Structure from motion (Sfm)-a brief historical review, applications in geosciences and future perspectives

Abstract

This review article addresses the trajectory of one of the most applied algorithms in photogrammetry with UAV, which from a computervision standpoint has stood out as a low-cost solution to obtain information about the earth’s surface. Although its conception was formulated in the mid-1950s and with purposes far from geosciences, it was from the advances of the computer and robotics industry in the early 1980s that Structure from Motion (SfM) absorbed significant improvements to enshrine it as an important three-dimensional modeling resource. However, only in the last decade (2010), there was an exponential growth in the applications and analysis of SfM in geosciences, mainly from the popularization of UAVs. With that, its main applications and limitations emerged – in this study, the characteristics will also be addressed, especially those that differ from established techniques such as LiDAR and future perspectives of this technology.