Analysis on mapping accuracy of a drone composite sensor: Focusing on pre-calibration according to the circumstances of data acquisition area

Drone mapping systems can be applied to many fields such as disaster damage investigation, environmental monitoring, and construction process monitoring. To integrate individual sensors attached to a drone, it was essential to undergo complicated procedures including time synchronization. Recently, a variety of composite sensors are released which consist of visual sensors and GPS/INS. Composite sensors integrate multi-sensory data internally, and they provide geotagged image files to users. Therefore, to use composite sensors in drone mapping systems, mapping accuracies from composite sensors should be examined. In this study, we analyzed the mapping accuracies of a composite sensor, focusing on the data acquisition area and pre-calibration effect. In the first experiment, we analyzed how mapping accuracy varies with the number of ground control points. When 2 GCPs were used for mapping, the total RMSE has been reduced by 40 cm from more than 1 m to about 60 cm. In the second experiment, we assessed mapping accuracies based on whether pre-calibration is conducted or not. Using a few ground control points showed the pre-calibration does not affect mapping accuracies. The formation of weak geometry of the image sequences has resulted that pre-calibration can be essential to decrease possible mapping errors. In the absence of ground control points, pre-calibration also can improve mapping errors. Based on this study, we expect future drone mapping systems using composite sensors will contribute to streamlining a survey and calibration process depending on the data acquisition circumstances.