Terrain following using client elevation data

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07-26-2022 05:46 PM
GregoryEnglishAAAE
New Contributor II

We would like to use Site Scan at our mining operations however Site Scan Flight currently only supports terrain following using the free ESRI elevation service. The ability to reference client or custom elevation data has become a minimum standard for flight planning applications, is supported by several competitor products and is limiting our adoption of Site Scan.

The ESRI elevation service is of varying quality, and in any case out of control of the pilot, so I would be cautious when using for any flight planning. It is good for context if you have nothing else available, but this wouldn't be accepted in a RPAS safety case.

At mining operations terrain is constantly changing so we need to reference an up to date elevation service. Maintaining a constant flying height AGL is critical for safe operation as well as photo scale/overlap and reducing ground control. Typical nadir terrain following operations are conducted at 100-120m AGL. High resolution and oblique terrain following missions are conducted at 50m AGL or lower. Operating from a mine lookout the remote pilot is often above the drone and so visually ensuring ground clearance whilst the drone is in flight can be challenging. The ability to flight plan based on accurate elevation data that has been quality assured by the client is essential.

Site Scan should be configurable to reference an ESRI elevation service from enterprise ArcGIS or AGOL. We can then configure this to be a bare earth DEM or DSM if there are above ground obstructions we wish to plan around.

5 Comments
Dan_Wilkins

Excellent idea. With our Antarctic operations, we often work in areas where the standard elevation surface is not suitable. 

NicoBonnafoux
Status changed to: Under Consideration
 
ChristopherRatcliff

100% agree with this idea. We're flying a landslide flight next week and having the ability to upload and terrain follow an updated DEM would be invaluable. I'm fairly certain the World Terrain Service is using data from 2009-2011 in our AOI. We have a more recent 2018 DEM that would be more practical. 

SalomonVielmaP

Excellent explanation from Gregory. There are currently several platforms that support client elevation models. It would be great if Site Scan had that functionality. The DEM should be uploaded from the Ipad to the cloud or locally. This application should not be missing in future updates.

VassilisTrigkas1974

Do you have any updates on the progress of this idea's implementation?