PIX4D MAPPER AND DRONE SURVEY FUNDAMENTAL TRAINING COURSES

Below are two trainings that Drone survey school offers. Both combine 30 years of practical experience with aerial, hydrographic and land surveys.

For both courses the students will receive the 200 page hardcover book Drone Survey Fundamentals. This book is not for sale separately and is only available in hard copy format for students of the Drone Survey School.

In addition, each student is offered two hours of free consultancy after completion of the course. We will help out with solving problems or give advice for future projects.

What we will not cover in these course is how to fly a drone. There are hundreds of drone schools across the globe that will teach you this aspect. What we will cover are those items that you absolutely need to know to be an aerial surveyor.

NB Note that all course material such as the book and presentations are in English! The course can be Dutch spoken if all attendees speak Dutch.

EXPERT MAPPING WITH PIX4D

The course focus is using Pix4D Mapper. However, knowing exactly the function and location of each button is not the aim of this course. We will concentrate on how to use Pix4D Mapper to create (repeatable) accurate end products from drone photogrammetry. For this a basic understanding of the theory behind drone mapping is essential and so this course is a mix of theory and hands-on training with the software.

Drone Survey School has been accredited by Pix4D as an official training center.

The course takes place over a period of three days and students will work hands-on with the software. For this it is required that each student brings along a desktop or laptop computer. The Pix4D Mapping licenses for the training will be provided by the Drone Survey School.

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Day 1 will be a day where we focus only on the theory that is required to produce accurate end results. Topics are Geodesy (geoids, ellipsoids, coordinate systems and transformations), satellite positioning and photogrammetry (key aspects, accuracy, and mission planning).

A failure to understand the theory leads in many cases to errors that could have easily been prevented and will save an enormous amount of time by not having to reprocess the data repeatedly to troubleshoot.

Day 2 and Day 3 are hands-on training on Pix4D Mapper. Step by step we will go through a typical workflow from images to 3D end products. A strong focus will be on judging the accuracy of the end results.

The course will wrap up with a short multiple choice exam and succesfull students will get a Pix4D accredited certificate.

DRONE SURVEY FUNDAMENTALS

This course is aimed at sharing with you the theoretical and practical knowledge required to be able to carry out accurate drone surveys consistently. It focusses on gaining a deep understanding of the fundamental principles behind photogrammetry, LiDAR, GPS and geomatics.

Some of the questions and issues that we will look at are:

  • Why can you not use a 50mm lens on a full frame camera for photogrammetry if you want accurate results.

  • What is the difference between RTK and PPK GNSS positioning?

  • Why is the measured terrain height usually twice as inaccurate as the horizontal measurements?

  • What is the relationship between UTM and WGS84?

  • Why do I need to know about spheroids, ellipsoids and geoids?

  • Should I use ground control points even if I use a drone with RTK positioning?

  • How far apart should these ground control points be placed?

  • How do you calculate the resolution or ground sample distance for a photogrammetry survey?

  • What are the points that I should not compromise on when buying a drone?

COURSE OUTLINE

The course itself is made up of five separate sections each handling a separate subject.

In section 1 we will cover basic geodesy such as coordinate systems, some fundamental calculations, vertical reference levels, geoids, spheroids, map projections, accuracies, precision, standard deviation and resolution.

In section 2 we will look at satellite positioning. Satellite positioning, also referred to as GNSS and not to be confused with GPS, is the backbone of almost all aerial survey operations. We will look at how GNSS works, the sources of error and methods to eliminate the most common errors and methods to augment the accuracy of GNSS.

In Section 3 we study in depth the two most common methods of aerial surveying with a drone, namely photogrammetry and LiDAR. We will focus on how exactly this works, what accuracies can be obtained, how you can predict these accuracies and what to look out for when you purchase a drone, a camera and or a LiDAR system.

Section 4 will cover all you need to know about the different types of data and end products that are created with drones. You will learn the difference between vector and raster data sets and how these data sets are created.

Finally, in section 5 we will concentrate on the more practical side of aerial surveying with a drone. On one hand we will look at some real live cases and discuss the choices made and the reasoning behind these, we will look at data processing and finally also at some competing technologies.


CERTIFIED

We are an officially certified training center for Pix4D Mapper software.


3-DAY INSTRUCTOR TRAINING

Classroom based training to teach you all the theoretical and practical knowledge.

CERTIFICATION

Upon succefull completion of the course the student will receive a certiicate from the Drone Survey School

Have any questions or need additional information?