Image georeferencing using at without GCPs for a UAV-based low-cost multisensor system

The georeferencing accuracy of the sensory data acquired by an aerial monitoring system heavily depends on the performance of the GPS/IMU mounted on the system. The employment of a high performance but expensive GPS/IMU unit causes to increase the developmental cost of the overall system. In this study, we simulate the images and GPS/IMU data acquired by an UAV-based aerial monitoring system using an inexpensive integrated GPS/IMU of a MEMS type, and perform the image georeferencing by applying the aerial triangulation to the simulated sensory data without any GCP. The image georeferencing results are then analyzed to assess the accuracy of the estimated exterior orientation parameters of the images and ground points coordinates. The analysis indicates that the RMSEs of the exterior orientation parameters and ground point coordinates is significantly decreased by about 90% in comparison with those resulted from the direct georeferencing without the aerial triangulation. From this study, we confirmed the high possibility to develop a low-cost real-time aerial monitoring system.