To obtain precise cartometric measurements of forests is always a challenge and high-resolution data from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is currently the quickest method. Generation of a fine quality orthomosaic of the acquired image series is a pre-requisite for full exploitation of such data. This study examines six of the most frequently used photogrammetric software for popular and inexpensive UAV systems. It is assumed that ground control points (GCPs) are not required. The average Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for raw orthophoto was 1.24 m and around 0.2 m precision for both X and Y axes. Additionally, the accuracy of UAV internal GNSS receiver was checked on reference points which slightly exceeds 2 m RMSE. The range of accuracy and precision of orthomosaic are provided as a valuable reference for the use of low-cost UAV in forest inventory.
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Citation
Brach M, Chan JC-W, Szymanski P (2019). Accuracy assessment of different photogrammetric software for processing data from low-cost UAV platforms in forest conditions. iForest 12: 435-441. - doi: 10.3832/ifor2986-012
Academic Editor
Luca Salvati
Paper history
Received: Oct 31, 2018
Accepted: Jun 22, 2019
First online: Sep 01, 2019
Publication Date: Oct 31, 2019
Publication Time: 2.37 months
© SISEF - The Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology 2019
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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