides a web interface to ODM with visualization, storage and data analysis functionality.
For the free version, you will opt for the manual install.

Documentation: https://docs.opendronemap.org/tutorials/
Github: https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/WebODM/

Drone Mapping Software
Generate maps, point clouds, DEMs and 3D models from aerial images. Runs on your computer, even offline.

Features

Orthomosaics
Georeferenced, orthorectified maps.

Point Clouds
Georeferenced, filtered and classified dense point clouds.

Elevation Models
Georeferenced digital elevation models (DSMs and DTMs).

3D Models
Textured 3D models in .OBJ and OGC 3D Tiles format.

Measurements
Make volume and area measurements with ease, track stockpiles.

Plant Health (N.B. ok, maybe we don't need this in AC. But who knows, in AC Evo you might be able to sell your crops for fuel )
Easily compute NDVI, VARI, GNDVI and many other indexes.

Ground Control Points
Create and use GCPs for additional accuracy.

Contours
Preview and export elevation contours to AutoCAD, ShapeFile, GeoPackage.

Any Camera
From consumer phones to professional cameras (standard, fisheye, 360°), single or multi-camera.

Any Format
JPGs and TIFFs (8bit and 16bit), with or without EXIFs.

Any Orientation
Process aerial and ground images, captured nadir or oblique.

Multispectral
Process multispectral images.

Rolling Shutter
Correction support.

Scale
Run multiple jobs in parallel and single jobs distributed on multiple machines.

Export
High resolution GeoTIFF, PNG, LAS/LAZ, OBJ and OGC 3D Tiles formats.

Multi Language
Available in 16+ languages.

GPU Acceleration
Process datasets faster with CUDA.

Affordable
Free or paid, your choice.

 

[luchian]

Bonus - some fying tips from this page: https://docs.opendronemap.org/flying/

Flying Tips
Data collection effort, full 3D
For best in class results with full 3D reconstruction, we recommend the following:

• 60% overlap nadir flight
• 70-80% overlap 45-degree gimbal angle cross-grid

The 45-degree cross-grid flight provides the basis for a fully tied together model, while the nadir flights provide the necessary texture for orthophoto texturing. The lower overlap meets the minimum requirement for orthophoto products as facilitated by by feature matching from the much higher overlap cross-grid.

Data collection effort, 2D and 2.5D products
For best in class results 2D and 2.5D products, we recommend the following:

• 70-80% overlap slightly off-nadir (5-10 degree off nadir)

For more complex buildings and vegetation, aim for closer to 80-83% overlap. If buildings, vegetation, and terrain changes are not complex, it’s quite feasible to use closer to 70% overlap.

(credit: derived from ongoing conversations with Ivan Gayton, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team)

Other resources on flying
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team has guidelines on flying for UAV mapping:

• Choosing the right UAV
• Choosing the right sensor
• Mission preparation

The guidelines are intended for drone mapping projects on islands, but have general use for all drone mappers.

See also DroneDeploy’s guide on Making Successful Maps, which provides great tips on mission planning.

Finally, lens distortion is a challenge in projects requiring accurate 3D data. See our section in these docs on Camera Calibration.