Ability to specify Flight path centerline distance for Lidar
It would be very helpful for planning Lidar missions if we could simply have the following options for adding a new Map:
Camera: None
Altitude: xx Feet or Meters
Map: Regular or Grid
Distance between flight paths: xx meters or feet
And lastly:
Ability to specify the turn radius before exporting to DJI. If we can specify a 500' radius, then hopefully it would create 500' radius turns before exporting to DJI Waypoints and there would be no adjustment necessary once fully converted to Waypoints.
With Camera sensors, the footprint grows and decreases at a mathematical (constant) ratio as AGL goes up or down. But with Lidar, the lidar distance is constant (ie 100 meters or 328'). So when yo change the height of an issosoles triangle with a constant distance for sides A&B, the distance of side C (foot print) changes, but not at a constant ratio like an RGB sensor which can see to infinity (with only resolution decreasing).
I was going to create a component for various altitudes. But I found that DroneLink is not making a mathmatical calculation for every change entered. In other words, for the web planning, I could change Sensor Width, Altitude, and Overlap, and dronelink created same set of flight lines (at a specific distance apart). I could create 100 different combinations but yet there would be only 3-5 variations of flight path center widths based on those 100 combinations .
I first measured the distances needed in Google earth ( 388', 363, 334, 297, 250)
I created a map over a well defined parking lot so that I could determine the flight path center distances and make changes to get exactly the center distance desired but as I mentioned, there are only a very limited number of iterations that dronelink would create no matter how I changed the three variables (sensor width, altitude, and overlap %).
So the simple solution would be to allow for the input specified at the top. Different Lidar systems will have different distance limitations. Of course you could later add in a "Lidar Calculator, where they enter the Maximum Distance of the Lidar sensor, and DroneLink will calculate the footprint (length of c) along with the desired overlap to have an ideal mapping mission for any Lidar unit.
Thanks for your consideration. Right now DroneLink can be made to work, but with very limited ability to achieve a specific overlap. Once fixed, it will be VERY nice to allow a user to simply insert preconfigured components for the flight.
A) Insert Figure 8 component (this already works very nicely).
B) Insert Lidar flight component designed for specific altitude. Then simply adjust the layout size to fit the job. Overlap is maintained as it is part of the component.
C) Export entire mission out to DJI waypoints.
D) Fly the mission
Comments
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The beta has the option to select distance for the spacing, does this basically solve your problem?
I will try that now!
I see the "Target Distance" option. Increasing that does in fact change the spacing of the line. But I can't see to figure out how to properly enter the variables to achieve a line spacing of say 332' or 311'. Here are two KML files that are the correct distance. So I was trying to layout a plan over this parking lot to see that the flight line centers match. I can't figure it out :(
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qYOb35xfLXPvfceGYwdJ-C74e15BnvWa?usp=sharing
Sorry should be there now.
Is there a new beta link? The link I am using is still the same.
https://dronelink-225116--beta-y2kynwtp.web.app/
disregard!!! Sorry!
So the spacing is still not right. See the pattern in DroneLink. Then look at Google Earth and the redline is 322 feet (within 1 foot).
I have to leave office. Will check back later.
So what I do see is that if there are 3 flight lines or more, it is fairly close, but still short of 332'
And that is set to NONE for Capture. BUt I also see that rounding the turn around is VERY NICE!!!! woo hoo.
When the spacing is set to 400' (with 175' agl) the distance is spot on for center to center spacing. But once you drop below, ie 350', 300' etc, the spacing falls a good bit short of the specified width. This is workable for the time being, and the smoothing of turnarounds is awesome now. So much better than it was 3 days ago.
Heading out to fly this. Should provide nice results.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qkRYkZ-x4ZvVnAwm_PdIgYrlHgXlAQOm/view?usp=sharing
There was a piece of code that computed the number of rows when camera overlaps is selected and it would make sure it was a minimum of the specified overlap (not exact). This code was also running, even when distance was selected, which probably doesn’t make sense, so I removed it. Try now.
Bingo!! Working perfectly now. Thank you!! That is very nice.
Jim, did the Beta change? I have logged in from a different PC to update my route, as it needs to be bigger and the new options are gone for flight path distance. I am logged into beta
https://dronelink-225116--beta-y2kynwtp.web.app/
disregard. I had to expand the box and now it shows.
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