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nameProcedure Drone Camera Calibration
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pageSTARTVOLAT:Procedure Drone Camera Calibration
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Christoph Prahl , Julia : i (fabian.wolfertstetter ) cannot edit the site above. Chris told me that i should fix the yellow target plate in the middle of the cross on the tripod. is that correct? does it have to be updated here?

also, consider changing the pitch angles in 15° steps and not 10° steps to reduce work

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Pre-Requisites

Please make sure that the drone settings are applied correctly, following manuals for each drone model:

Most Important:

Make sure that both Wide Angle RGB and IR camera have neutral Zoom settings (Zoom = 1.00)

Make Sure videos are recorded in the correct resolution:

  • RGB: 4k 3,840 x 2160

  • IR: 640×512

1. Components of the calibration set 

1 tripod  

1 tarpaulin  

1 Acrylic plate with photogrammetric reference system  

7-10 wooden bars with photogrammetric markers 

4 connected wooden bars with photogrammetric markers to be mounted with the acrylic plate onto the tripod  

image-20241021-143837.pngImage Added

2. Important advice

  • Please handle the whole equipment with care 

  • In particular avoid scratches or dirt on the photogrammetric markers  

  • The calibration should be carried out in a free space with at least 4 x 4 meters 

  • The weather conditions need to be good, with sunshine but no wind 

  • Any oscillation or movement of the equipment during the video capture will affect the data quality 

  • avoid touching the equipment during calibration 

  • avoid any wind  

3. Material preparation 

Unfold the tarpaulin and put it in a sunny place. This is important as the black parts should heat up in the sun so we can later see a contrast in the IR camera between the white and the black parts:  

image-20241021-143923.pngImage Added

To unfold the wooden bars, release the nut from the screw and remove the top washer:  

image-20241021-143943.pngImage Added

Put the bars in form of a cross with 90° spacing between the bars. Then carefully tighten the nut again (NO TOOLS REQUIRED):

image-20241021-143956.pngImage Added

 Setup the tripod by spreading its legs and pull out the first inner stage to raise the tripod 

open the clamp and mount the cross with the reference system to the tripod.

image-20241021-144020.pngImage Added

image-20241021-144033.pngImage Added

Carefully close the clamp and make sure everything is tight. The cross should now be situated horizontally some 40-60 cm from the floor.

image-20241021-144104.pngImage Added

Arrange the bars in a star shape around the tripod as indicated in the next picture. The exact location is not that important, but the equal spreading is very important:  

The distance between the outer slats should be about 2 meters: 

image-20241021-144127.pngImage Added

 Put the yellow acrylic plate with photogrammetric reference system on the floor between two bars: 

image-20241021-144147.pngImage Added

4. Capturing the calibration video 

Make sure that the camera settings have been adapted so that they are the same as if the drone was flying in the solar field (see drone settings in your document section in the app). You need to take a video to get the calibration data. You don´t need to fly the drone. It is necessary that you hold the drone in your hands above the cross in the middle and then move slowly around it.

image-20241021-144205.pngImage Added

Info

For each of the following steps, record an individual video

Note

The center of the image must ALWAYS match with the middle of the cross during recording. 

  • First, center the drone at approx. 1.8 m above the reference system 

    • start the video 

    • put the gimbal pitch at 90° looking exactly downwards 

    • and walk around the center, making a circle of 360° 

  • Second, change the gimbal pitch to 80° 

    • move one or two steps away from the center 

    • center of image must match middle of cross 

    • and walk around the center, making a circle of 360° 

  • Third, change the gimbal pitch to 70° 

    • move another step away from the center 

    • center of image must match middle of cross 

    • and walk around the center, making a circle of 360° 

  • Fourth, change the gimbal pitch to 60° 

    • move another step away from the center 

    • center of image must match middle of cross 

    • and walk around the center, making a circle of 360° 

  • Sixth, change the gimbal pitch to 50° 

    • move another step away from the center 

    • center of image must match middle of cross 

    • and walk around the center, making a circle of 360° 

  • Seventh, change the gimbal pitch to 40° 

    • move another step away from the center 

    • center of image must match middle of cross 

    • and walk around the center, making a circle of 360° 

All this shall result in a video that can be uploaded using the volateq web app: https://app.volateq.de/analysis/new   

5. Capturing the IR calibration video  

Go to the tarpaulin. The black spots should feel warmer now.  

Take the drone and set it to the IR camera.

Set IR gain mode to “HIGH“ for this calibration (M3T: gain -20°C - 150°C)

M3T: Do NOT activate “UHR Infrared Image” Mode for the IR Camera

Place the drone somewhere stable at about 2,20 meters above the tarpaulin. The drone should be positioned on an elevated, stable point with an edge. Simple examples are a car’s open trunk lid, top of a wall or roof, ladder, …

The drone must stand perfectly still during video capture:

  • not flying (too much vibration)

  • not hand-held (Too much shaking)

 

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The drone must stand still and must not move at all. Grab a short video, a few seconds are enough. With this, we will be able to create a look up table in our system to know which pixels in the IR range correspond to the one in the visual video. 

Gimbal tilt must be in the range of -90 ° ↔︎ -70°

Sample Images look like this, the Tarpaulin must fill the entire IR image, but must not cover the entire RGB image!

RGB Sample Image:

screen1Tarp.pngImage Added

IR sample Image:

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This will not work at all:
wrong tilt and not filling the entire frame

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IR sample Image (not optimal, upper image region is not filled with markers):

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