Get Started with ArcGIS Full Motion Video (FMV/Drones/UAS/UAV)

[ReneeBrandt]

The FMV team is hosting a free Esri Live Training Seminar (LTS) on Thursday, October 22nd.  If you work with videos captured by UAVs, drones, UASs, orbital sensors, vehicle-mounted or handheld cameras, or other means, attend this session to learn how you can use FMV to exploit this video inside ArcGIS.

Sign up for the session here:  Esri Training | Live Training Seminar: Get Started with ArcGIS Full Motion Video

[VerneLaClair]

Rogello,

If you are flying the DJI Platform, checkout the Flytrex Core 2 logger.  It is tiny and has a plug and play interface for DJI.  The output is also compatible with the Video KLV and Telemetry Tool, VKAT which allows you to merge the flight record data with the collected video and play within the FMV add-in.  We flew this exact scenario on a test range in NY with great success.

Verne@vertexgeo.com

[DouglasRidenour]

Verne,

   That Flytrex Core 2 logger is very interesting. It's about half the weight of a micro APM and is much more elegant solution for someone with a DJI. What parameters does it collect when hooked up to a DJI FC like the NAZA?

[VerneLaClair]

Doug, Rogello,

The Flytrex data logger I have tested (1.0 version) collected the following information:

Date/Time, Lat, Long, altitude, rate of ascent, speed, distance flown, flight time, # satellites, battery voltage.

That said, It looks like the latest version (2.0) adds temperature as well as information to allow the pilot to track flights, record data to a mission manager, complete challenges and build a flight profile.  This may prove to be useful for recreational use, but also as a backup for on-board sensors as well.

What does this mean for collecting video to use in ArcGIS? First, users could use this solution together with any camera system regardless of whether or not the platform has GPS capability.  Second, the data logger information could be merged with video from any camera system (i.e. Go-Pro) to create a video with spatial and temporal metadata that can then be mapped.  Here's a link to a sample. VKAT Example​

[DouglasRidenour]

Verne,

      The Flytrex doesn't capture roll, pitch or yaw?  I'm not sure how you can project the video frame onto a map without those parameters.  Roll and Pitch may be less important with a two axis stabilized camera mount if it is well tuned and points at a consistent angle but yaw will still change dynamically in flight.

Doug

[VerneLaClair]

Unfortunately, no it does not, roll, pitch and yaw data comes from the

flight controller. Accurately projecting the video onto a map requires

precise coordinates for the center of the video frame as well as the

video frame extents.

In the case of ArcGIS, this means the corner offsets from the frame

center coordinates. This information requires knowledge of camera

parameters as well as gimbal control information. Not exactly easy to

extract for recreational grade equipment. However, if the user is

interested in tracking the assets location with time on a map, then a

data logger such as the flytrex works well.

Happy flying.

[DouglasRidenour]

That's too bad. If it collected that additional flight info it might be just the thing for a Rogelio to compute external orientation parameters. The pitch and roll gimbal angle compared to the horizon could ideally be a constant if the gimbal was very well balanced and not changed dynamically during flight.  I know in practice I usually get some gimbal drift because I'm not using professional grade equipment. I have a platform that uses a NAZA flight controller and it would be nice to be able to gather useful flight parameters from it because it flies really nicely.

[rogelioflores2]

Verne,

Thank you for that information. I see the VKAT tool seems to be a separate software besides ArcMap correct? . I haven’t work on FMV much because I’m still working on adapting my drone to collect metadata. I think I will go with the Flytrex and ones that’s ready to go I will have to see into the VKAT tool.

[rogelioflores2]

Verne,

Excellent suggestion! I was looking into getting a different kind of logger something more independent from the DJI platform. However, If I can integrate this logger to the platform I think It will be more beneficial. I will do some research on this logger and see what other people have done to have a better idea how it works exactly.

[DouglasRidenour]

Rogelio,

As an update. This weekend I put together the prototype logger from an APM board that I had sitting on my bench. The initial results are mixed.  I wanted a simple power-on and fly logger but  turns out more complicated than expected. Issues such as arming/disarming and sensor checks required by the firmware can be overridden in software. However, a bigger issue is the APM is limited to built-in flash memory and it appears that I used that up pretty quickly and lost a log file because it got cycled over. Without the ability to expand the memory I think the applications as a logger will be very limited. I don't think I ran into this flash memory issue before because the firmware was smaller and my flight time was about 4 minutes long on a quad vs. 20 minutes with the fixed wing.

Doug

[rogelioflores2]

Douglas,

Is there a way to expand the memory? My flight never go over 20 min but they are between 10-15 min max, so I would definitively have an issue if the whole flight data gets overridden.