Key considerations of drone flying are critical to achieve the most accurate and detailed data: Flights with the best results have high image overlap and consistent altitude and camera angle. Below are a set of simple instructions to pay attention to for the highest quality outcomes.

Maintaining a consistent altitude during the flight is important for generating accurate results. The exception is when flying an orbit pattern around vertical structures for 3D reconstruction. For most use cases, we recommend a consistent altitude.

Lower altitudes require more photos to achieve correct overlap.

For the majority of projects we recommend capturing nadir images. The camera is pointed directly at the ground (0°) to capture nadir images. In some cases oblique images are helpful for sites with meaningful changes in elevation or multiple vertical structures. For oblique images we recommend a camera angle of 0° to 45° for best results. Images with a camera pitch >60° will fail processing.

We recommended at least 75% frontal overlap (with respect to the flight direction) and at least 60% side overlap (between flying tracks).

To ensure enough overlap between images, we recommend a grid or double grid pattern. The more images collected of a given point will result in more detail and better accuracy. The double grid flight pattern can produce better results for 3D reconstruction if your primary use case is generating meshes and point clouds.

Single grid flight pattern

Double grid flight pattern

If you have any additional questions please reach out to the OpenSpace Support team at support@openspace.ai.