Presentation given to the Washington Water Science Center USGS Tacoma on December 16, 2015. Here I describe the potential for UAV usage to improve maps for citizen science!
I will introduce methods of aerial imagery collection through the use of a low-cost and popular UAV systems. I will then focus on how to process the imagery to generate orthophotos and digital surface models (DSM) through the use of SfM software. I present decision considerations from beginning to end of a UAV mapping project.
http://faculty.washington.edu/bricker0/uav.html
http://wa.water.usgs.gov/seminar/seminar.html
6. Early aerial
photo of a
Boston
shoreline
1860
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"Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It"
by James Wallace Black
9. Photogrammetry is the use of photography in
surveying and mapping to measure distances
between objects.
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The science applied, technique and
art of collecting reliable information
from stereoscopic models to
determine the shape, position and
size of objects in space.
The word Photogrammetry, is derived
from three words of Greek origin:
"Photon" - light;
"Graphos" – written or description;
"Metron" – to measure.
10. Remote Sensing Applications
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Environmental monitoring
Natural Resource Management
Epidemiology
Geology – Hazard monitoring and mitigation
Land use – Agriculture, soil moisture
Search and Rescue
Animal tracking
(Colomina & Molina, 2014; Everaerts, 2008;
Forance et al., 2014; Upton et al, 2015)
11. Traditional Geographic Information Systems
and Science
Technical Training
Difficult to use
Expensive
Precise & Accurate
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12. Geoweb and Digital Globes
• Geoweb:
Interconnected tools and data
available on the web that span
multiple geographic regions and are
geographically associated (Lake & Farley,
2007; Haklay et al., 2008)
• Revolutionized spatial data (Sui, 2008)
• but not democratized (Haklay, 2013; Sui et al,
2013)
• What is significant = access to
satellite imagery! (Goodchild, 2007; Harvey,
2014; Kingsbury & Jones, 2009)
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13. Geoweb + Citizen Science
Citizen Science
“scientific work
undertaken by members
of the general public,
often in collaboration with
or under the direction of
professional scientists
and scientific institutions.”
(Haklay, 2015)
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14. Challenges in Citizen Science
• Getting and keeping people evolved, excited and to keep
coming back…
• Enthusiasm…emotional intensity
• Hardware accessibility and extensibility
• Software and data standards
• Privacy/Anonymity
• Authentication + Trust
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Tell me, I forget.
Show me, I remember.
Involve me,
I understand.
-Chinese Proverb
(Paulos et al., 2009)
23. Potential benefits of using Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAV) for mapping and
Citizen Science?
Temporal Resolution
Spatial Resolution
Increased coverage
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Could complement or
augment existing data
collection methods
(Crampton et al., 2013)
Big Raster Data
UAV image
Google Earth
24. Research Aim:
Identify a feasible workflow to create maps from
aerial imagery captured from drones
for citizen science initiatives (= cheap + easy)
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Img- pix4D
26. Partnering with local
scientists
to monitor gradual
changes
1. noxious algal blooms
2. eel grass beds
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Monitor acute change
Landslide
Spring 2015
Des Moines WA
28. Pre-flight: What type of UAV do I need?
UAV classifications
• Flight characteristics
• Takeoff and landing methods
• Source of Power
• Weight (including payload)
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30. Which Drone to buy?
Drone Specs
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Eisenbeiss, 2008 http://www.igp-data.ethz.ch/berichte/blaue_berichte_pdf/105.pdf
31. DJI Phantom Vision 2 +
• Flight time ~25 min
• Return to “home”
when battery is low
• Compass and GPS
• No fly zone
• Camera and gimble
• 14 megapixel
camera
• http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-2-vision-
plus/spec
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33. Pre Flight:
Read the manual!
Plan your flight.
(Autopilot versus free flight)
Have a back up plan.
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(Nex & Remondino, 2013)
38. Cost of the drone
is not the
only cost
Key Considerations
1. Pre-Flight
2. Flight
3. Image Processing
4. Post-processing
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44. Software Options
Proprietary
• Pix4D
• Agisoft
• Other
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Open Source
• Visual Structure from
Motion System
(VisualSFM)
• Clustering Views for
Multi-view Stereo (CMVS)
• OpenDroneMap
45. Computer Vision
• field that includes methods for acquiring, processing,
analyzing, and understanding images and, in general,
high-dimensional data from the real world in an effort to
produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the
forms of decisions.
• Applications:
– Recognition
– Motion Analysis
– Scene reconstruction
– Image restoration
– Artificial intelligence
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46. Structure from Motion
“a range imaging technique; it refers to the process of
estimating three-dimensional structures from two-
dimensional image sequences which may be coupled with
local motion signals. It is studied in the fields of computer
vision and visual perception. In biological vision, SfM refers
to the phenomenon by which humans (and other living
creatures) can recover 3D structure from the projected 2D
(retinal) motion field of a moving object or scene.”
Wikipedia
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47. Structure from Motion basics
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1. Detection of feature points
in view
2. Tracking feature points
from one frame to the next
frame
3. Robust estimation of 3D
position of these points,
based on their motion
http://www.invision-news.de/artikel/104202.htm
48. Structure from Motion basics
Epipolar Geometry
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perspective projection model
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~jebara/htmlpapers/SFM/sfm.html
49. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
• Free as in speech
• Free as in beer
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50. Created and Run by Steven Mather
https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/OpenDroneMap
http://opendronemap.github.io/odm/
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Point Cloud
Digital Surface Model (DSM)
Textured DSM
Digital Elevation Models (DEM)
Orthophotography
53. Pix4D Mobile App – for camera
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Flight Path
Auto Pilot
Free flight
https://support.pix4d.com/hc/en-us/articles/202557269--Android-Pix4Dmapper-Capture-App-Getting-started
DJI offers three Software Development Kits (SDK)
Mobile: Aerial Imagery, Live Video, Navigation
Onboard: Flight data, flight control, data transmission
Guidance: Hardware, ports, velocity, filters, depth
72. Lessons Learned
• UAVs take practice to fly.
• Proprietary Software is expensive but easy to use!
• Open Source Software is an option if you have time and
technical knowhow.
• Water is difficult to georeferenced.
• Citizen science is an opportunity to continue to explore.
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74. Future Research Dream:
Develop an online platform for
1. UAV flyers and owners to share/donate photos
2. Provide a cloud based platform for image processing
3. Volunteers (citizen scientists) classify imagery
4. Expert Scientists verify results?
5. Share new knowledge!
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Other project ideas:
3D print a model rendered with UAV
Algal Boom full season – 1 week
intervals
Multispectral sensor
75. Outline
Context - the problem/opportunity
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
Paradigm shift: digital globes! &
Citizen Science
How to generate your own imagery
Additional considerations
Future Research
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78. References
Balletti, C., Guerra, F., Tsioukas, V., & Vernier, P. (2014). Calibration of action cameras for photogrammetric purposes. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 14(9), 17471–90.
doi:10.3390/s140917471
Chow, J. (2012, April). Predators for Peace. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/27/predators-for-peace/
Crampton, J. W., Graham, M., Poorthuis, A., Shelton, T., Stephens, M., Wilson, M. W., & Zook, M. (2013). Beyond the geotag: situating “big data” and leveraging the potential of
the geoweb. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 40(2), 130–139. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2013.777137
Eisenbeiss, H., & Grün, A. (2009). UAV Photogrammetry. Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (Vol. Doctor of). doi:doi:10.3929/ethz-a-005939264
Everaerts, J. (2008). The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) for remote sensing and mapping. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and
Spatial Information Sciences, XXXVII, 1187–1192. Retrieved from http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVII/congress/1_pdf/203.pdf
Fornace, K. M., Drakeley, C. J., William, T., Espino, F., & Cox, J. (2014). Mapping infectious disease landscapes: unmanned aerial vehicles and epidemiology. Trends in
Parasitology, 30(11), 514–519. doi:10.1016/j.pt.2014.09.001
Haklay, M. (2013). Neogeography and the delusion of democratisation. Environment and Planning A, 45(1), 55–69. Retrieved from
http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=a45184
Haklay, M. (2015). Citizen Science and Policy: A European Perspective.
Kingsbury, P., & Jones, J. (2009). Walter Benjamins Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth. Geoforum, 40(4), 502–513.
Lake, R., & Farley, J. (2007). Infrastructure for the Geospatial Web. In A. Scharl & K. Tochterman (Eds.), The geospatial web: How geobrowsers, social software, and Web 2.0
are shaping the network society (pp. 15–26). London: Springer.
Meier, P. (2015). Digital Humanitarians: How Big Data is changing the face of humanitarian response. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group.
Nex, F., & Remondino, F. (2013). UAV for 3D mapping applications: a review. Applied Geomatics, 6(1), 1–15. doi:10.1007/s12518-013-0120-x
Paulos, E., Foth, M., Satchell, C., Kim, Y., Dourish, P., & Choi, J. (2008). Ubiquitous Sustainability: Citizen Science and Activism. In Workshop at the 10th International
Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2008).
Sandvik, K. B., & Lohne, K. (2014). The Rise of the Humanitarian Drone: Giving Content to an Emerging Concept. Millennium - Journal of International Studies, 43(1), 145–164.
doi:10.1177/0305829814529470
Sui, D., Goodchild, M., & Elwood, S. (2013). Volunteered Geographic Information, and the Growing Digital Divide. In D. Sui., S. Elwood, & M. Goodchild (Eds.), (pp. 1–12).
Dordrecht: Springer.
Sui, D. Z. (2008). The wikification of GIS and its consequences: Or Angelina Jolie’s new tattoo and the future of GIS. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 32(1), 1–5.
Upton, V., Ryan, M., O’Donoghue, C., & Dhubhain, A. N. (2015). Combining conventional and volunteered geographic information to identify and model forest recreational
resources. Applied Geography, 60, 69–76. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.03.007
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Editor's Notes
Correct Fisheye
Process (Stitch) imagery – creates a photomosaic and orthophoto
Post - Process imagery
My work aims to illuminate ways to make tools associated with Geographic Information Science more accessible to diverse audiences. With the proliferation of spatial technology and information comes a responsibility to identify new ways in which to interact and understand these data. My research seeks to investigate and test accessible methods of capturing and visualizing spatial data interactively. I view teaching as an opportunity to invite more and diverse perspectives to address these challenges and assist in the process of revealing patterns in spatial data.
Landscape is always changing
Built environment or due to natural process, changes are both acute or continuous
Aerial photography was born of a tethered balloon over Paris.
This 1860 Boston photo is the earliest surviving aerial image of the U.S. Even before airplanes, we see the world from a new perspective.
In the 1930’s, Fort Lewis was home to a balloon company with a photography section. Aerial photography has military roots dating back to WWI. n a helium filled blimp in its specially constructed hanger. Considered the latest in observation balloons, it was equiped with a manned, motorized undercarraige that held both a pilot and co-pilot. The 105 foot long blimp could attain a top speed of 40 miles per hour. (T.Times, 3/11/1938, p.1).
http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?krequest=subjects+contains+Military%20personnel%20Fort%20Lewis
In peacetime, we used aerial images to document land cover and urban growth.
The Geoweb is a collection of interconnected, discoverable, geographi- cally associated online tools that span multiple geographical regions (Lake & Farley, 2007).
First we need a work flow?
Img http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAgQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffpv.tv%2Fauto-follow-drone%2F&ei=NvI3VZGELsStogTYooC4AQ&psig=AFQjCNHBTiNnxFtZQMJQa3a6oyhQCU3hdQ&ust=1429816246905685
First we need a work flow?
Img http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAgQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffpv.tv%2Fauto-follow-drone%2F&ei=NvI3VZGELsStogTYooC4AQ&psig=AFQjCNHBTiNnxFtZQMJQa3a6oyhQCU3hdQ&ust=1429816246905685
Range imaging is the name for technique used to produce a 2D image showing distance to points in a scene from a specific point, normally associated with some type of sensor device.
Drawbacks, only runs on linux and command line. Need to be a software developer to run. But look at everything you can make with this!
Software helps us design flight plans to gather data from myriad perspectives. Visualization software can stitch these together into a rich 3D model.