Creating of DSM based on RPAS measurement and accuracy testing

Abstract

At the Czech Technical University in Prague, a project for using RPAS in photogrammetry, archaeology and the monitoring of the biosphere was launched in 2011. The project’s aim was to develop, test and verify simple and low-cost technology for the monitoring and modelling of small areas such as archaeological digs, historical objects, dumps, mines or and small orthophoto projects. The creation of a digital surface model from photos and its accuracy is one of main tasks in all projects. The idea of this contribution is not only to introduce today’s popular unmanned aerial systems (UAS, UAV or RPAS), but to provide a critical analysis of the newly-created high resolution digital surface model (DSM). The introduction is focused on general information and legislation of RPAS in the Czech Republic and other countries. The quality of DSM’s is discussed based on the data processing of three case projects in Agisoft Photoscan. The use of control points in the bundle adjustment seems to be a problem in this software. In many cases, the DSM is distorted and we tried to find a better method.