Three-dimensional imaging applications in Earth Sciences using video data acquired from an unmanned aerial vehicle.

摘要

For three dimensional (3D) aerial images, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are cheaper to operate and easier to fly than the typical manned craft mounted with a laser scanner. This project explores the feasibility of using 2D video images acquired with a UAV and transforming them into 3D point clouds.;The resulting point clouds were sparsely populated, yet captured vegetation well. They were used successfully to measure fracture orientation in rock walls. Any improvement in the video resolution would cascade through the processing and improve the overall results.;The Aeryon Scout – a quad-copter micro UAV – flew two missions: the first at York University Keele campus and the second at the Canadian Wollastonite Mine Property. Neptec's ViDAR software was used to extract 3D information from the 2D video using structure from motion.