AUTOMATIC EXTERIOR ORIENTATION PROCEDURE FOR LOW-COST UAV PHOTOGRAMMETRY USING VIDEO IMAGE TRACKING TECHNIQUE AND GPS INFORMATION

Abstract. In this paper, we propose the automatic exterior orientation procedure for the Low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry. The Low-cost UAV has become useful tool for low altitude photogrammetry from the rapidly increasing of automatic control technique in past several years. However, automatic exterior orientation is still important issue. The most important point of automatic exterior orientation is the automatic detection of corresponding points in each still image. For this goal, the authors have developed the automatic corresponding point detection technique using both video Image and still images. The video image of this investigation is obtained with still images simultaneously. Therefore, the tracking result of video image gives robust correspondence information between each still image. Moreover, the exterior orientation procedure using GPS information from UAV and minimum ground control points have been investigated. This paper is structured as follows. At the first we describe the over view of automatic exterior orientation procedure in this investigation. As the next, the details of tracking of common feature points and robust bundle adjustment are described. Also, accuracy assessment of this automatic exterior orientation procedure is described. Finally some conclusion is given.