Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV
Ground control points (GCPs) are commonly used for georeferencing in remote sensing. Precise position measurement of the GCPs typically requires careful ground surveying, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive and thus excessively costly if it needs to be repeated multiple times in a season. A...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/13/2852 |
| _version_ | 1797999415405838336 |
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| author | Xiongzhe Han J. Alex Thomasson Yang Xiang Hussein Gharakhani Pappu K. Yadav William L. Rooney |
| author_facet | Xiongzhe Han J. Alex Thomasson Yang Xiang Hussein Gharakhani Pappu K. Yadav William L. Rooney |
| author_sort | Xiongzhe Han |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Ground control points (GCPs) are commonly used for georeferencing in remote sensing. Precise position measurement of the GCPs typically requires careful ground surveying, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive and thus excessively costly if it needs to be repeated multiple times in a season. A system of multifunctional GCPs and a wireless network for communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was developed to improve the speed of GCP setup and provide GCP data collection in real-time during the flight. While testing the system, a single-board computer on a fixed-wing UAV used in the study successfully recorded position data from all the GCPs during the flight. The multifunctional GCPs were also tested for use as references for calibration of reflectance and height for field objects like crops. The test of radiometric calibration resulted in an average reflectance error of 2.0% and a strong relationship (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.99) between UAV-based estimates and ground reflectance. Furthermore, the average height difference between UAV-based height estimates and ground measurements was within 10 cm. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T11:04:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7c6669fdfaf140e9a4d194feb8410735 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T11:04:12Z |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-7c6669fdfaf140e9a4d194feb84107352022-12-22T04:28:26ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202019-06-011913285210.3390/s19132852s19132852Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAVXiongzhe Han0J. Alex Thomasson1Yang Xiang2Hussein Gharakhani3Pappu K. Yadav4William L. Rooney5Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USADepartment of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USACollege of Engineering, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan 410128, ChinaDepartment of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USADepartment of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USADepartment of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USAGround control points (GCPs) are commonly used for georeferencing in remote sensing. Precise position measurement of the GCPs typically requires careful ground surveying, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive and thus excessively costly if it needs to be repeated multiple times in a season. A system of multifunctional GCPs and a wireless network for communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was developed to improve the speed of GCP setup and provide GCP data collection in real-time during the flight. While testing the system, a single-board computer on a fixed-wing UAV used in the study successfully recorded position data from all the GCPs during the flight. The multifunctional GCPs were also tested for use as references for calibration of reflectance and height for field objects like crops. The test of radiometric calibration resulted in an average reflectance error of 2.0% and a strong relationship (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.99) between UAV-based estimates and ground reflectance. Furthermore, the average height difference between UAV-based height estimates and ground measurements was within 10 cm.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/13/2852ground control pointsunmanned aerial vehiclewireless networkradiometric calibrationheight calibration |
| spellingShingle | Xiongzhe Han J. Alex Thomasson Yang Xiang Hussein Gharakhani Pappu K. Yadav William L. Rooney Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV Sensors ground control points unmanned aerial vehicle wireless network radiometric calibration height calibration |
| title | Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV |
| title_full | Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV |
| title_fullStr | Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV |
| title_full_unstemmed | Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV |
| title_short | Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV |
| title_sort | multifunctional ground control points with a wireless network for communication with a uav |
| topic | ground control points unmanned aerial vehicle wireless network radiometric calibration height calibration |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/13/2852 |
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