Unmanned aerial vehicle guidance methods for 3D aerial image reconstruction

This paper presents a complete solution for unmanned 3D aerial image matching. There are many application which needs precise and up to date 2D and 3D maps, georeferred maps, digital elevation models (DEM). The common solution is a use of a manned airplane and capture multiple high resolution pictures, than match them with a third party geographic information system (GIS) to DEM and texture data. With our method it is a complex system using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with an onboard high resolution digital camera, triggered with an autopilot which grants the exact 3D position and orientation of the camera. The whole mission so as the covered area can be defined using the UAV ground control station (GCS). After the flight the image matching and 2D/3D reconstruction is made by the same software (GCS). The paper presents the different navigation and guidance types suitable for aerial photography for GIS purposes, an appropriate test UAV and the image matching algorithm.