Alternate Operating Software

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Looking to program a "precision run" to test some photogrammetric geo-mapping software.
I think I'll need around 80-100 still pictures of our open pit mine.

Think of a giant bowl about 2 km across... I want to start at roughly the lip of the bowl and photograph the inside of it. Pit is roughly 200m deep at this point and I'd like to program the bird to fly at roughly two altitudes - say, level with the edge of the pit, and 50-75m below the edge.

Each photo would capture around 10-15° of the pit... 360° obviously making the whole. Can't really "free fly" it due to the accuracy I'd like to introduce for testing two mapping software packages - Pix4D and Agisoft if you're familiar.

I hear of several alternatives to the operationg software supplied with the P3P... suggestions?

TIA, Brian
 
You have a couple options maps made easy, pix4d capture, drone deploy. All will control the drone for the map mission then you can import the images into either pix or photoscan I use both and each has its advantages.

One thing to remember that the gps in the phantom is consumer grade and is only accurate to between 5-10 feet on a good day. So remember that with your data. There are ways to get it more accurate but that's not the subject!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
I use MapPilot for this type of work.
 
Thank you for the fast responses! That Drones Made Easy Map Pilot software looks quite good... though as I suspected, I am going to have to convert my map coordinate system (a bastardized UTM14) to NAD83. Sad face.

So a bit more info... behind the truck in the picture (a 793D), you'll see some benching ("catch" or safety benches). In this case, every 15 meters... though most often, we double bench so every 30m. Those benches are designed to fail... IOW, over a period of time - say 100 to 500 years - the pit would return more or less to a natural bowl shape. Due to the incompetent rock often surrounding ore bodies, sometimes the benches fail prematurely from 1 or 2 years to a few weeks after they were "created". This obviously causes a problem for those still working at the bottom of the pit as the catch benches are there to "catch" falling rock and debris.

The goal is to photograph and create a working surface that we can monitor these benches.

And apologies for the goofy perspective of this photo... it was shot with a very wide angle lens (16mm). While the shovel *is* pretty big, (about a 46 yd. bucket) it does take 4 swings to fill that 240 ton truck.

Clowther... accuracy of the GPS isn't a major issue here. The accuracy of the photos would be... as in, using the software mentioned to created a reasonable - low distortion - surface that can be integrated into our regular mapping systems. We use DGPS (differential GPS) on site that gives us an order of magnitude better accuracy (10 cm vertical resolution) than available anywhere else (normal GPS). Once we have a surface, it'll be "synced" to our survey data.

I am more concerned running the **** thing into a highwall, lol. Not so much because of the cost of replacing the bird, but the embarrassment and failure of the "experiment". In short, if this works... we'll look at much bigger birds (Trimble ZX5) with longer flight times, etc.


MSX-884_2000.jpg
 
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That's a wicked cool picture.

On the other stuff you mentioned I'm going to have to refer that to someone else or spend the next 2 hours googling it all LOL!

All I can say if I use MapPilot a lot in fact I have 3 jobs this weekend where I'll use it but only to create simple 3D images for marketing needs here locally.

Please keep us posted on how this project pans out.
 
Thx BigAl. (and I'll try to keep mining jargon down to a dull roar.)

You have a couple options maps made easy, pix4d capture, drone deploy. All will control the drone for the map mission then you can import the images into either pix or photoscan I use both and each has its advantages.

Clowther, given a bit more detail in my 2nd post, what would you recommend? The Maps Made Easy doesn't seem to have the required detail and they seem to be more interested in doing the processing and hosting the imagery. That's not really an option for me... though the NDVI sensing is very interesting and I think our environmental dept would be all over that.
 
Excellent! Seems you got the right idea. I only mention the accuracy because I see far too many trying to sell bad data. I too survey open pit coal mines but we use a fixed wing bird that has RTK and centimeter level Accuracy.

Don't have experience with the Trimble but the last pit I flew with the fixed wing had some extreme high walls and the survey came out right on.

Like the picture!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Clowther, given a bit more detail in my 2nd post, what would you recommend? The Maps Made Easy doesn't seem to have the required detail and they seem to be more interested in doing the processing and hosting the imagery. That's not really an option for me... though the NDVI sensing is very interesting and I think our environmental dept would be all over that.
I tried out DroneDeploy and was impressed with their front end for capture.
You can save the mission for reshooting in the future and process with them or in Photosoft.
You can shoot big areas with multiple batteries too.
Here's a screenshot part way through a 30 acre survey.
Screenshot_2015-10-20-12-23-56%5B1%5D-L.png

ps That shovel looks impressive.
Is it the machine or the 16mm lens? How many tons to the bucket?
If the mine is running 793s it's probably substantial.
 
1Shovel-834-sm.jpg
Clowther, I'm actually in long range, but probably have as good or better understanding of photogrammetrics/georeferencing than most here. And yes, I've done my time in survey... but opted for the cushy office job. ;-) Like yours, our Trimble survey gear has all the RTK built in so with the DGPS clocks it is very accurate... they say to 2-3cm but if it's 10cm that's good enough.

I would ultimately like to have several birds on site. The ZX5 for highwall/pit analysis and 2 or 3 P4s for the environmental/safety depts.

Meta, that photo was of a P&H2800, so the previous truck and shovel pic was our smaller stuff... we have 797Fs, 930Es and P&H4100s mostly. Weight is dependent on the specific gravity of the rock/ore, but 60-75 tons no problem. The 4100s are well over 100 ton per swing. So to answer your Q, it's mostly the lens... a very wide angle on a full frame camera. Pretty much the widest angle you can use without severe distortion of your parallels, and even so, I have to correct a bit in post. Notice the way the close tooth on the bucket looks sooo much bigger than the last tooth? Those teeth are deceptively large and at 6'0" 240lbs, I *might* be able to pick one up. Briefly. The point being that the perspective of the wide angle lens makes anything of size fall away quickly.

I've had two significant careers, photography and mining... and I try to combine the two whenever I can lol. Pic attached (shot with a 600mm) is a 4100 and while it's a bit difficult again to get perspective, the tracks on the shovel are 13 or 14 ft. high. You could *easily* put a full size pickup in that 58 yd. bucket with room to walk around it. And that's a small bucket... we mostly use 72 yd. buckets.
 
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