Product becoming Obsolete due to Old Inaccurate Maps
Its getting very unreliable to mission plan on the very old maps in Dronelink. Here is an example of a paid mission Request to do a property and the map provided by the Client:
Here is the map used by Dronelink:
What are the plans to get more up to date maps for use in Dronelink? Can a Google or ESRI map layer be added? Can this be a priority on the roadmap?
In the meantime what are the recommended work arounds?
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There is thread where Jim McAndrew explains this in detail, what you can do is create a polygon around the site perimeter in Google earth and export that as kml or kmz, which can then be added to three map as a layer in Dronelink, so you can then see the perimeter of the site and then plan from there
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/12072483289875-Google-Earth-Pro-Importing-overlays
Or use on the fly and then edit the resulting mission later.
Yes, I've done both. Its a pain. Its also unreliable. I nearly had to refly a mission due to the inherent inaccuracies in not seeing the buildings directly in DL. So back to the original questions...
What are the plans to get more up to date maps for use in Dronelink?
Can a Google or ESRI map layer be added?
Can this be a priority on the roadmap?
Surely the plan is not to let the map versions get so old they eventually become useless.
As stated in the definitive thread on this topic, this feature request (adding Google Maps support) necessitates a complete rewrite of a vast majority of the web-based mission planner code. This is not to say it is impossible, or that we will never take on this project, but it is a very large project that will cost significant resources. If and when we do decide to start this project, the end result will likely end up in the subscription based plans (at least initially) in order to recoup the development costs and justify the risks associated with taking on such a large project.
Having said that, I am not sure if I understand why laying down the mission template using on-the-fly presents an issue. The drone is being flown in real life so seeing exactly where the buildings are when placing the map boundary points or waypoints should be trivial. If the issue is that the GPS lock differs from flight to flight, not amount of updated imagery is going to solve this problem (underlying hardware issue). For that situation, you will need to turn to georectification:
https://support.dronelink.com/hc/en-us/articles/4416135846803-Aligning-a-Mission-Using-Adaptive-Flight-Drone-Offsets
Many counties throughout America, and maybe other countries too, have top-notch "GIS",aerials, often up to date within a year or so ... After all, this is how counties keep tabs on citizens(esp., for taxes) ...
JOHN FRANCIS. Even Google Earth and a Apple Maps are never up to date even though the quality may better. You can search and find that most big satellite imagery companies can be anywhere from 6 months at best to 2 years or more.
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