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How often do you need to make repeatable flights in areas for which Google or other map provider data is outdated? It’s a typical scenario for flying a drone in rapidly changing areas such as construction sites, quarries, mines, disaster areas etc.

If this is the case for you, then you probably are familiar with how hard it is to plan missions when there are no visual identifiers on the map. This is especially true if you need to build a 3D reconstruction from the images taken during the flight.

Here we will show you how easy it is to make a map and import it in UgCS ground control software. After this is done you will be able to plan your drone flights with more precision and confidence.

The steps are as follows:

1. Plan a Photogrammetry mission which covers the area of your interest. Because you will only use this map to plan future missions you don’t need a very good GSD - 5 cm per pixel will be more than enough and it will give you short flight and image processing time. Here is an instructional video on how to plan a photogrammetry mission in UgCS - https://youtu.be/Ykf0x0B-QoE

2. Fly your route and take images. If the camera on your drone does not automatically geotag the images, you can geotag them in UgCS Telemetry Player.

3. Next step is to stitch the images together using your favorite software or service. By using the right tools - in fifteen minutes you will get a geotagged GIF or TIF file like this:

The image for this sample was created using a free account on Dronedeploy.com

4. Use some “black magic” to import the geotagged map file back into UgCS

In UgCS go to Menu / Configuration / Geoserver. Then select “Local Geographic Server”, press “Edit”, click “Manage map sources”, “New source” and you will see this window:

Give your new map a name, for example - “Fresh map”, and click Create. Then click “Upload” and select your geotagged image file.

The upload process can take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes depending on your hard drive speed and the size of the file. When image is imported you can close this window and click “Save”.

Click Back and you will be taken back to the main window of UgCS.

5. Click on “Layers” menu located in the upper right corner of UgCS. Select your newly created map in the list of map overlays:

Bingo! Here you have it:

Now you can plan your next mission in a safe and confident manner by using the map you just created!

Best,

UgCS Team

Get the newest version of UgCS here: www.ugcs.com