After some time searching, i3mainz and the Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying have now found the ideal conditions on the grounds of the Modell Flug Club Nierstein/Oppenheim e.V. to set up a UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) test site there. We are delighted about this opportunity to collaborate with the club. The test site is needed to evaluate UAV systems, particularly with regard to the quality of the measurement data.
Linda Staiger is working on the setup and analysis of the test field for UAV flights as part of her master’s thesis. She laid out aerial survey panels—also known as targets—at fixed ground control points, which were determined through a combined GNSS and tachymetric survey.
David Kernstock needs the test field as part of his master’s thesis to determine the offset between the camera and the copter’s GNSS receiver. This parameter is a prerequisite for directly georeferenced images, which are available in a global coordinate system. The camera positions are calculated from the coordinates of the control point network.
Equipment for surveying the UAV test field, Photo: i3mainz, CC BY-SA 4.0
An initial flight using the university’s own drone has already taken place. During this flight, the drone surveyed the test field to collect measurement data using its camera and GNSS. Prior to the flight, the targets were attached to the permanently marked points in the ground using a specially developed adapter.
The drone, a so-called quadcopter with a coaxial rotor configuration, was developed in-house by i3mainz. It is equipped with an attached camera and two GNSS receivers. It is flown by Denise Becker and Sven Kaulfersch, both employees of Mainz University of Applied Sciences and now also members of the association.
