VARIANCE FORMULA OF MULTI-VIEW TRIANGULATION FOR EVALUATING MAXIMUM PRECISION OF UAV-BASED PHOTOGRAMMETRY

Abstract

 This study theoretically derived formulae defining the upper limit of precision in estimating three dimensional coordinates by UAV-based photogrammetry under simplified conditions. These formulae evaluate the horizontal and vertical variances of multi-view triangulation (the principle of coordinate estimations for both point cloud and validation points) as functions of flight-design variables such as image resolution, focal length, camera altitude, and overlapping ratios. They can be used for a preliminary check to avoid flight designs that will never meet the desired precision.