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Article

Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV

by
Xiongzhe Han
1,*,
J. Alex Thomasson
1,
Yang Xiang
2,
Hussein Gharakhani
1,
Pappu K. Yadav
1 and
William L. Rooney
3
1
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
2
College of Engineering, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan 410128, China
3
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2019, 19(13), 2852; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19132852
Submission received: 28 May 2019 / Revised: 21 June 2019 / Accepted: 25 June 2019 / Published: 27 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Sensor Networks)

Abstract

Ground control points (GCPs) are commonly used for georeferencing in remote sensing. Precise position measurement of the GCPs typically requires careful ground surveying, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive and thus excessively costly if it needs to be repeated multiple times in a season. A system of multifunctional GCPs and a wireless network for communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was developed to improve the speed of GCP setup and provide GCP data collection in real-time during the flight. While testing the system, a single-board computer on a fixed-wing UAV used in the study successfully recorded position data from all the GCPs during the flight. The multifunctional GCPs were also tested for use as references for calibration of reflectance and height for field objects like crops. The test of radiometric calibration resulted in an average reflectance error of 2.0% and a strong relationship (R2 = 0.99) between UAV-based estimates and ground reflectance. Furthermore, the average height difference between UAV-based height estimates and ground measurements was within 10 cm.
Keywords: ground control points; unmanned aerial vehicle; wireless network; radiometric calibration; height calibration ground control points; unmanned aerial vehicle; wireless network; radiometric calibration; height calibration

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Han, X.; Thomasson, J.A.; Xiang, Y.; Gharakhani, H.; Yadav, P.K.; Rooney, W.L. Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV. Sensors 2019, 19, 2852. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19132852

AMA Style

Han X, Thomasson JA, Xiang Y, Gharakhani H, Yadav PK, Rooney WL. Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV. Sensors. 2019; 19(13):2852. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19132852

Chicago/Turabian Style

Han, Xiongzhe, J. Alex Thomasson, Yang Xiang, Hussein Gharakhani, Pappu K. Yadav, and William L. Rooney. 2019. "Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV" Sensors 19, no. 13: 2852. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19132852

APA Style

Han, X., Thomasson, J. A., Xiang, Y., Gharakhani, H., Yadav, P. K., & Rooney, W. L. (2019). Multifunctional Ground Control Points with a Wireless Network for Communication with a UAV. Sensors, 19(13), 2852. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19132852

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