Implementation of a low cost UAV for photogrammetry measurement applications

The increasing civilian demand for autonomous aerial vehicle in the professional markets led to an abundance of inexpensive navigational hardware platforms and vehicle prototypes. Current photogrammetry-based applications require crisp and precise positioning of images so that the process does not fails. Also systems adaptable to the circumstances for better effectiveness, vehicles capable of vertical take-off and landing with flight autonomy to define a clear flight path necessary for images order and photogrammetry process relief. In this paper, a simple and low cost design of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) able to satisfy the aforementioned requirements is presented. By structural analysis, building techniques and flight principles, the advantages of a rotary wing were subject to several tests. An state-of-art graphic programming with predefined code plus a high performance development hardware allowed the implementation of a control system and spatial positioning. Furthermore, the integration of a low cost digital camera to the vehicle's body allowed the realization of the aerial photogrammetry-based mapping task in reduced areas, a potential application for the type of UAV presented in this paper, with great expectation in the study of topology in significantly less time for collecting and analyzing data.