Error processing drone imagery over river

[RachelS]

Hi,
My drone imagery from DJI Mavic 3E has a lot of uncalibrated images.
The error says 'Failed to compute block adjustment. Failed to compute adjustment using engine 'Frame'. Failed to execute (ComputerCameraModel).  Compute camera model failed. Fatal Processing error. Processing failed.'

I've been processing drone flights no problem before but this is the first that has so much water and the uncalibrated images are on the water.

I know Drone2Map has difficulty processing images over water but does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve this as we're looking to identify the sandbars in low water. 

[JohannesBierer]

I would try other software? But there are as well problems with open water and pictures with no land on it:

"You cannot map over water with OpenDroneMap software, unless you can also capture some of the land in each image (but sounds like this is not the case here)." for OpenDroneMap: https://community.opendronemap.org/t/mapping-over-water/23169

"I think the ultimate problem is the water. Water is difficult, and it is expected that Mapper will cut most of it out. What caught my eye were the sharp right angles in the orthomosaic. It had the appearance of a tiling issue. At this point, I do not think that was the problem. It is the water." for Pix4D: https://community.pix4d.com/t/orthophoto-cutting-problem-on-sea-water/29008

[JavierPablos_EsriEspaña]

Hello,

Have you tried the waterbody mask feature in Drone2map?

https://doc.arcgis.com/en/drone2map/latest/help/waterbody-mask.htm

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/drone2map/imagery/troubleshooting-common-drone2map-issues

Regards

[MarkBarker1]

Hi @RachelS ,

As others have pointed out, it is difficult to perform a proper block adjustment of the images when those images mostly consist of water. Drone2Map and other photogrammetry software try to look for key points between flight images. However, wind and light can significantly change the surface of water between each image and makes finding those key points very complicated.

You could try to increase the matching neighborhood of the images through the processing options window.

Changing this option would allow for a larger sample of images during the tie point generation process and potentially lead to more image matches/calibrations. This would still only really help though if there were enough land features present within the imagery.

Feel free to share the processing report from the project and I would be happy to review it.

Regards,

Mark

[RachelS]

Thanks @JohannesBierer @JavierPablos_EsriEspaña @MarkBarker1 

Yes it does seem to be a problem in other software also. I tried drawing the mask and running it again but I see this time it couldn't calibrate the rest of the water and was just able to create an ortho of the left bank.

I've attached the processing report but at this stage it's looking like it just isn't going to work with the water.