Aerial photography comes to Waterless Brook Project

Last Saturday I attempted my first archaeological survey by drone.  Lots more to learn, but I have managed to get some decent results from the first flight. I didn't get the drone exactly over the middle of the feature so the smaller cell is not as clear as the larger one.  All part of the learning curve.

Basic analysis - Overhead shot (Fig1)
Hover over a feature as low as a few meters to over 100m.

Extract from Video (Fig2)
Using a 'Point of Interest' feature the drone will circle round filming the ground.  Images are then extracted from the video (every 4 seconds) which will be used to produce a 3D model by photogrammetry.
These give a more angled image.

Create a 3D model (Fig3)
Using photogrammetry software a selection of overlapping images taken from all angles around a feature can be used to produce a 3D model.

This model is about 100 times more detailed than the one I have tried to create from lidar, so very promising.


Next Steps
Now that I can produce a detailed model (point cloud) from the video, I need to find a way to convert it back to raw data, so that we can do the hill shade and elevation analysis to produce drawings, possibly to within a few centimetres accuracy.

Fig1: Overhead shot

Fig2: Frame from video

Fig3: 3D model created by photogrammetry software