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Research ArticleArticles

Miniature UAVs and Photogrammetry—A Novel Approach to Collecting Aerial Inspection Data from Mature Broadleaf Trees

James Roberts and Duncan Slater
Arboriculture & Urban Forestry (AUF) March 2023, 49 (2) 75-89; DOI: https://doi.org/10.48044/jauf.2023.007
James Roberts
James Roberts, Myerscough College, Greenspace Department, Bilsborrow, Lancashire, United Kingdom
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Duncan Slater
Duncan Slater (corresponding author), Myerscough College, Greenspace Department, Bilsborrow, Lancashire, United Kingdom,
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  • For correspondence: [email protected]
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Article Figures & Data

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  • Figure 1.
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    Figure 1.

    Photograph of the commercially available hobby drone, a DJI Mini 2® (DJI, Shenzhen, China) UAV, which was used for this study.

  • Figure 2.
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    Figure 2.

    A: 3D model of a split oak branch suspended from a timber gantry crane. B: Example measurement along the surface of the 3D model of the branch, carried out within the software program 3DF Zephyr Lite Steam Edition (3Dflow SRL, Verona, Italy).

  • Figure 3.
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    Figure 3.

    The 4 subject oak trees used in the field trial: T1, top left; T2, top right; T3, bottom left; and T4, bottom right. These were all open-grown trees in a parkland setting.

  • Figure 4.
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    Figure 4.

    Visual representation of the 3 different flight strategies used in this study, where the blue shapes represent camera positions. A: Orbital. B: Cluster. C: Parallel.

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    Figure 5.

    Screenshot of the T1 FOI models represented as RGB scalar fields within CloudCompare (EDF R&D, Los Altos, CA, USA).

  • Figure 6.
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    Figure 6.

    Visual comparison between the rendered models for the 4 FOIs (T1, T2, T3, T4) in the order of orbital flight, cluster flight, and parallel flight. For each of the 4 FOIs, the parallel flights provided the most detailed rendering of the shape and surfaces of the FOIs within the photogrammetric models.

  • Figure 7.
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    Figure 7.

    Images of all 4 FOIs for all 3 flight strategies. The rows represent the FOIs for T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively. The columns represent the photogrammetric models from the orbital flight, cluster flight, and parallel flight strategies, respectively. In all 4 cases, the level of visual detail and accuracy is noticeably better for the images generated from the parallel flight strategy.

  • Figure 8.
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    Figure 8.

    Camera maps (camera positions marked in blue) for T1 and T2 parallel flights around FOIs. A: Camera map for the T1 parallel flight, which shows that images taken all around the FOI were used for the photogrammetric model. B: Corresponding camera map for the parallel flight of T2, where the images used for the model were only situated on one side of the FOI, limiting the associated model’s accuracy.

Tables

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    Table 1.

    Number of images captured and used in each FOI (feature of interest) photometry model. UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicle).

    FOI tree and flight strategyNo. of images taken by UAVNo. of images used in model% of used images from total images
    T1 orbital34133999.4%
    T1 cluster1593823.9%
    T1 parallel22111953.8%
    T2 orbital345345100.0%
    T2 cluster1746738.5%
    T2 parallel27615857.2%
    T3 orbital406406100.0%
    T3 cluster268268100.0%
    T3 parallel248248100.0%
    T4 orbital344344100.0%
    T4 cluster1784223.6%
    T4 parallel27527399.3%
    • View popup
    Table 2.

    Mean point density for each model generated from the field study, with standard deviation and coefficient of variation. FOI (feature of interest).

    FOI refMean point densityStandard deviationCoefficient of variation
    T1 orbital1.0070.1150.114
    T2 orbital1.0750.4180.389
    T3 orbital1.2230.6020.492
    T4 orbital1.9111.3220.692
    T1 cluster4.6272.0460.442
    T2 cluster4.7253.7990.804
    T3 cluster5.0742.4450.482
    T4 cluster28.02735.0911.252
    T1 parallel32.71917.7190.542
    T2 parallel33.84022.3140.659
    T3 parallel15.4006.4690.420
    T4 parallel35.76529.0780.813
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Arboriculture & Urban Forestry (AUF): 49 (2)
Arboriculture & Urban Forestry (AUF)
Vol. 49, Issue 2
March 2023
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Miniature UAVs and Photogrammetry—A Novel Approach to Collecting Aerial Inspection Data from Mature Broadleaf Trees
James Roberts, Duncan Slater
Arboriculture & Urban Forestry (AUF) Mar 2023, 49 (2) 75-89; DOI: 10.48044/jauf.2023.007

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Miniature UAVs and Photogrammetry—A Novel Approach to Collecting Aerial Inspection Data from Mature Broadleaf Trees
James Roberts, Duncan Slater
Arboriculture & Urban Forestry (AUF) Mar 2023, 49 (2) 75-89; DOI: 10.48044/jauf.2023.007
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Keywords

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