Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Instrumentation for Rapid Aerial Photo System

TL;DR

This paper proposes a low-cost autonomous UAV system designed for rapid, within-24-hours crop aerial mosaics, emphasizing speed and affordability over high-precision orthorectification.

Contribution

It introduces a novel UAV payload management and post-processing software tailored for quick agricultural aerial mosaics within strict time constraints.

Findings

Achieved mosaic production within 24 hours of image acquisition

Developed a cost-effective UAV platform for agricultural mapping

Demonstrated rapid post-processing capabilities

Abstract

This research will proposed a new kind of relatively low cost autonomous UAV that will enable farmers to make just in time mosaics of aerial photo of their crop. These mosaics of aerial photo should be able to be produced with relatively low cost and within the 24 hours of acquisition constraint. The autonomous UAV will be equipped with payload management system specifically developed for rapid aerial mapping. As mentioned before turn around time is the key factor, so accuracy is not the main focus (not orthorectified aerial mapping). This system will also be equipped with special software to post process the aerial photos to produce the mosaic aerial photo map