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ArcGIS Pro - Drone2Map - Cartography - Dec. 12th, 2025
Overview
This semester has been a great success in terms of learning new material, skills, and software packages. One of the main software packages that we utilized this semester was Esri ArcPro and Drone2map. Drone2map helped process the field flight data to then transfer it to ArcPro for the cartography side of the deliverables. These flight missions, although were mainly autonomous, helped get a better understanding of why flights are conducted a certain way for me accurate processed data.
More accurate data is especially important when doing building inspections, surveying, and so much more! I also found it really helpful to gather all of the flight data, meta data, during the flight because then it wouldn’t be something almost impossible to track down. It’s something that is recorded and something that can give your piece of data a cutting edge against someone else within the industry. There’s obviously so much more to learn when it comes to aviation drone technology, but this semester was definitely a great start!
M300 Thermal
Data Collected
Mission Intent
The main preface of this mission was to conduct a thermal mapping mission and a fly over to practice basic key features. We flew the Matrice 300 platform at 200ft AGL, with in the given RED boundary, in a parallel ‘lawn mower’ grid pattern. This scan was designed to demonstrate how Thermal scans, along with any instrument, measures relative temp unless something precise and controlled is measured. We also set up a base station to ensure after processing the data our GPS coordinates lined up.
ArcGIS Pro Data Deliverable
Some important things to keep in mind when interpreting the cartography deliverables over DSM, DTM, and ortho imagery are the parts. The basic meta data is clearly explained on the lower left corner listing things like data flown, UAS platform, Ground Control Coordinates, etc. The scale is in meters and so is the values described int he “Map Schematics” section on the right side. This also describes, through symbols and colors, the different flight lines and image centers taken. Some other things listed are time stamps of when it was constructed and a highly descriptive title. The main reason for this title is to communicate what this mission was testing for, where it was, and by whom. All of this, of course, was designed to be displayed in a clear and easy to read format, so anyone picking it up can understand it.
Skydio 2+ - Red Boundary
Data Collected
Mission Intent
The main preface of this mission was to conduct mapping mission and a fly over to practice basic key features. We flew the Skydio S2+ platform at different altitudes nadir to the ground and took pictures demonstrating the focal points of the pixels for the 3D scanning. The different altitudes that we flew at was 200ft AGL for less detailed maps, and 100ft AGL for a scan of the building.
ArcGIS Pro Data Deliverable
Some important things to keep in mind when interpreting the cartography deliverables over DSM, DTM, and ortho imagery are the parts. The basic meta data is clearly explained on the lower left corner listing things like data flown, UAS platform, Ground Control Coordinates, etc. The scale is in meters and so is the values described int he “Map Schematics” section on the right side. This also describes, through symbols and colors, the different flight lines and image centers taken. Some other things listed are time stamps of when it was constructed and a highly descriptive title. The main reason for this title is to communicate what this mission was testing for, where it was, and by whom. All of this, of course, was designed to be displayed in a clear and easy to read format, so anyone picking it up can understand it.
Skydio 2+ - Blue Boundary
Data Collected
Mission Intent
The main preface of this mission was to conduct mapping mission and a fly over to practice basic key features. We flew the Skydio S2+ platform at different altitudes nadir to the ground and took pictures demonstrating the focal points of the pixels for the 3D scanning. The different altitudes that we flew at was 200ft AGL for less detailed maps, and 100ft AGL for a scan of the building.
ArcGIS Pro Data Deliverable
Some important things to keep in mind when interpreting the cartography deliverables over DSM, DTM, and ortho imagery are the parts. The basic meta data is clearly explained on the lower left corner listing things like data flown, UAS platform, Ground Control Coordinates, etc. The scale is in meters and so is the values described int he “Map Schematics” section on the right side. This also describes, through symbols and colors, the different flight lines and image centers taken. Some other things listed are time stamps of when it was constructed and a highly descriptive title. The main reason for this title is to communicate what this mission was testing for, where it was, and by whom. All of this, of course, was designed to be displayed in a clear and easy to read format, so anyone picking it up can understand it.
Mavic 2 Pro - Red Boundary
Data Collected
Mission Intent
The main preface of this mission was to conduct mapping mission and a fly over to practice basic key features. We flew the Mavic 2 Pro platform at different altitudes nadir to the ground and took pictures demonstrating the focal points of the pixels for the 3D scanning. We flew at 180ft AGL, with in the given RED boundary, in an opposing grid lines & parallel ‘lawn mower’ grid pattern. This displays the difference in resolution and the end product difference when the same scan is taken with different settings.
ArcGIS Pro Data Deliverable
Some important things to keep in mind when interpreting the cartography deliverables over DSM, DTM, and ortho imagery are the parts. The basic meta data is clearly explained on the lower left corner listing things like data flown, UAS platform, Ground Control Coordinates, etc. The scale is in meters and so is the values described int he “Map Schematics” section on the right side. This also describes, through symbols and colors, the different flight lines and image centers taken. Some other things listed are time stamps of when it was constructed and a highly descriptive title. The main reason for this title is to communicate what this mission was testing for, where it was, and by whom. All of this, of course, was designed to be displayed in a clear and easy to read format, so anyone picking it up can understand it.
Conclusion
All these missions were truly a learning curve, but learning to problem solve is an important aspect to anyone aspiring for a successful career. In addition to this, learning how to create well-crafted deliverables that will be able to communicate the preface of the mission and what was being tested is super critical! These examples are just a few examples of how to best utilize this software, but it has so many more tools that will be so much fun to take advantage of in the future! Also going deeper into the actual understanding of grid coordinate systems and application is something that really hit home this semester! As he explained, this is especially important to document properly and also implement into the deliverable because problems can arise if someone fails to do so. I’m excited to see what next semester holds!
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