IN THIS ARTICLE
Where is this functionality implemented in the software?
How much faster is the accurate pipeline?
How accurate should my IMU be?
As a user/drone manufacturer, what do I need in order to use the pipeline?
What is the type of angles I need to provide? Roll, Pitch and Yaw or Omega, Phi, Kappa?
How could I check whether my drone correctly tags the Exif data?
What are the default IMU accuracy values?
What happens if my IMU accuracy values are too confident or too pesimistic with respect to real values (e.g. my roll angle is 2 deg accuracte but there is 0.1 deg or 10 deg in the Exif)??
Do I need to have an RTK drone in order to use this pipeline?
- On the menu bar click on Process > Processing Options...
- Select step 1.Initial Processing
- Select the tab Calibration
- In the section Calibration, select Accurate Geolocation and Orientation as calibration method.
For more information, please refer to this article.
How much faster is the accurate pipeline?On average, the speed increases by 20%. On larger projects, the increase in speed is up to 40%.
How accurate should my IMU be?- Given an IMU accuracy of 3 degrees or lower, the processing-time decreases noticeably.
- The use of precise IMU does not improve the accuracy on the ground, e.g. at checkpoints.
You need to have the RTK/PPK geotags inherent to your XMP Exif Tags.
What is the type of angles I need to provide? Roll, Pitch, Yaw or Omega, Phi, Kappa?- We expect Roll, Pitch, Yaw angles.
- PIX4Dmapper is capable of accounting for the residual angular misalignment (AKA boresight) provided it is constant (does not change between images) and is small (<5 degrees).
More information on how Yaw, Pitch and Roll are defined can be found here.
How could I check whether my drone correctly tags the Exif data?Create a project and open the .p4d file and search for the following tags:
<image>
........
<accuracyXY>...</accuracyXY>
<accuracyZ>...</accuracyZ>
<accuracyOri yaw="..." pitch="..." roll="..."/>
.........
</image>
The values you see should match what you expect (e.g. with an RTK/PPK you may expect 10 cm accuracy, so you should see 0.1 in accuracy XY). The same applies for the IMU accuracy.
Note that the accuracy values represent the sigma of the normal distribution (67% of the values are within +/- 1-sigma and 99.5% fall in +/- 3-sigma), so check with the manufacturer to know what is the accuracy they sell you.
What are the default IMU accuracy values?In absense of IMU accuracy data in the Exif data (example: DJI Phantom 4 Pro), Pix4D sets default values of 10, 10, 15 deg (Roll,Pitch,Yaw).
What happens if my IMU accuracy values are too confident or too pessimistic with respect to real values (e.g. my roll angle is 2 deg accurate but there is 0.1 deg or 10 deg in the Exif)?- The accuracy values need to be realistic.
- Non-realistic standard deviations of the angles may negatively affect the processing quality in all calibration pipelines! Although the effect on the standard pipeline is negligible, over confident IMU accuracy tags may affect the processing.
Ideally yes, but it is not necessary in all cases. We have seen that this pipeline helps even with less accurate drones, thermal projects...