Photogrammetric Small UAV in geospatial research and education at Michigan Tech University

The Surveying Engineering program at Michigan Technological University is heavily involved in research related to acquisition and photogrammetric processing of UAV imagery. The Enterprise program at Michigan Tech gives interdisciplinary teams of students the opportunity to work for several years in a student-led, business-like setting to solve real world engineering problems via end-to-end product development and project management. The Photogrammetric Small UAV (PSUAV) platform was designed by the Student Aerospace Enterprise (SAE) in partnership with Surveying Engineering faculty. This PSUAV project presents significant improvements from previous UAV models, has a wingspan of 72 inches and a chord of 10 inches supporting an angle of incidence of 5 degrees. The PSUAV is equipped with Procerus autopilot system and can carry up to 10 pounds of payload. It is currently fitted with a Cannon Rebel EOS 12MP camera. Research has been started from the development of calibration sites deploying surveying quality equipment. Work on processing of the obtained datasets encompasses these tasks: camera calibration, bundle block adjustment, image co-registration, mosaic, and feature extraction from PSUAV imagery. Comparison of the results obtained from the PSUAV to respective results obtained from traditional aerial photogrammetry provides an excellent opportunity for investigative research directed at the accuracy and applicability of PSUAV imagery for specific mapping projects. Due to the high dynamics of some spatial processes such as emergency situation management, natural and anthropogenic disasters, and many other application scenarios, PSUAV data acquisition and processing can be suitable to fulfill accuracy, information and productivity requirements.