Simple,  Inexpensive  Aerial  Photography  Mapping    with  Balloons,  Kites  or  UAVs  

Engineers  Without  Borders  West  Coast  Regional  Workshop  2012  Patrick  Coyle,  EWB-­‐SFP;  PLOTS,  Belize  Open  Source  -­‐  Sustainable  

Development  October  20,  2012  

Agenda  •  Why  bother?  Aerial  photomaps  can  be  very  useful  

•  Community,  Site  and  Project  Planning;  Agricultural/  Ecological  planning,  evaluaIon  

•  How?  In  summary,  what’s  needed?  

•  Equipment,  SoMware,  Supplies,  Materials  

•  Step-­‐by-­‐step  guide  •  Examples  from  community  of  users  

•  What’s  new  

•  DemonstraIon  –  let’s  fly!  

•  See  results,  Q&A  •  Jeff  Warren,  PLOTS,  produced    community  maps  in  Lima,  Peru  with  children  and  adults

Step-­‐by-­‐step  guide  

For  example,  here  is  Coyle’s  preliminary  set  of  requirements:  •  Take  detailed  aerial  photos  of  the  Belize  Open  Source  Sustainable  Development  

40-­‐acre  property  with  enough  detail  that  individual  trees  are  clear  •  Cover  the  site  with  overlapping  images  and  use  soMware  to  sItch  them  together  

into  a  single  photomap  and  georegister  it  to  Google  Earth  imagery  of  the  property  

•  Tag  the  individual  photos  with  GPS  data  to  geo-­‐reference  them  for  viewing  on  Google  Maps,  Google  Earth,  or  for  use  with  other  applicaIons  

•  Develop  methods  to  use  the  photomaps  for  work  planning,  tracking  progress  and  communicaIng  results  to  encourage  parIcipaIon  in  the  iniIaIve.  Document  the  approach  and  techniques  

•  Apply  the  method  to  other  community  mapping  iniIaIves  and  make  it  available  to  EWB  teams  and  schools  and  communiIes  in  Belize  

•  Decide  what  you  want  to  do,  produce  and  deliver;  thinking  this  through  will  help  to  define  the  requirements  

What’s  needed?  

•  Digital  camera  with  ability  to  take  photos  automaIcally  (at  few-­‐second  intervals  or  conInuously  (~1  per  second))  •  (advanced:  pair  of  cameras,  shooIng  vis  and  IR  in  synch)  

•  GPS  tracking  unit  (opIonal,  where  needed)  •  Package  to  house  and  protect  the  camera  and  GPS  unit  •  Balloon  or  kite  with  enough  liM  capability  to  carry  the  camera,  GPS  unit,  

housing  and  sufficient  tether  line  to  reach  height  of  interest  for  the  photographs  (or  UAV)  

•  Safe  area  to  test  the  system  and  process  •  Safe  approach  to  use  the  process  in  the  field  •  Capability  to  process  the  data  and  present  the  results  •  Approach  to  discuss  and  use  the  results  

A  complete  grassroots  mapping  kit  

Illustrated  Guide  (By  Jeffrey  Warren)    

Illustrated  Guide  (cont.)  

Illustrated  Guide  (cont.)  

Illustrated  Guide  (cont.)  

Illustrated  Guide  (cont.)  

Illustrated  Guide  (cont.)  

“Neogeographic”  approach  to  inexpensive  oil  spill  mapping  

•  In  April  2010,  the  Deepwater  Horizon  oil  rig  exploded  and  sank  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  iniIaIng  what  may  be  one  of  the  worst  environmental  disasters  in  U.S.  history  

•  As  the  spill  grew  in  size,  Jeffrey  Warren  and  Stewart  Long  collaborated  with  the  Louisiana  Bucket  Brigade,  a  New  Orleans-­‐based  environmental  non-­‐profit  group,  and  began  a  volunteer-­‐led  aerial  mapping  project  to  document  the  spill’s  effects  

•  The  maps  use  orthorecIfied  photographs  of  key  affected  sites  processed  into  GeoTIFFs  and  Iled  map  services  (TMS)  -­‐  the  public  domain  photographs,  taken  from  balloons  or  kites,  are  among  the  highest  resoluIon  imagery  available  of  the  spill  

Oil  Spill  Mapping  Kits  •  The  mapping  kits  themselves,  assembled  for  less  than  $300  each,  consisted  of:  

•         an  8-­‐foot  weather  balloon  •         a  tank  of  helium  

•         2000  feet  of  string  •         an  inexpensive,  consumer  grade  digital  camera  

•         half  of  a  soda  bople  •         a  large  kite  •         GPS  logger  (opIonal)  

Oil  spill  mapping  approach  •  ParIcipants  visit  an  affected  area,  fill  a  balloon  or  prepare  a  kite  depending  on  wind  condiIons,  and  send  the  camera  in  its  homemade  protecIve  enclosure  up  to  2000  feet  in  the  air  

•  By  walking  along  the  beach  or  moving  in  a  boat,  several  kilometers  of  coastline  may  be  imaged  in  just  a  few  hours  

•  Some  maps,  at    ~  2-­‐3  cm  nominal  resoluIon,  can  count  birds,  plants  and  other  features,  even  idenIfy  bird  species

Oil  spill  mapping  trips  and  data  •  Between  May  7  and  July  22,  2010  dozens  of  parIcipants  made  36  trips  to  gather  mapping  data,  averaging  almost  one  trip  every  other  day  

•  Only  one  trip  failed  to  return  with  imagery,  56%  of  the  trips  returned  with  "excellent"  or  "usable"  data,  and  over  11,000  images  were  taken,  mapping  conInued  through  January  2011  

•  This  is  a  case  where  the  low-­‐cost  mapping  techniques  were  applied  to  a  real-­‐world  problem  of  immediate  importance  

OrthorecIficaIon    (sItching)  techniques  •  Two  different  manual  processing  methods  have  accounted  for  

the  bulk  of  the  mapping  for  Public  Laboratory  for  Open  Science  and  Technolgy  publiclaboratory.org    to  date:  

•  Gonzo  Earth  Image  Processing  is  a  workflow  of  different  commercial  off-­‐the-­‐shelf  (COTS)  and  open-­‐source  GIS  and  digital  image  soMware  packages,  which  has  been  used  to  generate  dozens  of  maps  from  balloons,  kites,  remote  controlled  and  manned  aircraM  

•  MapKniper,  mapkniper.org,  is  web-­‐based  soMware  for  users  to  upload  and  recIfy  images  from  a  web  browser  

•  Both  export  finished  maps  in  standard  formats  that  can  be  viewed  in  common  GIS  tools  and  integrated  into  exisIng  workflows  

A  Grassroots  Mapping  collaboraIon  in  Georgia  

•  In  the  country  of  Georgia,  Grassroots  Mapping  techniques  were  used  alongside  more  tradiIonal  GPS-­‐based  approaches  by  the  OpenMapsCaucasus.org    effort  to  produce  a  public  domain  map  of  the  enIre  country      

•  A  map  of  MesIa,  in  the  SvaneI  region  of  Georgia.  The  map  spans  5.5  kilometers  and  was  captured  in  just  3  days  of  balloon  and  kite  mapping  with  local  OpenMapsCaucasus  staff  and  parIcipaIng  students      

•  Flight  paths  of  several  balloon  mapping  flights  in  MesIa,  Georgia,  during  a  3-­‐day  project  to  map  the  enIre  city  

•  The  pictured  flights  reached  1.4  kilometers  above  ground  level  

Grassroots  Mapping  Belize  

•  Grassroots  Mapping  Belize  -­‐  Pat  Coyle  of  Belize  Open  Source  Sustainable  Development  is  planning  to  apply  these  techniques  to  detailed  mapping  of  a  40-­‐acre  property  in  northwest  Belize  and  for  other  community  mapping  iniIaIves  

•  To  date,  I  have  commissioned  the  mapping  tools  and  am  conInuing  to  pracIce  the  techniques  in  the  Bay  Area  

Site:  Belize  Open  Source  Sustainable  Development    

•  This  40-­‐acre  rural  property  is  located  in  northwestern  Belize  near  the  Mexican  and  Guatemala  borders  about  16  miles  from  Orange  Walk  Town,  between  the  villages  of  August  Pine  Ridge  and  San  Felipe  and  3.5  miles  to  Rio  Hondo  Belize/Mexico  border  

belizeopensource.org  

•  Google  Maps  shows  it,  but  unIl  recently,  two  more  clicks  in  and  you  ran  out  of  pixels  –  it’s  beper  now  

Planned  grassroots  mapping  program  in  Belize  

•  Start  with  iniIal  1-­‐2  week  trip  to  engage  schools,  develop  capabiliIes  and  make  iniIal  set  of  maps  (Belize  Open  Source  property,  August  Pine  Ridge  school  classrooms  and  surrounding  community,  and  others  associated  with  parIcipaIng  schools)  

•  Do  a  video  and  web  documentary  as  we  go,  in  context  of  a  plan  to:  •  develop  capabiliIes,  •  archive,  access  and  communicate  with  the  images,  •  implement  training  through  classes  in  local  schools,  •  with  ongoing  workshops  for  future  visitors  to  extend  techniques  

and  map  more  of  the  country's  sites  of  interest  with  emphasis  on  community  needs  and  benefits  to  local  users,  as  well  as  some  the  gorgeous  sites  

•  Muffles  College  Environmental  Sciences  program  is  interested  in  parIcipaIng.  Jeff  Warren  and  Stewart  Long,  Public  Laboratory  for  Open  Technology  and  Science,  have  parIcipated  in  planning  

Blanca Torres, principal of the August Pine Ridge school, wrote, “The aerial photo mapping seems very interesting. I shared with my children and sisters the images of our village … and they just loved them. … I welcome these opportunities where I can involve my students in new learning experiences. I am very interested in exposing them through your mapping project. We feel pride in having our community appear in internet pages and more if we are involved in getting those images.”

•  In progress and completed new classroom building •  Richard Obratil, Chapter President, Project Manager/Site Engineer EWB-Cleveland State University Chapter, wrote, “... Here are pictures of the building…”

•  Balloon  test  flight  in  the  front  yard  with  neighbors  

•  Niles,  CA:  Google  Earth  imagery  shows  center  under  construcIon,  the  sItched  map  shows  completed  facility  

•  PracIce  flight:  Angel  Island,  CA  

•  PracIce  flights:  Livermore,  CA  

•  Sunol,  CA:  

•  “Personal aerial photo-mapping session with balloons or kites,” a fundraising auction item, was successful •  7/22/12, Nile Runge, who had bid on the item at a Livermore Rotary Club fundraiser, and I flew two mylar sleeping bag balloons with a Canon A1200, shooting in continuous mode in a juice-bottle rig. •  We flew at Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area, Pleasanton, CA, a part of the East Bay Regional Park District

Advanced  topics    

• We’ll  briefly  discuss  advanced  topics:  

•  IntegraIon  of  gps  data  •  Dual-­‐camera  based  mulIspectral  imagery  •  Automated  image  processing  and  3-­‐D  Digital  ElevaIon  Models  

•  UAVs    

IntegraIon  of  gps  data  

Groundbased photos geotagged with gps data, displayed in Picasa map view

IntegraIon  of  gps  data  

Screenshot of aerial photos geotagged with gps data, displayed in Google Earth

Dual-­‐camera  based  mulIspectral  imagery  

•  Dual cameras, visible and IR synched with timer controlled CHDK •  Multispectral image processing and rectification – automated with Ned Horning’s software

Automated  image  processing  and  3D  Digital  ElevaIon  Models  

•  On  PLOTS,  Ned  Horning  recently  summarized  several  cloud-­‐based  or  desktop  soMware  packages;  some  free  with  limits,  some  open  source,  which  use  structure  from  moIon  (SFM)  soMware  to  provide  automated  image  processing,  including:    

•  Online:  www.hypr3d.com,  dronemapper.com,  pix4d.com,  photosynth.net,  www.terrapanlabs.com  

•  Proprietary  soMware:  www.123dapp.com/catch,  www.agisoM.ru/products/photoscan  

•  Open  source:  VisualSFM,  homes.cs.washington.edu/~ccwu/vsfm/  

3-­‐D  Digital  ElevaIon  Models  

Clockwise: Bay area examples using pix4d.com, dronemapper.com, www.hypr3d.com

UAVs  

Wired magazine, “The drones are coming”…..

R/C aircraft testing in San Diego with pilot John Shultz

•  Tested Swann "thumb" camera strapped under the AR Parrot 2 •  "Training wheel" settings are still on, so altitude is low, maybe 15-20 feet •  The AR Parrot 2 is a toy, it also brings the drone "baggage” •  The cautionary notes, especially those of lost, fly-away drones are sobering •  I'll proceed with caution. But, it is fun!

hIp://mapkniIer.org/  

•  MapKniIer  is  a  free  and  open  source  tool  for  combining  and  posiPoning  images  in  geographic  space  into  a  composite  image  map    

Get  Involved  • publiclaboratory.org  provides  techniques  and  tools,  case  studies  

• ParIcipate:  join  the  mailing  list  

• Start  a  grassroots  mapping  project  

• Apply  the  techniques  to  your  project  

Grass  Roots  Mapping  Supporters  and  Collaborators  

You The Design Ecology group at the MIT Media Lab

Let’s  fly,  Q&A    

•  We are outside flying, catch up with us • We’ll come back and try to make map • Look at the rest of the talk