Spatial Resolution Optimization for Terrain Coverage with UAVs

Two-dimensional mapping by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is becoming a wide used technique. This technique is being applied to precision agriculture, 2D inspection, photogrammetry, etc. For all these areas is quite important to acquire the finer spatial resolution as possible. In this paper, we address the problem of computing the configuration of UAV and camera that optimizes the spatial resolution. We consider the constraints of the problem such as overlap and UAV speed. In addition, we model the movement of the vehicle as a stochastic process. This method could assist or replace the step of setting flight parameters, currently done by an expert pilot. To validate the proposed method, we present simulation experiments and a real case of 2D mapping.