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INTRODUCTION

UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle otherwise known as DRONES are light unmanned aircraft that
can conduct various flight operations without a pilot on board and can be controlled remotely by trained
and capable operators on the ground. Operations such as survey, photography, videography,
surveillance and aerial mapping and photogrammetry. Drones give way to this task with minimal risk,
low cost handling, and at a much shorter time with great efficiency

With this regard Fil Geosolutions Inc. conducted a demo flight requested by EEI to test the
various capabilities and operations that can be done with our UAV. Fil Geosolutions Inc. introduced the
use of DJI Phantom 3 Advance for their needs for aerial mapping. The purpose of this demo flight is to
test the accuracy and efficiency of the drone for EEIs needs. The tests conducted are photogrammetry,
video capabilities, autonomous flight, flight planning, and the output of the said test.

DEMO and TEST FLIGHT

The test flight was conducted in Tungkong Mangga, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan at around
09:05 AM. Before the demo flight, the UAV operator introduced the drone to be used, a DJI Phantom 3
Advance, and discussed its capabilities and some operating procedures and safety checks before flight.

The preflight check and safety discussion last about 10minutes, safety features of the aircraft
and preflight checks includes:

o Assembly of the aircraft:


Attaching the propellers on the motors
Battery check
Controls check
Compass calibration check
Return To Home feature of the drone
o Mission planning:
Software to be used in the flight planning
Features of the software, why we use it, pros and cons on using this software
Flight path overlaying
Distance to be covered
Time it takes to finish the fight mission
o Details of the flight:
Software: Pix4d Capture Application for android
Area Covered: 22.9164 Hectares
Flight Path: 10 Flight Paths*
Flight Altitude: 60 meters/ 196.85 Feet
Overlap: 80%
Number of Images: 175 Images
Flight Time: 10 minutes

RESULTS and DISCUSSIONS

Orthomosaic
DSM
MAP OVERLAY

The team discussed the other capabilities of the drone which includes the video recording and
the use of the drone for inspection of areas and assessment of the project remotely away from the area.
Remote functions such as video recording of the path the drone flew. Pros and cons for choosing this
kind of drone. We also demonstrated how the drone will react in case of drained battery and how safely
it will descend from its flight altitude once it reaches a critical battery level.

DJI Phantom 3 Advance

PROS:
o Easy to fly.
o Very stable in the air.
o Smooth video capture, even when in motion.
o 20mm wide-angle lens.
o 2.7K video. Raw and JPG still capture.
o High-quality Live View feed.
o Built-in GPS. Return-to-home function.
o Automated flight modes.
CONS:
o No 4K support.
o Limited battery life.
o Wide-angle lens shows some edge distortion

Pix4d Capture App

Pros:
o Pix4Dcapture allows you to turn your drone into a mapping and measuring tool by defining
autonomous mapping flights.
o Select an area for mapping.
o Start a fully autonomous mission.
o Images are taken automatically and are geo-tagged.
o Interrupt mission at any time in case of danger.
o Transfer images to your computer.
Cons:
o Needs an Internet connection for uploading images after finishing a mission.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The UAV operator recommended several things to consider the drone type to use on several
projects. Recommendations included are the pros and cons of the UAV that they used in the demo.

DJI Phantom 3 Advance is one of the best drones that is in the market today, capable of flying
autonomous, stability and easy to fly, requires minimal supervision when flying, and can do both video
and photo function. With its Lightbridge technology, live video feed from the drone are smooth and
crisp with low latency and high accuracy.

Software for flight planning that can works well with DJI phantom 3 are:

o Pix4d Capture App


o MapsMadeEasy IOS App
o DJI Go App
o Mission Planner

Data and Image processing software:

Pix4d Mapper Pro


o For mapping done purely with images.
Pix4d Mesh
o Process images automatically in Pix4Dmapper Mesh to create photorealistic 3D
models from drone images.
Pix4d Enterprise
o holds a range of professional solutions for businesses that operate fleets of
drones or manned aircraft, and conduct photogrammetry at a high level.
Enterprise software is optimized for heavy workloads and scalability, available
as Network, Server, Workstation and API solutions to fulfill the needs of your
enterprise.
Agisoft Photoscan
o Photogrammetric triangulation
o Dense Point cloud Editing and Classification
o Digital Elevation model DSM/DTM export
o Georeferenced orthomosaic export
o Measurements -- distances, areas, volumes
o Ground control points High accuracy surveying
o 3D Model -- generation and texturing
o 4D Modeling for dynamic scenes
o Panorama stitching
o Network processing
MapsMadeEasy
o 3D model-base Stitching
o Georeferencing
o Stockpile Volume Measurement

We recommend this software based on your companys needs, overall rating of the software,
ease of use, pricing, and its compatibility to the system that you will use. So far this software is
compatible in most UAV systems and is widely used in aerial mapping and photogrammetry.

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