UAV-based point cloud generation for open-pit mine modelling

Abstract

Along with the advancement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), improvement of high-resolution cameras and development of vision-based mapping techniques, unmanned aerial imagery has become a matter of remarkable interest among researchers and industries. These images have the potential to provide data with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution for three-dimensional (3D) modelling. In this paper, we present our theoretical and technical experiments regarding the development, implementation and evaluation of a UAV-based photogrammetric system for precise 3D modelling. This system was preliminarily evaluated for the application of gravel-pit surveying. The hardware of the system includes an electric powered helicopter, a 16-megapixels visible camera and inertial navigation system. The software of the system consists of the in-house programs built for sensor calibration, platform calibration, system integration and flight planning. It also includes the algorithms developed for structure from motion (SfM) computation including sparse matching, motion estimation, bundle adjustment and dense matching.