Leveraging cloud compute and open source software to generate 3D models from drone photography

Abstract. Modern drone platforms provide the opportunity to capture large quantities of high quality, geotagged aerial imagery quickly and over large distances, at a relatively low cost. As organisations increasingly turn to digital twin technology to manage their operations, rich, photorealistic three dimensional (3D) models of their assets become increasingly important. This paper describes how cloud computing, and container based serverless compute in particular, can be used together with open source software to generate a 3D model, converted to 3D tiles for optimised transmission, from images of large outdoor assets captured by drone. This approach offers a flexible and cost effective way to processing drone imagery into 3D models whilst allowing you to maintain ownership and control of your data.