RQ-84Z AreoHawk is now is service in NZ after a months trial in Canada and NZ. We are acquiring 8 Sq/km in 36 min from 400-600 AGL and endurance 90 min+ -in 25 km 'hr winds.
Sensor is Sony Nex-5, Migrating to Sony Nex-7 in one week (when they arrive). Our Terrain Aware IP allows for dynamic operations factoring in wind direction, DEM, overlap requirements and acquisiton rate depending on ground speed.
No need for catapult. Parachute recovery (automated) and unique Pitot tube that doesnt get blocked in rain.
Hand launch is very solid - 70 km/hr in 1 sec and high angle climb to loiter altitude.
Our photogrammetry software AREOGRAPH hi density DSM including ground control and tone, colour matched ortho mosaics delivered in 1 Sq/km tiles pixel alignment and most nadir images promyted removing parallax error.
Comments
Nice example. 3 legs and... by eye... 50-60% side overlap? That sounds reasonnable.
What means well performing processing software, by the way.
We have a wider horizontal viewing angle and 20 Megapixel sensor and we are not flying a strict grid nav waypoint flight plan. In NZ the terrain is very copmplex. Attached is the evidence. Gorund speed ranges from 50 - 90 km/hr
Assuming 65.5deg horisontal viewing angle, from 600m AGL you have ground photo width best case 772m.
From 14.6mpix digicam you have 17.5cm/pixel resolution from that altitude, BTW.
With that high altitude, merely 80% overlap and camera looking wide side along the wings, you still have (100%-80%)*772=154m leg spacing only.
If you want to acquire reasonnably regular pattern with 8km2 surface, say 2x4km, let's take
4000/154 legs 2km long. this is 26*2 + about 6km on leg joints and turns best case (immediate, infinite G turns), 58km pattern length.
If you can do this in 36min, you fly at 96km/h.
With 90% overlap this would be 110km pattern length and 183km/h average cruise speed, correspondingly.
Certainly there is something seriously military here.
It depends on the output. We are acquiring on both the upwind and down wind legs. Typically we aim for 90% for 3D point cloud generation. How we achieve this with all the variables is our IP - have been doing this for 6 yrs now both in Military and commercially.
Hi, what overlap are you using for areograph?
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