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Bandwagon's Drones Thread
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Vepil
Gamja
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Bandwagon
Hey man have you done and experimenting with highly reflective materials for ground control points?
For this LiDAR drone, I am thinking we need to make better targets than what we were using for the photographic imagery drone process as these don't show as well in a LiDAR data set. Below is an example and as you can see it is very hard to see the black/white cross point in the LiDAR on a regular GCP that is for photogrammetry.
So far it is very impressive for $41k. We have been hitting our GCP and hard surfaces within the accuracy of the unit of around 0.33'.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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I have not. We use the black and white checlboard vinyl or plastic targets when we lay them out for geoterras lidar flights.
Hey man have you done and experimenting with highly reflective materials for ground control points?
For this LiDAR drone, I am thinking we need to make better targets than what we were using for the photographic imagery drone process as these don't show as well in a LiDAR data set. Below is an example and as you can see it is very hard to see the black/white cross point in the LiDAR on a regular GCP that is for photogrammetry.
So far it is very impressive for $41k. We have been hitting our GCP and hard surfaces within the accuracy of the unit of around 0.33'.
View attachment 379316
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Sorry
Vepil
- I was just getting in the car when I typed up that response and meant to come back to it when I got back in the office.
We set targets for geoterra for their huge transmission line surveys and have always used the vinyl black/white triangle targets with a rebar in the center. I know that GeoCue has a few papers that describe ideal target material and placement. I haven't worked through it myself yet, but I remember reading stuff from GeoCue and USGS a few years ago and that's where I was planning to go read up after we get a LiDAR drone. I could phone-a-friend if needed, though. My go-to guy is a Photogrammetrist that ran a LiDAR/UAS mapping division for a large firm for quite a while, so I'm sure he could give me a 45 minute speech about it if needed.
Vepil
- I was just getting in the car when I typed up that response and meant to come back to it when I got back in the office. We set targets for geoterra for their huge transmission line surveys and have always used the vinyl black/white triangle targets with a rebar in the center. I know that GeoCue has a few papers that describe ideal target material and placement. I haven't worked through it myself yet, but I remember reading stuff from GeoCue and USGS a few years ago and that's where I was planning to go read up after we get a LiDAR drone. I could phone-a-friend if needed, though. My go-to guy is a Photogrammetrist that ran a LiDAR/UAS mapping division for a large firm for quite a while, so I'm sure he could give me a 45 minute speech about it if needed.
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Vepil
Gamja
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No problem man I know how it is. I read an interesting paper about pyramid targets and we are discussing making our own similar.Sorry
We set targets for geoterra for their huge transmission line surveys and have always used the vinyl black/white triangle targets with a rebar in the center. I know that GeoCue has a few papers that describe ideal target material and placement. I haven't worked through it myself yet, but I remember reading stuff from GeoCue and USGS a few years ago and that's where I was planning to go read up after we get a LiDAR drone. I could phone-a-friend if needed, though. My go-to guy is a Photogrammetrist that ran a LiDAR/UAS mapping division for a large firm for quite a while, so I'm sure he could give me a 45 minute speech about it if needed.
Geometric Targets for UAS Lidar
Lidar from small unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) is a viable method for collecting geospatial data associated with a wide variety of applications. Point clouds from UAS lidar require a means for accuracy assessment, calibration, and adjustment. In order to carry out these procedures, specific...
www.mdpi.com
Since we purchased this LiDAR drone unit work has exploded with everyone wanting a piece of it. We ended up with 8 solar farm mapping jobs, waterline project, 1700 AC farm mapping, two substation mapping and looking at a few transmission line to map since we now have the ability in house vs going out for it. The only hold up now is how fast we can get to all the work.
This device is amazing what you can get with it for the price. We had a 17 AC wooded site we flew cross hatched so perpendicular to the first mission and ended up with just over 160 million points. You say wow that is great but probably all on the canopy right? Well we also had 3.7 million 3rd returns on the LiDAR which was the ground. The longest distance I had on mapping without points on the ground was 42'. Nothing to worry about as the guys when in an obscured area are spreading shots out 60' or more sometimes.
If you ever have a need to merge datasets check out LAS tools and if you want to move the point cloud closer to your GCPs I have had great luck with Cloud Compare.
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Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Hey Vepil, what did this setup cost? I'm planning to buy an M300 L1/P1 this year, but it sounds like it's only going to improve our UAS mapping on sites with vegetation. The accuracy on hard surfaces is actually worse than photogrammetry (even with the 20mp Phantom 4 Pro camera).
Thought I would let ya know we purchased a LiDAR unit for our drone, should be in next week. Couple engineering/survey companies around GA have the same one so we felt comfortable in buying it and having some other support local than one no one was using. We went with Rock Robotic R2A unit for our M210. We knew we could get management to sign off on a unit but not a new M300 and a LiDAR unit. This one we can at least change the mounting system if we ever upgrade the drone.
Once I have some sample data sets I will let ya know what I think. So far I know one guy with this setup and he loves the data he gets from it.
ROCK Robotic
www.rockrobotic.com
edit: Also, be careful about advertising that you're using LAS tools. The german guy that set all that up is a fucking nutjob and will crusade after people that aren't using the licenses appropriately. There was something about him threatening to include spyware in a software package that the DOD was using and I think he got banned from the US after that. I'm not too sure about the drama story, but I've talked to him before and he's pretty fucking crazy. Sounds like he just died in Sep, too.
edit: looks like he offed himself.
A tragic end to a beautiful love.
I met Charm in January 2013 on my first big project after starting LAStools. She was one of the staff members of the DREAM LiDAR team that I was training on my software. She would eventually became…
rapidlasso.com
A tragic end to a beautiful love.
Posted on September 11, 2021 by martin isenburg
I met Charm in January 2013 on my first big project after starting LAStools. She was one of the staff members of the DREAM LiDAR team that I was training on my software. She would eventually became a mentor herself and teach LAStools to other scientists across the Philippines. Over the years we became friends and when the LiDAR project completed in Cebu 2017, we started a romantic relationship. We had many amazing adventures exploring the many beautiful islands of the Philippines and other parts of Asia. In October 2019, Charm’s PhD move to Ireland brought our relationship to a new phase. During our Christmas road trip in Ireland our love and commitment levels were peaking. It was then that I decided to propose to her in late 2020. I was planning a surprise trip to Apo Reef hoping to ask her to marry me on top of the little white light house, where we it all began.
Suddenly the pandemic hit and trapped me far from Charm in Costa Rica. The virus stress triggered my long dormant bipolar condition into a manic episode. Alone and under lockdown in small village far from friends and family there was nothing that could stop my mania. It spun out of control and lasted about a year. Charm suffered for many months seeing my manic alter-ego doing crazy things and eventually decided to give up on our relationship. I cannot continue life, knowing that it was my very own brain that – completely out of the blue – destroyed our beautiful love story that had grown so strong over 8 years of mutual respect, trust and responsibility.
I am in a place now where my mania cannot hurt the people I love. I am sorry for all the pain I caused.
New Delhi, India 2017
On top of Apo Reef Light House, 2017
Charm’s birthday trip to Vietnam, 2017
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Vepil
Gamja
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We only use the free portion he provides. We made sure since we don't want to risk any issues with the company and licensing. I had read he is a retard, sad to hear he passed he seemed to be a very smart guy. So far in my work with "GIS" people I have met exactly one that was not retarded. They are by far the most out there people in government jobs. Sorry if my generalization offends anyone.
We spent $41200 I think was the total for the unit. We already had a m210 that is nearly 4 years old and will be looking to upgrade to a m300 next year hopefully. Once we correct our lidar cloud to our control its very good and we are extremely pleased with the results. I am still blown away that we spent less than 50k and full blown lidar.
We spent $41200 I think was the total for the unit. We already had a m210 that is nearly 4 years old and will be looking to upgrade to a m300 next year hopefully. Once we correct our lidar cloud to our control its very good and we are extremely pleased with the results. I am still blown away that we spent less than 50k and full blown lidar.
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Bird-Like Robotic Claw Lets Drones Perch & Snare Prey - The Debrief
Researchers have developed a bird-like robotic claw that allows drones to land on branches and snare prey in mid-air like real birds
thedebrief.org
taking over the company i have inherited the phones, and we are redistributing them, me getting the boss's phone, and my old phone going to a coworker, we need a new phone thouhg, and am getting either the iphone 12pro or 13pro, which apparently has a decent lidar scanner built in and i am going to TRY to use it on a few smaller sites(~5000 sf lots, just to see how accurate it is since it would take about 10 minutes to walk a site that size), i saw a guy do this on youtube and his results were decent for a small 500 sf ish area he did, all the total station shots he took vs the lidar scan were 0.2' or less different (about 3") H and V.
The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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So getting back into building autonomous systems. Before it was quads. At the moment working on a rover. Setup utilizes zed 2 stereo cam + jetson nano (until I can source an Xavier nx) for CV/obstacle avoidance and then pixhawk cube orange for autopilot. Decided to go with px4, ardupilot is for hobbyist.
Amazing to see how far drone tech has come since I was building them 10 years ago… Tempted to spin up a quad utilizing a pixhawk w/ px4 and jetson nano companion computer. Wouldn’t use zed on this as it’s rolling shutter and not global shutter - not the best for fast speeds. Probably looking at using a structure core instead. Intel realsense is attractive but with recent announcement that intel is discontinuing a large portion of it I’m skeptical to adopt. Will being running ROS 2 on companion computer.
Tuco
you do autonomous systems for profession no? How about for hobby? You using any of nvidia’s jetson products? What’s your opinion on LiDAR vs radar vs stereocams and combinations of them?
Amazing how cheapish LiDAR has gotten. 12 years ago I was doing research with a hokuyo LiDAR that I think was their cheapest at 25k.. Now you can get a livox mid40 for like $500, velodynes puck I think is only $2.5k.
Amazing to see how far drone tech has come since I was building them 10 years ago… Tempted to spin up a quad utilizing a pixhawk w/ px4 and jetson nano companion computer. Wouldn’t use zed on this as it’s rolling shutter and not global shutter - not the best for fast speeds. Probably looking at using a structure core instead. Intel realsense is attractive but with recent announcement that intel is discontinuing a large portion of it I’m skeptical to adopt. Will being running ROS 2 on companion computer.
Tuco
you do autonomous systems for profession no? How about for hobby? You using any of nvidia’s jetson products? What’s your opinion on LiDAR vs radar vs stereocams and combinations of them?Amazing how cheapish LiDAR has gotten. 12 years ago I was doing research with a hokuyo LiDAR that I think was their cheapest at 25k.. Now you can get a livox mid40 for like $500, velodynes puck I think is only $2.5k.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Professional. Yes I've used NVIDIA Jetson. I have lots of opinions on lidar vs stereo vs mono cam vs stereo cam.
I do mobile ground robotics / vehicles though, not drones/uavs. I've wanted to get a project with a drone but never did. Might get into it as a hobbyist in the future if one of my kids wants to get into it.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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So i used to do uav quads. This will be my first ground vehicle using a jetson companion computer with px4 autopilot flight stack.
The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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Sorry bandwagon. I don’t mean to make you feel excluded since you only play with COTS drones. You’re more than welcome to learn to code and join in though!
Vepil
Gamja
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Just saw this. I have a 13 Max and its pretty cool device. Mapped my back yard with it and so far very accurate just not practical. I could see doing interior measurements with it for an Architect. Below a guy runs the iphone vs a total station.
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