Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are popular amongst professionals and non-professionals alike. Typically most professional surveyors and mappers may consider a UAS to be more of a toy or novelty. For this novelty to develop into a professional tool, users of UAS and, consequently computer vision (CV) image processing require specific knowledge and robust quality checks. Professional knowledge is used to produce data that can then be measured for quality using map accuracy standards. Low confidence areas where imaging and CV may fail can be identified using these quality checks. This presentation starts with a short introduction on how UAS and CV came to be so popular, discusses what is required to make UAS and CV a professional tool and ends by making the case that UAS image collection and processing guidelines are necessary to ensure quality data.
Objectives:
- Learn a brief introduction to UAS
- Identify what is required to turn a novel UAS into a professional tool
- Discuss what professional decisions are necessary to ensure professional quality of UAS and CV data.
- Identify what knowledge must be understood regarding UAS performance, imaging sensors, and CV processing.
- Learn how to produce and quantify the quality of UAS/CV data using map accuracy standards.
- Learn where UAS and CV may produce data with areas of low confidence in quality.
- Identify the need for guidelines to ensure the professional use of UAS and CV for surveying and mapping.
