Development of long flight drones and research regarding 3D measurement technology using green lasers

Abstract

This paper describes the results of efforts to resolve issues that have previously been associated with measurements using multicopter drones, such as reduced work efficiency when measuring wide areas due to short flight times, or difficulty in measuring distant objects. Specifically, the paper describes the results of developing a drone that flies while being powered by a gasoline-powered generator, and an algorithm for analyzing the big data acquired. This paper shows that green laser measurements using the developed long-flying drone can obtain highly accurate elevation values, and also demonstrates the usefulness of this algorithm in quantitatively visualizing changes in topography from point cloud data obtained at two different times in a case where 3D measurements of the seafloor topography of a coastal area were conducted.