Lessons Learned from Unmanned Aerial System-Based 3D Mapping Experiments

The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) for creating three-dimensional (3D) mapping is n emerging area of research in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) domain. The AEC environment has required more advanced management systems for projects successes as complexity increases and schedules are shortened. Three-dimensional mapping could enable progress monitoring, surveying and measuring tasks, and quality control in the AEC industry. However, the process of transforming 2D aerial images to 3D model features has pragmatic challenges. This paper aims at identifying requirements and challenges from field experiments using an UAS for 3D mapping at an university campus and a residential construction site. The experiments involved the following steps: 1) Development of the UAS flight mission plan and selection of the flight mode, 2) Capturing and collecting visual assets from UAS during flights 3) Data processing using the Pix4D software program to perform 3D mapping from the collected images. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of operational requirements and the challenges involved in the use of UASs to perform 3D mapping from the images obtained.