Is drone survey accurate?

Remember that drone accuracy is always relative to positional accuracy. The information in maps created with drone data is similar, but not exactly the same, to the real location on site in the real world. The accuracy of reconnaissance drones varies significantly depending on the type of drone, the quality of the camera, the flight height, the ground cover, the weather conditions and the drone's mapping software. Many commercial and industrial topographic drones can provide data accuracy of up to 2 cm.

Cheap drones for amateurs are sometimes only 5 m accurate. The only established method for checking and demonstrating the accuracy of drone cartographic surveys is to use independently measured control points. The absolute accuracy of drone survey data is measured by comparing the observed coordinates (the positions of the control points in the model) with the authorized positions (the coordinates measured independently of the same points on the ground). If one point is low (for example, 100 m above sea level) and another point is high (for example, 200 m above sea level), the drone will gradually rise or fall between those two levels; that is, if set at a flight altitude of 120 m, the drone can start a grid 220 m high and end up 320 m high, but it will not reflect any variation in the terrain between those two points (e.g., they use drone surveys to detect problems such as the roof).

damage or humidity, precision that does not require high levels of. It's great to see useful information available for free and will become more important as more industries adopt drone topography and mapping. They help to increase the accuracy of drone recognition and allow the model to be adjusted to a geodetic coordinate system. In recent years, RTK (real-time kinematics) GPS systems have been designed that are compatible with the use of reconnaissance drones.

The RMS error is the final calculation of the accuracy of the results of drone cartographic surveys when all possible sources of error in the model (not just the GSD or GPS error) have been taken into account. Drone cartographic surveys are increasingly being used to support construction, development, mining, agriculture and other commercial activities. Because they can carry more heavy camera equipment, single-rotor drones can produce high-precision data for use in conjunction with drone mapping software. On the contrary, real estate agencies use reconnaissance drones to obtain high-quality photographs with which to market their properties to buyers.

Businesses and individuals can use basic commercial drones in conjunction with drone mapping software such as DroneDeploy to produce fairly accurate photographic and cartographic data. However, engineers and construction companies often require much higher levels of accuracy in drone surveys. Multirotor drones, in particular quadcopter drones, are often the most common type of reconnaissance drones. Another factor to consider when inspecting your work site is the distance to the land sample (GSD) in the survey photographs.